Nothing sweet about foxes (From Echo)

Nothing sweet about foxes

11:22am Friday 11th June 2010 in Letters

I was taken by the very sweet picture of two fox cubs happily playing in a reader’s garden (June 7).

As I did, I heard on the radio that two nine-month old babies were attacked in their cots in Hackney, East London.

My eyes went back to your reader’s picture and I immediately wondered what has to happen for people to understand that foxes are wild animals and should not be encouraged.

I read that there are in the region of 250,000 foxes, with in excess of 14 per cent of them wandering urban areas in search of food, with numbers increasing eight-fold in the past ten years.

Legislation has decreed that foxhunting has been banned, with the only culling being that of the motor vehicle.

Cuts in bin collections have also encouraged the urban fox, with councils in some parts reducing collection periods and with others replacing the dustbin with plastic bags.

Also, especially in the Rochford district, we have a new breed of bin operative who would appear to take pleasure in refusing to empty a bin for any reason.

This is not the first incident of foxes attacking and will not be the last. These are not sweet little animals gracing our lands, but vermin which are wild and must be treated as such.

Michael Carrington
Castle Road
Rayleigh