Yes, i think the hunting with hounds ban must have had an effect in my area, as i have never seen any horses or basset hounds running thru the town centre chasing foxes.

Nor me, Bassett packs hunt on foot! and very rarely hunt Foxes.

But who are we to "control" anything out there??? Surely nature does all that for itself? Everything is put here for a purpose, even the poor old wilderbeasts etc. are only there as fodder for the big cats out there? If nothing hunts it, then it serves some sort of purpose elsewhere, that's what nature does, so why do WE have to step in and disrupt it all then? If something gets overpopulated, then nature always finds a way to eliminate it, nature is great! Why do we have to step in when foxes are NOT overpopulated, and even if they were, there's enough truckers out there doing a great job of keeping them under control,i.e. the roadkill. Anyways, I don't see them as a problem probably because I don't have chickens, but then again, I'd tuck them away somewhere safe for the night. As for the sheep, well, how do we know for sure that it's not just nature that a fox might take out a sick or injured or even an old one? We don't!

It pains me to think that the farmers wanted a cull of all the badgers, just because they say they're giving our cows tb, but thank goodness, they didn't pass that one coz I for one would have been up in arms!

Even the sewer rats (and they ARE vermin causing us diseases!) are left to be. Some of our wild birds, the kestrel, lives on wild rats and other vermin, it's all nature, so just leave it alone.

If you don't want foxes in your garden then put up a solid 6ft fence around it and you won't get them, or don't leave your bins out until collection day etc. etc. etc. We can control what we want in our gardens, and don't forget I'm in the middle of the countryside so I know what's about out there at night, but I leave it all alone, coz I like it all - I'm an Earth gal being a Virgo

Sorry Tassle, I'm on the side of the fox on this one!!!

Well I am pro hunting as I do see it as an efficient form of control. An incident a few weeks ago affirmed WHY I am, we were exploring some of the fields and paddocks of my aunts stables when the dogs started to go mental at something amongst one of the hedgerows, her aging lab pulled out what looked like a stuffed toy. Upon further inspection it was a fox in such a state i had never witnessed in my life, it had been shot in the back leg..which at this point looked and smelt rancid and was crawling with maggots which seemed to be riddling the whole back end, and the poor thing had clearly been in this way for some time as it was unreasonably thin and I can only hazard a guess the poor thing was too affirmed and slowed up to be able to catch anything too eat until this point. Needless to say it was quickly put out of its misery.
Ive seen foxes half alive in snares too a lot over the past year, never witnessed anything so horrific or unecesarily cruel when hunting was legal and the usual way. And oh yes, it still goes on still as efficient however lots of landowners and people with stock are resorting to other "legal" methods now with disasterous affects! Loopholes my good friends, loopholes!

Human beings.

If it did we wouldnt be having to control them would we? How about rats, do they control themselves? Why should we kill them, why not let them spread Weils disease/Leptospirosis and infect our pets and in turn people?

Like the Rats you mean?

See above about rats again!

I agree, you dont see the issue as you dont live with it, nor have to deal with it.

Foxes are indescriminate killers, they kill everything they can catch, Sheep are a VERY easy target, look how many are caught and killed by Dogs!

WOW Helena, you really dont know that much about Foxes if you think a 6ft fence will keep them out!

Talking to local farmers the controlling the fox population argument is rubbish, they reckon they have had more foxes killed by traffic or natural causes than were killed by the hunt, and because of this they haven't missed it now it's gone, quite a few had court orders banning the hunt from their land anyway, they say they caused more damage than the fox.

It appalls me too the way they're dealt with since the hunting ban, BUT, why can't we just leave them alone?????!!!

Ok Dawn, I didn't know they can clamber up 6ft fences, but at the end of the day - who came first out in the countryside, us or them????

I agree with you about the rats - kill 'em all I say!!!! Just leave my foxes alone!!! I don't like roast lamb much anyways I much prefer beef! The fox still came first there too when you think about it.

Yes, the rats feed the birds of prey - don't they???!!! We just need more of those to keep the rat population down maybe!

Unfortunately your right it does still go on, the same as dog fighting and pretty much the same thing really a bunch of people getting their kicks out watching animals rip another animal to shreds.

As has been said its never been an effective way of getting rid of foxes so no excuse really, lets face it only started because they had hunted deer to near extinction.

I think Moobli has said that her hubby says that isn't the case up in Scotland? I also said it isn't the case down here either from what I know from our local sheepfarmer? Maybe it's only the selected ones, i.e. nature being nature yet again that are being picked out. You talk as if hundreds are killed night after night and if that was the case, we wouldn't have so many joints of lamb in Tesco then would we and the sheepfarmers just wouldn't bother!

You only have to look at our grey squirrells to know what a great job we do when WE interfere Leave things alone imo!

It's strange that it's only the hunting fraternity, the chicken keepers, the sheepfarmers, who seem to KNOW that foxes are like this??? i.e. they kill anything in sight??!!!

autum watch is on now