Fox attacks kitten (From Your Local Guardian)
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Fox attacks kitten in south London
4:58pm Monday 8th August 2011 in Streatham By Rachel Blundy
A fox has attacked a kitten in south London
A three month old kitten was attacked by a fox, the latest in a number of recent incidents involving the animals.
The injured animal was taken to The South London Emergency Veterinary Centre in Streatham High Road last Thursday night at about 11pm (August 4).
Clinical director Markus Kuschera said a fox had entered the house where it lived and bitten it several times, leaving it with a limp in its front left leg. He said the incident had convinced him a cull on foxes was necessary.
He said: "The foxes are really getting out of control in south London. I think they should be culled. I lived for five years in Norway in the countryside and I never saw as many foxes as I have done in London.
"It just gets worse and worse as they are not scared of humans anymore."
The incident comes after Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey’s comments on foxes in The Evening Standard, in which she said they should be reclassified as "pests" to give local councils greater powers to dispose of them.
Streatham resident Shireen Barker, who lives in Woodleigh Gardens, said she felt like a "prisoner" in her home since a fox got into her house and stole her husband’s shoes. She said she is planning to leave her present house because of the problem.
She said: "I'm too scared to go out in the garden on my own, as when I have, they haven’t been scared of me. One fox even jumped out of the bushes towards me before running into next door’s garden.
"In my opinion it’s only a matter of time before someone else gets hurt by these brazen foxes and I will make sure it’s not me or my family."
But more local people have voiced concerns at the possibility of future culls. Simon Cookey from Tulse Hill said: "Their numbers need to be controlled, but remember that gassing, shooting and snaring lead to drawn out painful dispatch.
"Dogs are the answer; we have a couple and never see the fox. There are far greater animal cruelty issues, than the beautiful red fox."
John Bryant says...
6:10pm Mon 15 Aug 11
There only way to reduce a fox population and is to slaughter in excess of 70 percent of the population annually to prevent the survivors making up the numbers in a single breeding season. Slaughter on such a scale can only be done either by mass poisoning (which will mean the deaths of untold thousands of cats, dogs and non-target wildlife), or the introduction of a virus which would result in the total extermination of UK foxes, and the virus possibly jumping to other species - and perhaps even the ultimate 'pest' - the human race!
Get real Mr Kuschera! If foxes worry you that much, go back to Norway and try to persuade that nation to stop slaughtering whales.