rescued baby foxes ?

[shazam]

hi im from the uk living in finland. there are few if any kind of wildlife rescue centres in finland, so i hope i can pose my question on this forum. i have rescued several wild animals and rehabiltated most of them and have never been in doubt to the need before, however i recived a call about some baby foxes under a house which is unusual in finland. when we arrived it was a sad sight the cubs are about six weeks old and seemed to be starving. they were also chewing on the dead body of a sibling and refused to let it go even when we picked them up. at the time the rescue felt right but now we have been critisised by a neighbour who either feels nature should run its course or i have left a poor fox mum without her cubs id appreciate some feedback mainly about wether they were a likely abandonment thanks

[muldonach]

If they are starving and eating a sibling then it would appear highly unlikely that you have deprived a healthy vixen of a litter which she was succesfully rearing.

regards
mac

[shazam]

when i wrote the account it felt i did the right thing but its very lonely caring for needy wildlife in finland and its easy to lose confidence
shaz

[Sharmore]

I would have done exactly what you did. Excuse me nosey neighbour - depriving a vixen, she will be glad of a rest i bet!

Yes sometimes nature should run it's course but if i saw cubs eating a cub i would have done the same even if i was interfering. If you were called to the house the occupants must have thought there was a problem!!

The only problem you have now is looking after them as i would imagine it is extremely hard work, and how do you keep them wild?

Good luck with this one and personally i think the person that has made you doubt what you are doing is right, would not go to the same lengths to preserve our wildlife!!

Please let us know how you get on with this one??

[posie]

Hi Shaz, don't lose confidence, 'cos your efforts are obviously needed out there. It is possible to establish if a mammal has been fed by the 'size', or rather 'fullness' of the stomach, that is the belly area. I think as Mac said, all indications are that they had been deserted, perhaps something happened to the mother....anyway, good luck with your endeavours, perhaps 'ValleyForge' who has a rescue centre of the same name would come in and give you some tips., or do you have all the knowlege you need to rear them?...Posie..

[shazam]

thanks everyone for your feedback, i have reared several animals inc a litter of raccoon dogs of which one had died and the others were close to starving, we did manage to rehabilitate them, and released them it was a lovely moment. however the foxes are a different matter, they are considerd vermin in finland and i cannot afford to make a mistake and release them unless im sure they are wild, there are no rehabilitation centres here in fact if we start to get more calls well have to develop our own! but the cubs are fine, have livend up and begining to play at this time i cant ask for more
thanks everyone shaz

[muldonach]

Whilst it seems almost certain from your description that these cubs have been abandoned for one reason or another I do question why you have apparently chosen to rear them.

Whilst tempting to interfere in such a manner, unless there are over-riding reasons for attempting to rear, such as species rarity I do question the long term humanity of artificially rearing and attempting to re-release a wild animal.

I don't agree with your neighbours view that nature should have been allowed to take its course but I am not fully in accord with your actions either.

regards
mac

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by muldonach

Whilst it seems almost certain from your description that these cubs have been abandoned for one reason or another I do question why you have apparently chosen to rear them.

Whilst tempting to interfere in such a manner, unless there are over-riding reasons for attempting to rear, such as species rarity I do question the long term humanity of artificially rearing and attempting to re-release a wild animal.

To be fair to the O.P., they did say "there are few if any kind of wildlife rescue centres in finland", so "there are over-riding reasons for attempting to rear".

Jim

[Tracey.A]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

To be fair to the O.P., they did say "there are few if any kind of wildlife rescue centres in finland", so "there are over-riding reasons for attempting to rear".

Jim

I agree with Jim's reply. If you had left them, they would have suffered a horrible death, so I think you have done the very best that you can. Wish you and the cubs all the very best. A friend of mine worked in a wildlife rescue centre, I'll ask her how fox cubs are raised when they've been rescued and how they keep them from becoming tame, so that they can be released into the wild.

Tracey