The Myth of the Chicken Stealing Fox

 

I would like to make a few points here.

The old fairy tail of a fox taking geese, lambs etc needs to be put to rest. The fox is roughly the size of a house cat and the idea that it could take on a full grown goose... obviously whoever had that idea had never encountered a ticked off goose! There are any number of accounts of foxes breaking into chicken coops and being killed by chickens or a cockerel.

In the old 'sporting' books and publications it is stated that, prior to hunt season, gamekeepers were forbidden from harming foxes. Foxes were permitted to take chickens and other fowl and there was a fund to cover losses to anyone not covered by the estate. There was absolutely no doubt in the minds of the 'sportsmen' that very few foxes ever got a bird. Gamekeepers and other estate staff were suspected of "taking their pick" and some were caught and dismissed. An old trick used to be placing parts of a 'stolen' bird near a fox den and then the guilty party could point to these signs and say "a fox dunnit!"

Again, so many of the 'sporting' gentry ridiculed the idea that a fox could take and run off with a lamb that they placed a reward to anyone who could provide proof that a fox did so. That reward was set up in the 1880s and was still unclaimed by 1920 at which point it was forgotten.

Will a fox eat a stillborn lamb? Probably as it would be a free meal.  However, 'sportsmen' and others wanted to observe foxes "at work" during lambing season and found that foxes were NOT killing lambs. It seems that foxes fed on the afterbirth and also milk rich droppings -full of nutrients.

More than one of the 'sportsmen' during the " Age of Hunting" (19th century) who were estate owners, naturalist-'sportsmen' etc and knew their countries and wildlife made it clear that lamb and fowl stealers were "of the two legged variety of vermin".

If you live in a suburb or generally keep chickens then there is no reason for you to lose any bird to a fox or buzzard/hawk.  There are fox proof chicken runs and other devices that will protect your flock from ground or air attack. "Too expensive" when you can self construct? Obviously, then, your birds are not that important to you.  Having written that buzzards flew over and foxes passed through a local garden that had uncaged chickens for years -not one lost. Even a cockerel that was out at night was not so much as pestered by local foxes. Foxes have been observed with cubs in a den within 50 yards of free roaming chickens which were ignored -foxes went out and hunted wild rabbits.

It is worth noting that even badgers were blamed for chicken and lamb stealing -though everyone mocked the very idea and some huntsmen refused to go after badgers as they were "innocuous" -harmless.  That many hunted and baited badgers was frowned down upon by many 'sportsmen' and even the famous John Colquhoun would not hunt them -he allowed his two sons to kill a couple but then forbade any more badger killing.

However, there are people who simply love the 'fun' of killing anything and so badgers, like wild cats and foxes, faced centuries of melecide -in some cases it was a very profitable 'bit of fun'.  Today we still have the perverted practice continuing and there is still money to be made by selling 'roadkill' badgers (and foxes) to taxidermists.

If you cannot resist the urge to kill please consult a psychiatrist.