"People in the UK were far more concerned about soap characters than the endangered and soon to be extinct wildlife."

 The Extinct Fox and Wild Cat Museum is maintaining its status as a unique collection. Having contacted any number of museum s in the UK we know that there are no comparable collections of taxidermy let alone archival back up. Small and national museums all have specimens dating from post 1900 therefore long after the Old fox and Old wild cats became extinct (circa 1860s).

I have tried a large number of European museums since the  material available shows that there was an Old Western European fox. The lack of cooperation from some, almost downright rude, seems to indicate general ignorance amongst museum staff -push dogma because that is all they know and no one wants to rocks the boat.  

There was one exception -a museum in the Netherlands did have a pre 1860s fox and it conforms to what we are looking for. The thing is that the fox came from the UK!   So a European museum has added independent back up to what we have been stating for a very long time.

We know that there must be a great deal of pre-18760s fox and wild cat taxidermy out there but the problem is trying to find it. On several occasions I have contacted The Cambrian News (as we are aware mountain foxes were killed and stuffed in Wales) and The Westmoreland Gazette as the North of England was a mountain fox stronghold. The Scotsman was also contacted. Sadly, although these papers contacted me whenever they feel like it over sightings of 'big cats' they have ignored any communication on the Old Fox and wild cat. 

"Just foxes" not "BIG CATS!!!!" that will grab the eyes of the readers even if the stories and headlines are so inaccurate that they are nonsense to anyone who knows about wild felids. How often have I been asked "How many big cats in the UK?" /"Why do people report different coloured cats?" and so on... Yet as far as journalists are concerned there have only been the little red dogs in the UK because they do not care or have any interest. 

If Sir David Attenborough declaring "We used to have three Old fox types in the UK and a wild cat that looks nothing like what we see today" and every editor and journalist would drop their newborn to cover the story.

We are currently seeing British badgers driven to the point where they are facing extinction after more than 250,000 have been killed as scapegoats.  100,000+ a year die on the road and an equal or higher number of foxes die that way. The massive impact on the environment of losing our top carnivores is of no interest. The effect of losing our Old foxes and wild cat is of no interest. Only Greta Thunberg or Chris Packham are of interest to journalists because they are seen as "controversial" so "sexy news".

How can we expect to prevent future extinctions on this little red island if we are blocked from educating the current generation and others interested on past extinctions in the UK and there are many in the last 300 years?

We appear to be in an age of ignorance where no one cares what species were wiped out or are being wiped out.  You cannot keep importing non-British species to replace the ones wiped out and which will be wiped out again (and replaced ad infinitum).

From museums -the supposed centres of learning and education - to universities and all the way down to the public. No one cares. It takes too much effort. eating pizza and drinking a beer or glass of wine while numbing the brain with TV soaps is far easier. Far less effort. I am glad I will not be around when someone writes in the future that people in the UK were far more concerned about soap characters than the endangered and soon to be extinct wildlife.