60% of the Fox Population is likely more accurate

 

In my post Yes. Foxes ARE Going Extinct. So What? which considered the estimates of others which concluded that we had lost 50% of the UK fox population I had reservations The post can be found here: 

https://foxwildcatwolverineproject.blogspot.com/2025/04/yes-foxes-are-going-extinct-so-what.html

What were my reservations? Basically, the 50% figure. 

Over the decades I have spoken to farmers, game keepers, estate owners, 'sport' ('pest control') shooters and many others. I found out that there were a number of areas in which foxes were no longer being seen or had not been seen in some cases for 5 years.  Foxes that did appear were "quickly gotten rid of" which meant snares, shooting or poisoned bait.  In several Welsh valleys, as I reported at the time (1995-1997) foxes had vanished years before.  

With shooters they were paid to clear areas of rabbits and presented what they shot to the farmer in question. Foxes were also shot no matter the age as it "Shows we are doing the job we are paid for".  Rabbits are prey animals and foxes their predators and killing both off (especially on farms where there were no crops involved) is not good.

Every night men and women go out 'sport shooting'-in other words shooting whatever they find and this is simply sociopathic (some argue psychopathic) behaviour and for some shooters it involves zoosadism (sexual arousal from killing animals) -as some fox hunters including ex British Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted in an interview. Firstly, there is absolutely no real reason why these people should dress up in cammo gear and go out with scopes fitted to rifles to kill animals. For target shooting on registered ranges yes but going out to shoot foxes, badgers, deer and anything else they want is a major problem everyone ignores.

We then have other examples of casual killing and you will find reports of these in the news, rescue web sites and elsewhere. Catapults and crossbows used to fatally injure wildlife. Then there are the brain dead groups of youths and adults who like to catch an animal like a fox simply to kick and beat to death for 'fun'.

It goes on and on and I am not even thinking about the spring and summer offensive of householders who after years of not bothering with their gardens or sheds and decking decide it all needs digging up. Fox dens with cubs destroyed and in some cases pest controllers called in to 'move on' foxes.  Firstly, urban foxes cannot be dumped into countryside let alone if they have cubs. Secondly, very few of the foxes 'moved on' are ever released but are killed.

 Local authorities calling pest controllers in to shoot foxes they consider a "nuisance" by being on their old territory also contributes to the fox death toll and ask yourself why foxes are in towns and cities? Rats and mice. The fox is the number 1 best and most efficient pest controller and there are no wildlife (mammals and birds) or pet (cats and dog) killing rodenticides involved. Pest controllers are keen to kill off foxes because then people report more rats and mice and....cash.

Local authorities should never try to 'control' foxes because when one is removed another takes its place.  Foxes control their own population numbers and disease and other hazards claim enough.  The officially sanctioned suppression of the Bristol Fox Deaths Project report proves all of this.

I get to see, hear and talk to people about foxes more than others and after decades I concluded that foxes and badgers would be on the tip of extinction if not extinct in 90% of areas by the 2030s. In my informed opinion I believe that we have actually lost 60% of the UK fox population and they should be Red Listed and any killed or injured should result in prosecutions.

But this is the United Kingdom and not four nations or even one nation of animal lovers but places where people love to moan and complain about why people do nothing to save the species we have on the verge of extinction (mammal and bird) while they watch TV and guzzle pizzas.