I am constantly astounded at how much building work goes on either in areas no one wants to live or in areas they
can't afford to live, yet there are countless
houses lying empty or as you say unused for most of the year. Madness. Such a waste.
They sold a school
Playing field here and have built on it...

Tarimoor: apologies, I don't know how to do the multi-quote thing, so I have to embed my answers to each of your paragraphs in your actual posting. Which then makes it very difficult to pick up on, so I have started afresh and will try to answer you!

my point about the difference between a fox being pursued as prey, and a rabbit is this. A rabbit, being a herbivore, is genetically geared up to respond to a myriad of threats that happen in the course of any one day. Threats from buzzards, foxes, humans, dogs, cats, weasels, polecats, mink, stoats, badgers to name but a few. Every second of their time spent above ground is on the alert, they can never truly relax because of the constant threat of attack from above, around and even below ground. A fox is not a prey animal, and does not have to live like this when above ground. You will frequently see foxes sunbathing if you come across them downwind and very quietly, it is not until they see or smell you that they will nonchantly trot off into the undergrowth. this is the exact opposite of the reaction from a rabbit. I believe this is why it is far more stressful for a fox to be a prey animal, than a rabbit, because the rabbit is genetically geared up to be a prey animal, for ever living its life in fear of attack from all sides. I hope I have explained this clearly enough for you, and apologies for the confusion!

You are kidding me about blow flies!! Surely you know what they are and how dangerous they are? Bluebottles ... that lay hundreds of tiny little yellow fleck-like eggs on any food, especially meat and fish, left uncovered. They are everywhere in the UK and are definitely to be swatted if you are unfortunate enough to get one in your kitchen. Obviously one doesn't leave food lying out on the surfaces uncovered, but I had the misfortune to shut one in my fridge once and the dang thing contaminated a beautiful joint of lamb! My mother subsequently told me that you can wash the offending eggs off with vinegar, and it will be quite safe as long as the maggotts haven't hatched out, but I didn't know that at the time and I was furious!!

Not in the same way humans do.

The main reason developers usually get planning permission is because they are obliged to give a certain percentage of the plots to the local authority as social housing so until people stop breeding-this will never stop.The idea of reusing derelict properties has gone on for some time,but councils know it takes an awful long time to often find the owner and then can be a costly buisness to take it from them and this i guess frightens them with how much central goverment has reduced their piggy bank by.

I think what's getting mixed up (not by you but just generally) is intelligence and ethics, someone can be intelligent but lack ethics to use that intelligence wisely, which for me includes lacking the motivation to actually use their own intelligence in a way which beneifts them and possibly others, not just having intelligence and using it in a way that is obviously detrimental to others and our surroundings.

Depends which field you stand in, considering the ritual for a Masai male is to go out and kill a male lion with nothing more than a spear, if you were stood in a field in Kenya/Tanzania, you may well find lions are fearful of man, and will run away. If you did the same in Botswana or other southern African countries, you'd find them less fearful, as they are not hunted in the same way. Snakes generally slither away as quickly as possible, it's only when they feel cornered they resort to other methods of intimidation, it's only a handful of snakes world wide that are actually considered to be *aggressive*. So it depends what you call a predator really, having lived in Africa I've come across snakes, scorpions, poisonous centipedes and spiders, and all sorts outside my back door and always came off the best, I've sat next to lions on a fresh kill less than six feet away, in an open topped vehicle, because lions don't recognise us as possible prey in that instance. I'm not a scientist btw, just a slightly intelligent human being

I have to disagree about foxes and rabbits, I've seen rabbits sunbathing, and pigeons, both ideal snacks or a myriad of predators, just as I've seen foxes sneaking off at the sign of something they find evokes a sense of fear, even if they don't understand why. That aside, neither the fox or the rabbit would feel any different if they were actually pursued, I think both would feel the same way, it's a natural part of the flight mechanism for all animals, not just prey animals.

I apologise but my understanding of blow fly is the one that lays it's eggs on clothing, which then transfers to your skin where it hatches and burrows into your skin and actually pupates under the skin beore emerging as an adult. I've never referred to bluebottles as blow fly or heard them referred to as this name, but it seems the term 'blow fly' refers to a whole family of these insects. Hence the confusion

Tarimoor: no I am discussing intelligence not ethics, they are two totally different things and I am not at all confused by them.
A friend was bitten in the outback, by a snake, the snake had plenty of places to slither off to. It chose not to. My friend almost died.

Sea otters use rocks as 'cutlery'

The law needs to change.

Technically speaking there isn't one, however I do feel we should live and let live. Man is too competitive for his own good, even with his fellow human beings

Yes my friend bought girls and ended up with boys too! If you are happy to tolerate it, its fine. It really is personal choice. I dont like these Foxes making this racket, crapping all over the place, and being a general nuisance. Aswell as displaying unnatural behaviour such as parading around in broad daylight and showing no natural fear of things like dogs and humans. They belong in a rural environment. There are far too many.