Wish

iTrader: (2)

This fox story in the news at the moment. Is it just me or is it just all a bit strange ???? A fox comes into a house and attacks two babies sleeping ???

All the foxes around our area are scared of there own shadows, and are even chased off by our cats.

Terrible if true, but part of me is waiting for the police to announce the boyfriend had a dangerous dog of some sorts

dpb

Crossed my mind as welll for sure

Fantom

It does seem a bit weird. I can't imagine a fox just walking up the stairs.
I have a family of foxes at the bottom of my garden and I will continue looking after them with food
Might make sure the door is shut though

corradoboy

They are an opportunistic scavenger and predator, and will see anything smaller than them as potential prey. I feel for those babies, but don't want to see a wave of hatred against these beautiful animals.

Torquemada

Personally the story didn't surprise me at all, as the foxes round here just don't give a ****, lairy as!
If a fox is extra hungry or diseased etc. they may do plenty of odd things you wouldn't expect.

Happened a couple of years ago to another bambino iirc, bit around the head or sommat.

Snazy

We have had a fox walk in the house on a number of occasions in the past... pre dog that is lol

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Never be a fox ... just watch it all unfold.

TX.

Turbo2

Sorry couldn't be bothered to read all the details on this one, so apologies if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but this immediately springs to mind:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/d...00/2467665.stm

The Zohan

Urban foxes in London - whilst wary of people are also quite bold and very opportunistic. People forget thast foxes are sadistic little buggers that will have a go at anything they think they can kill whether for fun or for food - IMHO and i am sure someone will say otherwise...

Sad, sad story and i hope the kids fully recover.

Snazy

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-...Soiled_Nappies

Dirty nappies again. Same reason the lil toddler lost his bits the other week.

Butkus

I'm not trying to be intentionally argumentative here, but I think you might be assuming they're sadistic because if they get in a chicken run they'll kill everything they can. Obviously that looks sadistic but really it is an unnatural situation. In the wild, chickens would fly away into the trees and the fox would catch one chicken. In captivity the chickens have nowhere to go, and the fox's natural instinct is to kill, kill, kill. I don't think they're doing it 'for fun'.

On another note, I also guess this story will bring out the pro-hunt brigade. I hope they don't reverse the hunting ban.

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Likewise but foxes just don't attack people. They are too small for a start. There has only been one other incident where a person has been bitten by a fox and that was years ago. Some grannie putting food out for her cat.

I don't know how this family operates but i can certainly say our wee boy is in a cot, well off the ground and behind bars a fox wouldn't be able to bite through.

If it nibbled one then the other, why doesn't the family say they heard screaming? They say they cried but not screamed in pain and that doesn't sit right with me.

Either its a fib or it ain't a fox. That's my thought.

5t.

Moley

iTrader: (9)

I thought exactly the same

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Im glad im not the only one then !
Hope the little un's get well soon though

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Im glad im not the only one then !
Hope the little un's get well soon though

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Ah - memories of discussion with Tower Hamlets Pest Control over whether or not he would do anything about the foxes in my small garden, to which he said NO. He offered me a website on how to persuade foxes to not go in your garden. So I said that I would shoot them, to which he was horrified and told me it was illegal to do so (I don't know, is it?). When I suggested that I should go and get the Essex Hunt to come down and catch the foxes he was somewhat apoplectic

(It was 1999 and legal still at the time)

However, the image of a horses with people in red coats and dogs cantering down the Roman Road was a very pleasant one

boxst

Yes, I was suspicious and expected some sort of dog to be involved instead.

But I guess these things to happen and with the amount of foxes around one is bound to get cornered / surprised and bite.

I hope there isn't some odd vigilante action against foxes in towns.

Steve

boxst

It isn't illegal to kill / shoot a fox. However owning a gun with sufficient power to do so safely within a small garden probably is ...

Steve

Lee247

I'm not sure what to make of it all. I live out in the sticks and we have a family of foxes in the field next to us.
They have ventured into our front garden, but have never, ever come near the house. Unless they do it when we are akip

Snazy

One question for those doubting. And I dont know the answer myself, but have to ask...
Where was the fox they killed found, trapped and eventually PTS ? I was on the understanding that it was in the house or something.

Im sure the matter has been looked into very quickly, but I honestly dont see any reason a fox would not have a cheeky punt at something laying there as an easy target. Cot or not, they can leap fences, so a cot is really nothing

The Zohan

Hi Lee,
IMVE Urban foxes, (after a few generations) are used to people cars and all the stuff that goes along with it, whilst cautious they still need ot feed and can be opportunistic and predatory, especially if hungry.

Snazy

I have foxes around the windows and back door all the time at home, as I say one or 2 have come in when its been quiet and open. Also had a fox walk under the picnic table I was sitting at a few years back, with the missus.

Even walking the dogs, the foxes will only run about 20ft away in the streets, then just sit and watch.

They are not afraid of too much if in an urban area. Think about it, they grow up in close proximity to cars, people and pets.... Its the norm to them.

Lee247

ahhh, thanks Paul. Different to ours then

The Zohan

LMAO - he probably wrote you up as being a **** animal hater and a thread to all fluffy creatures he loves so dearly.

Lee247

I'm probably being too
I don't believe that house is worth 800k either. It's a dump

The Zohan

My experince is that if i see a fox in the country (where i live) it is usually off like a shot as soon as it sees/hears/smells humans, my experiences of urban foxes is that they take little notice of people unless a direct threat to them and carry on about their scavenging - they seem unphased and unworried by people, no fear of them as such.

Snazy

London foxes and London house prices, all very different to the sticks lol

Mifo

iTrader: (10)

My parents had a fox trying to get into their house a few weeks ago.
The cheeky beggar had climbed on top of the conservatory and was trying to get in through an upstairs window. Must have got on top of this from jumping on top of the fence then jumping again onto the conservatory.
This was in the middle of the night my dad was woken by it and he scarred it away.
They had cooked a sunday lunch early that day and they reckon it could smell that and it was tempted to come in!

Dont forget that they will have young to feed at this time of year so maybe they are taking more risks to get food.

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

They caught 'a fox' a day later but the same one? no idea.

As for the cot... do you not think that if the fox had time to work out how to get into one cot, nibble a kid then suss there was another one nearby the parents might have had more chance to stop it?

It all seems very suspicious. Also, the comments from the parents weren't that the fox was in the cot(s) - i am assuming two given the size and need to roll about of 9 month old babies - but next to and didn't run out when they came in.

not convinced at all. Despite what Paul says about them the news is a bit sketchy on it at first there was only one reported incident:

"The only recorded fox attack on a human happened in 2004, when Margaret O’Shaughnessy, 88, from Edinburgh, was bitten as she went into the garden to give her cat a saucer of milk."

But the one about the 14 month old has turned up since, not sure if that turned out to be an actual dog though. Still that's two - ever. Hardly damming evidence of wild chav foxes out to eat your kids and nick your scooby.

5t.

my06 ppp silver

iTrader: (2)

ffs, why would it be a "dangerous dog", lets face it , if it was then the BABIES would not be alive! please dont turn this into another dog haters thread.
tbh what came to my mind was the saying, "as sly as a fox", its probably true.