Calls for fox cull after shocking attack on babies
‘They are vermin – wipe them out’
Published: 11 June, 2010
by JOSH LOEB
COLUMNIST Peter Oborne has called on Islington Council to carry out a cull of foxes after two baby girls were mauled by a fox in Homerton.
The journalist, who lives in Highbury, said he believed fox numbers had grown out of control and suggested sending a marksman out on Highbury Fields to shoot them.
He told the Tribune: “I believe that the council has been very negligent in allowing the growth of urban foxes. We know that they spread an enormous amount of dirt when they go through the bins and now we know they are also a threat to small children.
“People are very foolish to get sentimental about foxes. They are not an endangered species. Like rats, they are vermin and they need to be treated as such. The solution is very simple: you send a trained marksman out at night to Highbury Fields.”
However, wildlife consultant John Bryant, who specialises in humane wildlife deterrents, said anecdotal evidence suggested fox numbers were not increasing.
“In London and the South-east, fox numbers are not increasing and if anything they are decreasing,” he said. “The idea that we should shoot them is just stupid.
“The government started slaughtering foxes in the 1940s and carried on for 40 years. They killed foxes in London with all sorts of brutal methods and in the 1980s this had to be abandoned because there were more foxes than when they started.
“The only way that you could reduce the fox population is to slaughter 70 per cent of the population every year for 40 years and that would mean bringing in the army and laying poison.”
The babies attacked by a fox on Saturday are understood to be in a stable condition but suffered facial injuries described earlier this week as “life-changing”.
Islington Council said that controlling the fox population in Islington is not in its remit since the animal is classified as “wildlife” and “unlike rats they do not cause disease”.
A spokesperson said that anyone concerned about the presence of foxes should call the RSPCA.
Comments
Ridiculous to blame foxes
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2010-06-11 17:54.Homerton is urban itself without the foxes. You call them terrorists. Mr. Oborne you should expand your mind
A cull of lions, tigers and Peter Oborne?
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2010-06-11 16:46.Publicity-seeking rants like his are seated in pure ignorance.
He has correctly identified that urban foxes come from the nearby countryside, but omitted the fact that foxes they are territorial. If you kill a fox which controls one area, another will come in to replace her. Something the councils learned a long time ago, after their unsuccessful slaughter campaigns of old.
Look at it objectively. We kill tens of thousands of them, largely in the name of fun, every year (fox hunters actually encourage foxes populations and have imported them from the continent in years gone by). In this extremely rare incident, a young fox - undoubtedly tamed by neighbours who feed her - dared to follow its instincts to have a go at a couple of babies. To a fox, food is food. It's a wild animal. It hasn't been trained. Family dogs, by contrast, have been trained, yet they attack 2,500 children a year. 99.9% of foxes live happily in our towns without a problem. Let's keep our heads and not treat this rare incident as the rule.
If we cull the foxes because of this one highly rare incident, we must also cull all dogs. And whilst we're at it, let's cull the humans who encourage foxes to hang around houses for food! We've already succeeded in sanitising nearly all our wild animals from this once wild island. Now our idiot 'Environment Minister' has ordered a massive cull of our protected badgers, in support of greedy, industrial farmers. Foxes are one of our very last wild animals, tortured symbols of the wild place this once was. Whilst we're at it, perhaps we should cull all lions and tigers (we nearly have, of course). Also wild, also dangerous, and quite a bit more the man-eater me thinks.
The only intelligent solution is to accept that these are wild animals, accept that they are PART of the isle we live on, and train Londoners not to compromise their natural fear of humans by feeding them. An intelligent Mayor would be calling for a public-education initiative.
And let's shout down publicity-seeking journalists like Peter Oborne who do nothing but encourage a loutish and ignorant attitude to the natural world.
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