Oh I'm sure it does for some peoples idea of fun. Oh and it would cost a lot of time and tax payers money to get it changed.

Then you live in a very different area to me, that doesn't happen and I don't know of anywhere nearby where it happens, estates simply can't afford to hire people to ride around on quads all day just in case they come across a fox, and if they can shoot it.

Why do foxes need to know the difference between what some view as a countryside sport, and what for them is normal day to day survival? Yet again, I am amazed at how people seem to attribute human sort of emotions onto a wild animal. Foxes are wild, they live or die whether the hunting ban is in place or not, some times that life is good, some times that life is short and painful, the hunting ban changes nothing, except makes a few fluffy bunny huggers feel good that foxes don't die an awful death at the mouths of hounds (regardless of how many now die of starvation and disease).

And as has also been shown on this thread, it's ok for animals to feel stress and be hunted by dogs, as long as we feel ok with it.

It's cost an awful lot in tax payers money so far with cases that have been brought to court and thrown out. Good use of money or not?

That is near me...

The place in question is a very large game hatchery (that has been going since the 60's), that supplies estates etc with thousands of birds every year - when at capacity, they have 1.5million birds. They have excellent fencing, electric and otherwise, motions sensitive lights etc... however, what they can't risk is continuous fox attacks, where the foxes kill hundreds of birds - that's an entire family's livelihood, not to mention the local people they employ.

If there is a fox in the area that has been killing domestic animals/livestock - they will shoot it. If the foxes are taking their food from someone's garden/small holding, then they are more likely to come onto the hatchery's property too.

We live in a very rural area - there is plenty of 'wild' food around (rabbits etc) that they shouldn't need to come into gardens etc and eat people's chickens.

Ive a neighbour who has roosters that start crowing at 4.30am
Every day. I get 'sick' of them too as you aptly put it as do a lot of others nearby. Its relentless. Its no joke when youve to get up at 5.30am & drive an hour to work as many do round here. Its relentless 24 x 7. 365 days a year. Never any break. It goes on all day.

So yes it is inconvenient, tiresome, grating on nerves annoying because someone wants to keep roosters as pets. They make a heck of a lot more racket than those foxes day in day out

My point is sometimes you have to live & let live.

Exactly my point and made by a fair few on here. The OP's implied that the fox should know but I ask the question (ok maybe rhetoricly) how are they supposed to know that little fluffy or birdy thing with feathers sat in a hutch /pen unable to run so an easy meal is different to one of the fluffy things that runs away and makes it harder work?

As for your last statement I've seen only one response that advocates that! I certainly do not.

How do they know which fox has taken the birds whatever in question or do they just indiscrimately shoot any fox they see? No I dont expect them to know just as I dont expect a fox to know the difference between domestic kept animals and those that are kept for 'sport'.

I am amazed at how people seem to attribute human sort of logicical thinking onto a wild animal.

Are we top of the food chain? Really? I would like to see a human stand up against a tiger, or a curious shark. We have opposable thumbs and have created weaponry as a result but that doesn't make us top of the food chain.

As for me being naive- it is naive in the extreme to judge another species's intelligence through a human test ( as in your example of a fox doing algebra; tip that on it's head and let's see you escape the hunt.) Intelligence tests measure one chosen thing: maths, English, verbal or non verbal reasoning, emotion....even humans do well in some but not others. One person's view of intelligence is entirely different to anothers. To judge another species by our standards is arbitary and not useful.
"I am amazed at how people seem to attribute human sort of emotions onto a wild animal." Tarimoor.

Yet it is okay to do it with human measures of
intelligence which is just ad hard to measure ( if
not more so) as emotion?

Disagree that foxes were once prey - only to humans, and then not to eat, but to be used perhaps for their fur. All the foxes I have ever seen have most definitely not been acting like, say, a rabbit. They will scarper for sure if they see you, but I watched a very healthy and very beautiful young fox near us who hadn't seen or heard me coming for quite some time. He was sitting there sunning himself just like a dog would. A rabbit would have been displaying far more defensive behaviour, and when eventually spotted me he would not have loped off as this little guy did, but would have legged him at the rate of knots!!

the point I was trying to make is that herbivores are prey ... to take the rabbit scenario again, a rabbit expects to be eaten at any moment by a whole myriad of creatures ranging from humans to birds. They are on guard 24:7. Ipso facto, my logic tells me that for a rabbit to be chased by my dogs is far less stressful than for a fox to be hunted - a vastly superior creature in terms of intelligence, and certainly not used to being attacked from all sides on a regular basis.

Whenever there is a discussion about foxes, inevitably fox hunting will be discussed. Fox hunting has been part of our rural countryside for centuries. It is not going off topic to discuss fox hunting IMO

When does a cute fluffy creature become vermin?

Tiny mice are cute and fluffy until they come into your home and wreak havoc.

Domestic cats are cute and fluffy until the unwanted kittens end up as the feral cats that rip through window and door screens to get into your home and wreak havoc.

Foxes are cute and fluffy but they carry mange which can get passed onto pets, as some Dogsey members are well aware. And yes I know that there is no rabies in the UK but there is here and it is carried by foxes, so those cute and fluffy foxes are not welcome in my back yard.