Urban foxes are our own fault (From Echo)

Urban foxes are our own fault

1:59pm Tuesday 22nd June 2010 in Letters

J Hargreaves suggests councils should seek to cull the growing populations of urban foxes (June 16). Yet how can this be done?

We can’t have wardens roaming our streets with shotguns, nor can we use traps or poisons as these would destroy more domestic animals than foxes.

The cause of the problem is human destruction of foxes’ natural habitat, driving them into towns to survive.

It has been said the abolition of hunting has added to the problem, yet this was never pest control. Its reintroduction could result in more foxes seeking the sanctuary of towns.

It would seem scientists should seek a contagion which only affects foxes, in the same way that myxomatosis was used against rabbit populations.

W H Diment
Church Road
Laindon