Mice - We got a good little gadget this year. Its ultrasonic - you just plug it into an electric socket. Emits high frequency which mice/rats & some
insects (we used to get huge spiders /
co-incidence theres a lack of them now) cant stand so they lea e the area. It also emits a pulse which makes them itch uncontrollably so between the high frequency sound & itch it drives them away. Works on electric in your house. Heard about it some years ago but
always wary with pets until a close neighbour got one last year. Doesnt annoy cats or dogs & (touch wood) since its installation 2 1/2 weeks ago there has been no evidence of mice. My brother who lives 7 doors down caught 7 in one day in his humane traps last
year. A gadget well worth the money -
called "Pest Repeller". Saves the car journeys to release the furry little lodgers 3/4 miles away! We have sea rocks over the road & countryside at the back of the houses so its inevitable we
get them in colder months. Means they are still on their home ground but stay away from your house - very humane.

Bloody Daily Mail stirring again - they like to keep their readers in a state of fear. Just love some of these quotes:

'If it took a cat who's to say it wasn't on the path to taking a child'

Indeed, who's to say it wasn't on the path to take over the whole of the UK. Single pawed-ly‘I’m not against foxes, I think everything in nature has a place. But there is a limit and when something like that happens and they start eating cats, it probably tells you that the balance of nature has been upset by humans feeding them and that it’s time for controls to come in.’

So keeping cats = balance of nature but a fox which has evolved naturally isn't? Don't get me wrong, I'd be gutted if a fox killed my lovely cat but that is, unfortunately nature - just as large numbers of our native baby birds and veterans are killed by pet cats.

GIPSY ASYLUM SEEKING FOXS MAIM CHILDREN AND CAUSE HOUSE PRICES TO CRASH! (you heard it here first)

The worrying thing with stories like this (and it's by no means just the Daily Mail, although they are a usual suspect) is a trend in reporting to sensationalise and mislead. It should be of concern to anyone but particularly dog owners as we have a lot to lose via poor public perception of pet dogs and the newspapers revel in a dog attack as much as a fox attack.

The title is designed to mislead for a start 'Is this proof that foxes are getting bigger?' Well no, it's not proof at all, 2/3 through the article you find a quote from an expert which says, 'no, it is an exception rather than a rule'. But the damage is still done - compare with 'Is this proof that large dogs make dangerous pets'.

Then you have the imbecile comment 'if it went for a cat it might go for a child'. Absolutely no logic behind this but it will get people nodding along as though it was a likely follow on, yup, first a chicken, then a cat, then a child. Compare with 'your dog growled and snapped at my dog, it is clearly aggressive, what if it got loose and attacked a child?'

Bad taste in the mouth too seeing photos of dead animals next to kids displayed as a kind of trophy. Doesn't give the right impression IMO - I could accept that in certain cases culling a wild animal may be necessary but this turns from necessity into glorying in destruction.

The idea too that an 'eye for an eye' is acceptable, (if we're talking wild animals). It killed my cat so I will kill it back, oh and take out another one too for good measure. I'm aware that many people disapprove of cat ownership due to their effect on bird populations (although many people who own cats are also the ones that bother feeding the birds through the winter and help sustain populations). I wonder how this guy would feel if his neighbour saw the cat kill a bird and so decided to take it out with an air-rifle?

You know, as a cat owner the greatest perceived threat to my cat is the road outside my house. Perhaps if, god forbid, my cat was run over I should waylay the next two cars I found going down the road, lay into them with a hammer, and then take a photo with next door's 7 yr old 'Look how big this SUV looks next to a child'. 'In fact this SUV could kill a child' (no lie this one and more likely than a fox going for it). How long would I last before being carried off to the Looney Bin do yah think?

I saw the ultrasonic ones in B&Q! But worried they might be a waste of money, hmm, and they work outside? We have a green area right out the back, behind our boundary where we built a phesant house, maybe I could build some sort of mouse house and tempt them all to live there... just looked them up on amazon, they're cheaper on there, I'll have a think about that one, thank you xx

You can't use it if you have pet rodents.

rune

Excellent well balanced post.

Can you imagine the uproar from cat owners (and I am one) if people went out trapping them because they had killed someones tame ducks or chickens?

You missed the bit in the article:

Fox hunting - is/was a sport - what purpose did it have other than to give a person a skin or joy of hunting it. How many people have humanely killed a fox whilst on the hunt - no one - it is/was ripped apart by the dogs or shot. And I very much doubt that this man had the humane way killing it like it says in the article, guns IMO aren't very humane.

Fishing has been and still is a way of life as well as a sport. Unless it is sea fishing or a way of life - the fish is put back.

And hunting for many people IS a way of life. Many people don't like fox hunting (which is fine by me), however many are ignorant about what goes on within a hunt on a hunting day. Many people I have met who aren't horsey as well as many that are (but haven't hunted) just assume people go madly raving through the countryside on a killing spree. This is not the case.

Most of the time foxes were or are not caught. IF a fox is being closed in by the hounds, it will be dispatched very quickly with a swift bite on its neck/jugluar from a fox. Death is almost imediate- unlike the way we slaugter many intensively farmed animals all over the world. To me fox hunting is no more barbaric that a pack of wolves killing a bear or a deer or a cat hunting mice/rats. However, as I said majority of the time foxes were not caught.


With regards to the OP- If people stopped feeding foxes evolution would not happen so quickly and this would not be such an issue. This is what happens when a variety of food is available- I mean take a look at Jurassic Park 3 and evolution kicks in