The Poultry Keeper

jubilee · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 125 Location: nottinghamshire

Hi everyone,
as promised i have spoken to our wildlife liason officer! not that he seemed to know all that much! as he's only doing the job to "fill in"! but anyway, he's tootled off to check what we're doing is ok, leagal and all above board! it appears that, the capture and re-release of a wild fox be it on the site where it has been caught or a few miles away is leagal, but classed as immoral. this is due to there being far more complications than just letting it go. you can be in trouble from other land owners if you release it onto their land without permission, tresspass would only be a start! and releasing them upto a six mile radius is fruitless anyway as they just trot straight back. you are leagally allowed to shoot a fox dead, as long as it's on your property, or you have the landowners permission to discharge your firearm on his land, i won't go into gun laws, but i would hope you know you need a licence for the type of gun that would sufficiently kill a fox out-right as to cause no unneccessary suffering to it!
you are not however allowed to trap a fox to poison it, or slit it's throat, both of these methods are classed as in-humane (quite rightly so!) and you are not allowed to leave it in the trap for more than 24hrs with out food or water, and your traps must be checked at least once in every 24hrs this is a legal requirement! the RSPCA do have a special licence to be able to capture and handle then re-release foxes, but only if they have been injured, and they do have their own release sites which are (supposedly) closely monitered. the release of non indidunous speices is however illegal, this includes, grey squirrels,mink and rabbits! (bit shocked about the rabbits! didn't know that!) these animals if caught alive, must be humanely dispatched in the trap.
so breifly, if you catch a fox in a trap, you have to take it at least 10 miles away, to a site where you are sure there are no more foxes, on land that you have permission from the owner to release it, making sure there are no other poultry keepers within that 10 miles, and then drive all the way home again to find another fox while you've been gone has moved in to the old fox's earth, broken into your coop and is helping it's self to your chooks for it's dinner! good job they can't use the phone and the tv remote! ( think I'll stick to just shooting them, sorry folks!) hope this has helped. xxxx

Elly · Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 319 Location: Norfolk

Its good to see that foxes have actually got some projection Smile

Rabbits do around £120 million worth of damage to agriculture per year and foxes save agriculture around £7 million a year by killing rabbits Shocked

It is a myth that urban foxes cannot survive in the wild, they never loose their ability to hunt. You only have to look at dogs to see this Exclamation

Foxes are very territorial and release sites need careful choosing. If only more land owners allowed the release of foxes onto their land Sad

Our wildlife and eco system are precious. We should be finding ways to live alongside nature not destroying it.

Keep smilin
Elly

jubilee · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 125 Location: nottinghamshire

unfortunately, we understand the concept of living alongside nature and foxes etc. but they do not, we give they take! (usually our birds!) did anyone see the BBC news last night? farmers are reporting more fox sightings this year than any other year! and the chicken houses that farmer had where the fox came in broard daylight and killed 35 birds, not took away to eat, just killed them, so he got the hunter in to shoot it. shame the fox didn't stick to eating rabbits! who did your research on those statistics by the way?

jjbull · Joined: 24 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

i agree with the humane killing of foxes, yes we should live along side them but there numbers need controling they have no natural predators left apart from us and thinning there numbers is of benefit to them as in densly populated areas you find mange and other disease is rife, and releasing them is just putting the problem somewhere else

Elly · Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 319 Location: Norfolk

Foxes will kill what they can, take what they can carry and come back later for rest to bury as food source for another time.
My stastiics came from: www.thefoxwebsite.org
It contains some interesting reading. Smile

Maybe man needs to look at why foxes have no natural predators? Their young will be taken by large birds of prey though.
Maybe wolves will be allowed to be re-introduced into GB and help address that? Mind you, I'm sure people will then find a reason to try and prevent that as well Sad

Hope you all have a happy summer solstice
Keep smilin
Elly

jubilee · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 125 Location: nottinghamshire

mmmm, read the link, seems like the bunny huggers have written it to me, there's no hard evidance to suggest these statistics are correct! and yes wolves would solve the over populated fox problem, but honestly, do you really want something far worse roaming around the countryside? something much bigger than a fox? and something that would be potentionally a killer of humans? great idea Elly! remind me not to vote you in on the wildlife allience won't you!? but hey! each to their own, i don't suppose it would do for everyone to have the same ideas as eachother would it? or life would be pretty boring. you hug 'em, and i'll shoot 'em!! xx

Elly · Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 319 Location: Norfolk

field-farm-rare-breeds · Joined: 03 Jun 2008 Posts: 11 Location: lincs

I sooooo agree with jjbull, the other day i had my best show birds aniulated by a fox!! Now my pens are bullet proof never mind fox proof yet the fox slithered through a hold about 2 cm wide (no lie), to be honest they need killing to keep numbers down its always going to be done because its way of life an has been for many years!! And to be honest i dont understand why everyone argues about this because there are definately more things to worry about in this world then foxes!! Like for example rapists, murders im sure people would hunt thme instead!!

Bhindi · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:39 am Post subject:

For people who enjoy nature and like a live and let live outlook they do not deserve to be ridiculed as bunny huggers.

We all need to get on and its wrong to be dismissive of other peoples feelings and attitudes however misguided you might feel they are.

This is a very contentious subject and I try not to get embroiled into it, but to assume that someone is fretting dispraportionatly over foxes rather than the results of some unpleasant humans is unreasonable. It is not for any of us to assume someone is not equally or grater than, troubled by such hideous acts comitted by humans. In this instance the fox was being persecuted not the humans.

Elly · Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 319 Location: Norfolk

Bhindi · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 7:40 pm Post subject:

Well it might have been if when I used the spell check it hadn't slotted in the second 'dispraportionatly'. (I only just noticed!!) Laughing