Whats happened to my foxes ?

[BloomingMarvellous]

I'm sure the Foxes will return when all the Berries have gone, seems like a Bumper year for Berries.

[squeek]

Originally Posted by willing to learn

They use Cymag (though I think its illegal)which activaited produce's large quantities of hydrogen cyanide gas which is very effective and it is deadly. What did people expect pushing, a ill thought out bill to ban the hunting with hounds, I think it was more to do with the dislike of the people doing the hunt, rather than the foxes welfare. In a wierd way, be the hunting with hounds being "Right" or "Wrong" it offered the foxes more protection than the bill for hunting with hounds ever will!!!
Regards
Colin

only thing is colin either way the fox is killed in a most horrid way, i can not agree to the stress pain and suffering caused to these animals or indeed any other animal.

[squeek]

Originally Posted by BloomingMarvellous

I'm sure the Foxes will return when all the Berries have gone, seems like a Bumper year for Berries.

i very much hope so all our leftovers goes in the bin, except for some the badgers eat.

[BloomingMarvellous]

Changed my mind about the Berry theory since reading your other thread Squeek. Foxes are wild, they are not Pets and they don't belong to anyone.

I used to put food out for Foxes until I awoke one morning to find it had been run over, right outside the house. I thought I was doing it a favour, but I helped it to an early grave. Why would you want to name a Fox ? That really is a sign of being outta touch with nature.






.

[squeek]

Originally Posted by BloomingMarvellous

Changed my mind about the Berry theory since reading your other thread Squeek. Foxes are wild, they are not Pets and they don't belong to anyone.

I used to put food out for Foxes until I awoke one morning to find it had been run over, right outside the house. I thought I was doing it a favour, but I helped it to an early grave. Why would you want to name a Fox ? That really is a sign of being outta touch with nature.






.

sorry bout your fox, but its not your fault, it at least had a few nice meals and a caring human on its side.
i fed mine b/c i felt it stopped them from having to find food like chickens rabbits etc. if they ate my food they wouldnt have to eat other animals/birds and maybe end up looking down the end of the farmers double barrel.
i think nature is harsh and like to think im helping a creature survive in this harsh cruel world.

[BloomingMarvellous]

Originally Posted by squeek

sorry bout your fox, but its not your fault, it at least had a few nice meals and a caring human on its side.
i fed mine b/c i felt it stopped them from having to find food like chickens rabbits etc. if they ate my food they wouldnt have to eat other animals/birds and maybe end up looking down the end of the farmers double barrel.
i think nature is harsh and like to think im helping a creature survive in this harsh cruel world.

That's just it Squeek, it wasn't my Fox, just like the Foxes that venture into your garden, they don't belong to you, there not yours.

Just take a look at what your saying. I can only presume that you are from the Younger generation and have been sheltered from the real world.

I also think nature is harsh, but I have a good understanding of how it all works.

I watched a Bald Eagle nest on web cam this year and sometimes it was very hard to watch. There we're 2 chicks and they both had been named which I thought was very strange at the time, I would of preferred Chick1 and Chick2. Anyway for a couple of weeks everything was fine with the chicks until, one of the chicks got caught under the parents wing. The Parent was frantic, flapping and screaming and looking very frightened and then it flew off with the chick still attached to it. My heart just sunk, it sunk even further when the parent returned without the chick. Made me feel sad just writing that. I learnt a lot from watching the Bald Eagle's on Web-cam and maybe this is something you could try to Squeek, just an idea.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Pat

As most of you know I've got some foxes that I feed in our local wood, in the past 5 weeks 3 of them have been found dead, no sign of any injury so I'm worried that they may have been poisoned

Originally Posted by Pat

Unfortunately their insides had been ripped out when we found them, we have a lot of crows living in the wood. I had some curry left over from last nights meal so I've just taken it up to my special fox (he comes when I call him!) he loved it

if the crows have ripped their insides out it is doubtful that they are poisoned as they would be surrounded by dead crows - also if they had been gassed (which is illegal for foxes they would be in the earth not in the open in the wood)

I'm slightly confused as to how they can be both unmarked and have their insides ripped out - but i would suggest that they may have been killed by lurchers - the dog normally shakes them to break the neck which can leave no obvious mark and some owners also allow the dog to feed from the kill

the other option is roadkill which can often leave no obvious mark but cause them to die from internal bleeding.

[squeek]

Originally Posted by BloomingMarvellous

That's just it Squeek, it wasn't my Fox, just like the Foxes that venture into your garden, they don't belong to you, there not yours.

Just take a look at what your saying. I can only presume that you are from the Younger generation and have been sheltered from the real world.

I also think nature is harsh, but I have a good understanding of how it all works.

I watched a Bald Eagle nest on web cam this year and sometimes it was very hard to watch. There we're 2 chicks and they both had been named which I thought was very strange at the time, I would of preferred Chick1 and Chick2. Anyway for a couple of weeks everything was fine with the chicks until, one of the chicks got caught under the parents wing. The Parent was frantic, flapping and screaming and looking very frightened and then it flew off with the chick still attached to it. My heart just sunk, it sunk even further when the parent returned without the chick. Made me feel sad just writing that. I learnt a lot from watching the Bald Eagle's on Web-cam and maybe this is something you could try to Squeek, just an idea.

hi, its ok i only use that term lightly, i know they are not mine, they are their own person. i just love animals and birds that i call them mine b/c they are in my garden and i feed them, thats all.

[davecatt]

Originally Posted by Pat

As most of you know I've got some foxes that I feed in our local wood, in the past 5 weeks 3 of them have been found dead, no sign of any injury so I'm worried that they may have been poisoned but saying that why would anyone do that , there are no livestock around just fields.My friend has buried them in his garden just in case they have been poisoned and the crows and magpies don't eat them. Very worrying

HI Pat
This sounds like poisoning and should be acted on, if any more are found please, for the sake of your foxes and other wild life, try to keep the carcass safe from scavengers but save it for examition and call DEFRA, they will act promptly to determin the cause of death.

As for why anyone should poison foxes my imediate thought is game keeper protecting his pheasants, though it is possible that the poison was picked up further afield as foxes can travel a long way in search of food.

Good luck
Dave

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by davecatt

HI Pat
This sounds like poisoning and should be acted on, if any more are found please, for the sake of your foxes and other wild life, try to keep the carcass safe from scavengers but save it for examition and call DEFRA, they will act promptly to determin the cause of death.

As for why anyone should poison foxes my imediate thought is game keeper protecting his pheasants, though it is possible that the poison was picked up further afield as foxes can travel a long way in search of food.

Good luck
Dave

While I doubt it is poison I dont want to get into an argument but would offer the following (from my experience of preserving badgers and dead BoPs for post mortem).

first off symptoms of poisioning vary tremendously from substance to substance and can include extreme rigour mortis (strychnine), a lot of froth arround the mouth (various poisons including pesticides and cymag), or the inability of blood to clot , causing a bleed out from even small wounds (vitamin D based rat posion)

Secondly note that some poisons can persist in the body for a long time after death and can transfer from the corpse through your skin so protect yourself by wearing full clothing (long sleeves etc) and rubber gloves (you can buy disposable latex ones from B&Q etc)

Thirdly it can take a while for post mortems to be arranged and some poisons break down after death - to stop this (and to stop natural decomposition) the corpse needs to be frozen - people who do this a lot have a seperate freezer , and I can fully understand you not wanting to put a potentially poisoned fox in your food freezer - therefore you may be able to arrange for your local vet/rspca centre etc to freeze the corpse for you. If you do decide to freeze it yourself triple bag it using bin bags and black tape and keep it at the bottom of the freezer if possible seperated from the other food by a tarp or similar

and finally

fourthly - note that post mortems are expensive and your local vet/rspca/defra/ police WLO may not be willing to do it for common/pest species or where there are other plausible explanations- so check before you go to the trouble of collecting a corpse and freezing it etc.