The Case of Curious Foxes -NOT A Threat

 

At the outset I will state quite clearly that the Bradley Stoke Families and Surrounding Areas Face Book posts do get shared around and so are quite public. The members posting these items are quite "abrasive" if you try to explain anything politely and are adamant that they know better.

I should point out that these people have posted about "herds of foxes" surrounding people for food and even worse. There is no logic or even basic knowledge of foxes. A cat mauled by a fox was taken to a vet so I asked which vet as such a case would need documenting. Lots of hot air and no facts and not even a photo of the person's "beloved cat" (if it existed). At one point I asked admin to deal with the situation as I had found no vet in the area that had treated a "cat attacked by a fox" and the response was rather brusque and I was told to search for vets outside the Bradley Stoke area.

Everything pointed to the incident never having taken place. I also contacted someone who lived right in the centre of the "herd of foxes" area (we call them a "leash" if a family group and they do not hunt in packs). The person in question had seen a fox once -the tail as it rushed off - and asked whether I made the story up!

Therefore I contacted the admin again and told them that there was no problem but that I would report the posters involved to FB (there are rules that FB stick to).  Lo, and behold the admin "decided" to remove the post as it "might" upset members. In fact there was quite a backlash against the anti fox people.

Same old names, same old fox scare stories and even though someone responded politely to this they were told "just because you love foxes doesn't mean you know about them" which is a typical response from these people and the person who knew nothing about foxes is an experienced wildlife rescuer!

So where to start with this tripe... firstly, showing total lack of foxes the woman suggests the fox had cubs "in the bushes". Oh boy. This is dispersal season and not cub birthing season and that is a basic fact. 

The fox was following 10 metres away which is over 32 feet. And the fox "kept coming" which contradicts itself as if the fox was continuing to follow at 10 m then this was not a chase or anything threatening. 

It is well documented and there are video clips and photos all over the internet; foxes are known as "the cat-like canid" and one thing they have is curiosity. They suddenly appear out of bushes and gardens and follow dog walkers at a distance until they tire of the following or the dog walker reaches home. Foxes will even follow people that are walking with no dog. There is also plenty of footage of foxes playing with pet dogs in gardens as well as cats. 

Here is the thing that really shows this post was anti-fox. The fox "looked very healthy and quite large" and the woman was walking her "large labrador" so let's give a few facts here and those facts are that foxes are roughly the same size, often smaller, than a domestic pet cat. Which is....

You can imagine that a Labrador weight varies a lot between dogs, with the lightest adult female American Labrador sitting around 55lbs (24.9 kilo)   and a larger but still healthy male English Lab topping out about 80lbs (36+ kilo) . And an adult fox 3.58kg (7lbs+) and 7.29kgs or 16lbs. A labrador dog is heavier and if in good condition "outguns" any fox.

Which means that a curious fox following 30 feet behind a person with a healthy labrador is neither stalking nor thinking of attacking either. In fact, I have been asked more often by dog walkers whether the fox that follows them is okay -might it be hungry or ill and need help? No. It is a curious fox.

The Bradley Stoke group appears to have the most vocal and (deliberately) misinformed posts from the same anti-fox people who are unchecked by group admins.moderators and in future such malicious and misleading posts will be reported as misinformation or false facts. We need to educate people on foxes and other wildlife not have them scared by these ludicrous posts.