Fox query

[Curious Bear]

Hi

This is my first post so please allow me to apologise in advance for it's gruesome content but it contains a question that I'd very much appreciate your help with please.

I live only a mile out of a large city centre but we have a small piece of woodland opposite the house which is very regularly visited by, or is the home of, a small group of urban foxes. This morning I came out of the house and there was a completely decapitated fox head on the pavement (sorry again!). The body looked to be on the grass about 30 feet away.

Without going into too much detail the decapitation looked pretty clean and I'm left wondering whether someone has been able to catch the fox and do this horrible thing to it, whether it might have been attacked by a large dog (there is an Alsatian walked on the land by a rather unsavoury character on occasions) or if it might have been hit by a car and something/one has removed the head of a dead or injured animal? I can't see that a car would have done this directly. I wonder if anyone's experience might shed any light, please?

We have become quite attached to the Foxes and it's sad and more than annoying that this can happen. If I'm honest I don't like the thought that whatever, or worse, whoever might be capable of such a thing is out there at night.

Your views, help or advice would be more then welcome.

By the way, I moved the head away from the pavement and have arranged for the council to collect the body.

Sorry again for the upsetting nature of this post but I'm sure you appreciate my concern in knowing what might have done it.

[Farplace]

I am no expert, but i suspect that it's due to humans. Dogs would not decapitate. Neither would traffic.
So sorry.
And welcome to the forum.....
Jan

[bigdave60dog]

You need an accident investigator to be sure. I have seen humans decapitated in road accidents in the way that you describe. Where is the rest of the fox? this may tell you what happened.
Dave

[Curious Bear]

Thanks to both above for coming back. The traffic can't move very fast in the location and with the body and head being away from the road (and each other) I don't think it is that. Unless someone moved them I guess. In a way I'd prefer it to be that though because at least then its an accident, and not deliberate. It's interesting to read that a dog wouldn't do it.

We may never know but I'll be quizzing the neighbours!

[valleyforge]

Hi CB and welcome to the forum from me too.

In circumstances such as this, where a wild animal is found dead in such suspicious circumstances, it is always worth reporting the matter to the police.

Each police force in the UK has at least one officer who is dedicated to investigating crimes against wildlife .... call your local police on their non-emergency number (NOT 999) ... you can find this in your phone book or by Googling your county police/constabulary name ... and explaining what you have seen and where. The details will be passed to their Wildlife Liaison Officer, who may call you back for more info.

Such incidents should really be treated as potential crime scenes and nothing moved ... but they won't hold it against you that you relocated the head out of public view.

It is important though that you let them know asap, and before the council come and remove the remains.

If the death turns out to be innocent/accidental (e.g a roadkilled fox subsequently decapitated by a road verge cutter), then no harm has been done ... but if it does turn out to be a case of animal cruelty, then at least the police have the incident logged, and may be able to correlate it with other incidents in the area already under investigation ... or which crop up later.

[Curious Bear]

Thanks valleyforge. I should have said in my post but I have already told the Police and the Liaison guy has been informed. I'm expecting them to call for more info.

I felt I needed to move the head as there are kids (including mine) passing and it didn't look great!

Thaiks for the advice

[STYRBJORN]

One further point, please don't jump to any conclusions about the "unsavoury looking character" with the GSD. I mean no offence to you, but appearances really can be deceptive.

[Curious Bear]

Originally Posted by STYRBJORN

One further point, please don't jump to any conclusions about the "unsavoury looking character" with the GSD. I mean no offence to you, but appearances really can be deceptive.

Appreciate the sentiment (I may very well appear unsavoury to some myself!) but he has had a few run ins with my neighbours which suggests he isn't the most considerate of people.

As an update on the fox. I had another look last night (out of curiosity to establish what has happened rather than any great desire to). It was a younger fox than I first thought. The other younger ones that are wandering about look bigger than it. So I'm now wondering if it was too weak to be able to fend for itself and then some idiot has had a go at the body. Alternatively, I guess a car might have more seriously hurt a smaller animal?

As you can tell I really have no idea so it will probably remain a mystery

[STYRBJORN]

Fair enough, you have good cause to be leary of the guy.

I agree with the posters who have said that deliberate human action is by far the most likely explanation. There seems to be a campaign by the right-wing red-top rags to demonise urban foxes, and some yahoos use it to excuse plain cruelty. I shoot foxes which are attacking poultry or stock, (which makes me an unsavoury character in the eyes of some on here!)but I can see no justification for persecuting urban foxes in general. By all means target individual foxes which have become pests, but let it be done as humanely as possible.

There is little chance that the culprit/s will be caught, but by drawing attention to the area you have greatly reduced the risk of recurrence.

Ric