Garden’s a foxes’ picnic area

Friday 24th August 2007, 3:00PM BST.

fox1.jpgHaving just read the item headed “Cameron and foxes” (August 7) from Mrs Rosemary Dodd, I find myself somewhat torn between opinions on the issue of fox hunting.

From the point of view of an animal lover I agree with Mrs Dodd that this “sport” does indeed “belong to centuries gone by”. 

On the other hand, as a garden lover, I look out to my back garden every day and am constantly reminded of the destruction these animals are capable of. 

Having spent a lot of time and money on my garden it does frustrate me somewhat to wake up each morning to find the latest evidence of the horticultural activity of our local foxes during the night. 

I have had tubs turned over and emptied, plants broken from their jumping over the fence without too much care where they  land, plants dug up from the ground, holes in the lawn from their digging and faeces all over the garden. 

This is not to mention how my garden appears to have become a picnic area for them. If I had wanted various animal bones, remains of someone’s Sunday joint and the 

neighbours’ litter strewn across the lawn I could have done so 

myself without having to destroy my plants in the process. 

One of the foxes also helped itself to a neighbour’s pet rabbit recently. No prizes for guessing which garden it brought it into! 

I have even found the bulbs from my garden lights removed and scattered around the garden after the fox has knocked the top off them!

So a little plea to finish if I may. I would really like to know of any way I can deter these foxes from coming into the garden. I have seen some high-frequency gadgets on the internet, but they seem to affect dogs too, and I don’t think my dog would be too impressed by that!

K Gibson, Elm Green, Dudley.


  1. 1
    Judi Hewitt

    Come off it K Gibson, you are no animal over, just a rotten hunt supporter desguised as a gardener.But even if you are heavy into gardenening, what’s wrong with sharing this world with Britains most beautiful mammal.The fox doesn’t know the little piece of land you occupy (for now)is yours, to him it’s his territory and he needs to survive just like you and me. Poor old foxy can’t go to the supermarket for his food. Plus your neighbour must have kept that poor rabbit in a very rickety old hutch for a fox to get in. Shame on your neighbour I say!
    Incidentally, I have umpteen birds in aviaries in my back garden and though we get the odd visit from a fox, we have never lost a single bird – Why? Because I keep my birds in large well protected pens.

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  2. 2
    Glynis Jones

    Nip down the local hairdressers and get some trimmings of hair, stuff them in nylon stockings or the feet from a pair of tights and hang them on your fence or leave them lying where the foxes lie up for the day. Works for Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall!!

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  3. 3
    rick

    Anti Fox Folk would object if a Benze chased a Mini,its a Have Not V Rich Clowns, in the Main.I respect the few who dont like it on personall grounds,dont much my self.But in the Main, anties are Anti Anything,and are not liked,there attitude is reflected at work,they twist there nickers over a bloke haveing a smoke in the car park.

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  4. 4
    Beverley

    I love my garden and I encourage all wildlife. Foxes, squirels, birds, whatever. These are living things and feel pain the dame as humans. I prefer the wildlife digging up parts of my garden than
    watching the hooligans of today tearing the urban and rural areas apart with their horid destruction.

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  5. 5
    K Gibson

    I can assure Judi Hewitt that I am most definitely not a hunt supporter. I just want my garden back!

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  6. 6
    Judi Hewitt

    Well K Gibson, If you are an animal lover, there’s no hope at all for them.
    As for Rik, well he seems to have chip on his shoulder about anti-hunt people. Though quite what smoking has to do with cruelty to animals is beyond me. Smoke all you like Rik, but leave the animals out of it.

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  7. 7
    David Bartley

    Judi, Rik is not necessarily wrong to suggest that there’s a connection between foxes and smoking. Let me explain;
    Yesterday, I had the shock of my life when I looked out of my window, and saw a fox which was smoking !
    My neighbour explained the mystery by revealing that he had set fire to it’s brush !
    David Bartley, Tipton.

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  8. 8
    K Gibson

    How is me saying that I dont want foxes in my garden the same as saying ‘death to all those who enter’? I didn’t have a problem with it until the destruction began. If I had wanted them all to die then surely I would have been asking for tips on killing them and not detering them! You are trying to read between lines that don’t exist.

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  9. 9
    J Bennington

    David Barkley’s comment that his neighbour had set fire to a foxe’s tail is a cruel and disgusting act . I’m so glad i do not have morons as such living next to me.To inflict pain and suffering on a defenceless creature is indicAtive of our present day yob culture and i have reported this crime to the RSPCA .

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