Enough hysteria about the "menace" of urban foxes.
Check with the National Fox Welfare Society for reassurance and a few basic facts: Foxes do not hunt in packs, they do not kill for pleasure, and they rarely attack creatures bigger than themselves (the average weight of an adult female vixen is only 5.7 kg/13lb, much smaller than many dogs or cats).
It is much more likely that a fox will hunt rats than dogs or cats. Rat hunting is surely a useful purpose in our litter-ridden streets? They are good scavengers and omnivores.
They are also part of our national bio-diversity, and deserve as much concern as other animals equally displaced by man's monopoly & equally struggling to survive (hedgehogs, thrushes, starlings, dormouse, skylark etc.)
It is most probable that a fox 'attack' is the product of panic when a fox finds itself cornered. It is ludicrous to imagine a fox is going to take on a fully grown human unless it feels threatened enough to create a diversion so it can escape.
M Griffin
Epsom
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