Foxes -What We Lose

 

At the moment we have overfilled our pathologist's freezer. It happens.

So when I get a message that four foxes have been found dead by a gateway it looks very suspicious. However, things that need to be noted: people do collect dead animals killed by cars and I have no idea where the nearest road is to this gate.

We also have no idea whether there were wounds because whoever took the photo did not check. A photo of a dead fox or dead foxes is just that unless there is far more information.

Farmers tend to employ shooters who go out at night lamping to kill rabbits and foxes and the number killed generally has to be presented to show they have done their work not just sat in a car smoking all night.

A farmer and shooters do not advertise what they have been doing as it could create a backlash.

The morons that go out shooting foxes dressed in their cammo with infra red sites on high power rifles for 'fun'. Is this their work? I doubt it for one reason -money.

One fox can be sold for a good amount to a taxidermist. Four foxes are a good earner and there is a big trade going on and money made so leaving four dead foxes is like leaving a few hundred pounds lying around.

Yes, it would be good to know how these foxes died but as I have said repeatedly since 2021: we have no freezer or facility to hold one fox over a weekend or bank holiday let alone 4. We lose more foxes than we submit because of this. Nothing we can do but grit our teeth and say "Let them go"

There are any number of scenarios that can explain this and none involve deliberate killing of foxes. Had the photographer taken photos of each fox and checked for wounds we could assess the situation better. Foxes found dead on the road and bunched together to collect is not unheard of -we had similar in Montpelier, Bristol a couple years back.

It is sad but foxes die on roads and people move them -to stop vehicles constantly driving over them or to be in a place where someone can collect them.

We can only do so much because we are not funded and that is limiting.