Enormous Dog fox harrassing my animals

Tonight I saw a massive dog fox trying to get in the quail pen. The chickens & rabbits were locked in the sheds & I was only alerted by the top hutch doe who spotted it through the shed window & sounded the alarm.

Honest to god, the thing was 4ft in length with a huge head & neck, about the size of a standard collie, but its head & kneck were huge! It scared the hell out of me because at first glance I thought "What the hell is that, OMG its a GSD in the garden!" Then I saw it more clearly & I had to bang on the window twice to distract it before I rushed to the back door & let the two bully breed dogs out who then chased it out of the garden.

And I've just found out that I can't do a thing about it.

Read this:

Why Get Rid of Foxes?

Foxes are solitary, nocturnal animals who stick to their own ‘patch’ – a territory which they mark by fouling. Vixens can have one litter of cubs a year and will look for somewhere warm and safe to rear them for up to nine weeks after they’re born. Many people find foxes in gardens and immediately wonder ‘how do I get rid of foxes in my garden?’
It’s important to note that foxes are not classed as pests or vermin, so local councils and many pest control companies do not deal with fox control and will not supply a fox repellent. Foxes are protected under wildlife protection regulations and it is illegal to poison, maim, gas, drown, club or snare them. Anyone who illegally harms a fox faces a £5,000 fine and a six month prison sentence.
Foxes do not pose a threat to people, or cats and dogs and the high profile cases of fox attacks are extremely rare. Foxes will, however, kill natural prey creatures such as birds and small mammals if given the chance. Perhaps surprisingly to some, domestic cats spread more diseases than foxes do; however, foxes can suffer from mange and spread diseases like toxoplasmosis and toxocara through their faeces.
Foxes may cause a nuisance by fouling in gardens to mark their territory and digging dens under decking and sheds as well as barking loudly, especially during mating season. Urban foxes are also often accused of causing a mess by rummaging around in bins and spreading rubbish. This may be enough for many people to wish to use a fox deterrent such as a natural fox repellent or anti-fox spray.

Now I know for a fact that deterrents are useless. And I can't afford electric fencing or trap the thing on the sly because we have close neighbors.

What can I do?

Of course there's fox proofing & we already jave the basics I.E the pens are wire bottomed etc & the sheds are secure, but I've known them to chew into sheds & through wire because we had one break into a shed years ago (chewed the corner of the shed door away overnight & killed a rabbit in a hutch), but I know whatever I do, the thing will probably break through it.

I'm so worried about my animals, I think I'll have to start staking out the garden every night at 2AM



Or can I move the 2 dogs into the chicken coop?
They are fully trusted guarding breeds & excellent with the chickens (we have our rooster who spends the night in the dog bed with them every night) & if I leave the coop door open then the dogs will be able to patrol the garden overnight. Also, the hens would be able to come & go as they please when the daylight gets well enough for them.
No way would a fox be able to sneak past 2 dogs, the garden is too small.

If your dogs are truly trustworthy with the chickens leave them out there. That will solve your problem. If your property is contained by a fence, you might consider leaving the bulldogs outside the coop to patrol. They would make quick work of a fox.

Dog fox?

coop-er said:

Dog fox?

Click to expand...

Dog fox in the UK is a male fox & a female is called a vixen.


Our dog breeds are Staffordshire bull terrier (Similiar breed to the lovely Pitbull in your pic, I'd love a pitbull but sadly they are illegal & I couldn't go through the heartbreak of having it taken away by the authorities) & a Rottweiler. Both girls.

It was really big, like the size of the one in this article from the mail online (I've just researched 4ft fox & apparently one was a record!)



Is this 4ft beast proof that foxes are getting bigger? Cat-killer trapped by vet

By David Wilkes
UPDATED: 12:23, 3 January 2011

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comments

Weighing almost two stone and measuring four feet from his nose to the tip of his tail, this is thought to be the biggest fox ever found in Britain.
Twice the normal size of the species, it was trapped and killed in a garden in the South East after apparently devouring a pet cat.
The discovery has fuelled fears that urban foxes are hunting new prey after getting bigger and bolder as they gorge themselves on leftovers, including treats put out for them by animal lovers.


Monster: To give a sense of scale, seven-year-old Archie Wright stands next to a 26.5lb fox, which up until now had been the largest recorded in Britain
The animals’ rise was highlighted last year after twin babies were mauled in their east London home.
Nine-month-old Lola and Isabella Koupparis were left scratched and scarred after a fox jumped into their cot in the night, leading to calls for the animals to be culled as pests.
The new giant was caught by vet Keith Talbot at his parents’ home in Maidstone, Kent, on Boxing Day after they told him they believed a fox had killed their black and white pet cat, Amber.
He said today: ‘Obviously, they were very upset. Amber was 19 and liked sleeping on the front door mat.
‘Dad had seen a fox come down the drive and stalk up to her a few nights before. He phoned me and said would a fox attack the cat? I said - perhaps a bit naively - I don’t think so, she would wake up and see it off.
‘A couple of days later, dad heard a commotion outside and looked up to see a fox disappearing up the drive and the next morning found parts of the cat on the lawn. Unfortunately, the family pet was no more.’


Stark contrast: Foxshooter Roy Lupton displays a normal fox beside the 26lb monster shot by Keith Talbot to show the difference in size
Mr Talbot, 28, who works in Scotland, went to stay with his parents for Christmas and put down a trap to try to catch the offender. On the first night, he caught a 14lb fox and the next night the giant specimen, which weighed 26.5lb. Both were humanely destroyed.
The Handbook of British Mammals says the average fox weighs up to 15lb, with reports of up to 22lb.
Mr Talbot said: ‘I’ve seen cats and foxes in the garden before and they normally give each other a wide berth.

Super-size: This is what a normal fox looks like - almost half the size of the one caught in Kent
‘Cats can usually defend themselves and are not on the menu for a fox. But when a fox gets that size, and particularly in bad weather, it appears it may become desperate and go for a cat.’
He was surprised at the size of the fox, but it was only when he showed it to his friend Roy Lupton, a veteran fox shooter who weighed it, that he realised he could have just caught the country’s largest fox.
Mr Talbot said: ‘I’m not against foxes, I think everything in nature has a place.


Attacked: The 19-year-old Amber, pictured right, was thought to have been killed by the monster fox in Maidstone, Kent






'But there is a limit and when something like that happens and they start eating cats, it probably tells you that the balance of nature has been upset by humans feeding them and that it’s time for controls to come in.’
Mr Lupton, 35, a financial adviser as well as a keen field sports enthusiast, said: ‘It was a huge fox.
The worrying aspect is that the urban fox’s behaviour is changing.
‘They are getting bigger because some people feed them because they like to see them in their gardens. With the additional size comes added confidence and then they start taking on new prey - and once they find an easy food source they will capitalise on it.’
Derek Yalden, president of the Mammal Society, said: ‘I would say it’s an exception rather than an indication that foxes are getting bigger, although in towns they are bolder because they’re more used to seeing humans.’
The giant fox’s discovery was revealed today on the internet-based Fieldsports Channel - and was pictured next to a boy of seven, to give a sense of scale.
Presenter Charlie Jacoby said: ‘If it took a cat, who’s to say it wasn’t on the path to taking a child?
‘If I lived in the suburbs with children, I would think twice about leaving the baby out in the pram on a warm summer night knowing outsize foxes are out there.’
Tomorrow the channel will seek to confirm that an even bigger fox has been found after a man contacted them to say he shot one weighing 34lb in Somerset last year.






I had no clue they grew THAT big. I'm now worried about my cat to after reading this article from 2011, this is the first time a fox has been in the garden. Normally I think the cat drives them off, but this one was easily big enough to kill my cat in a stand off.

I'm guessing that's how it came to be in the garden in the first place..... Too big to be intimidated by the cat.

A dog would have to be very trustworthy for me to allow them to stay in the chicken coop, even then I don't think I would trust a dog left to his own devices overnight, I would rather lock the coop up and leave the dogs in the yard if they can't stray around the neighborhood, that would be plenty of deterrent to a fox, with any luck they'd kill it. Glad I don't live there, I'd be in prison for sure.

OMG, have you seen this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-17264460

I think we people in the UK need to stop feeding the foxes McDonald's meals!

And yes both dogs are fully trustworthy, they've slept with the chickens before, & the rabbits.

While a 4 foot fox is a large fox it is not unusual in the United States, it is really about the top end of the expected size of a red fox from northern climates, with any animal the size, shape, and color can vary between individuals. In the above picture with the man and 2 dead fox the larger of the fox would be more likely the size you would encounter in this area, smaller being a young fox or a female. The laws in your country are what causes these problems, when predator species are left unchecked they will become a problem, also since there is no hunting or trapping for the fur trade like is allowed here for management, the population is allowed to breed out of control, also more animals will reach large sizes as they are living out their natural lifespan more often since they are not killed and have an abundant feed source.

blucoondawg said:

While a 4 foot fox is a large fox it is not unusual in the United States, it is really about the top end of the expected size of a red fox from northern climates, with any animal the size, shape, and color can vary between individuals. In the above picture with the man and 2 dead fox the larger of the fox would be more likely the size you would encounter in this area, smaller being a young fox or a female. The laws in your country are what causes these problems, when predator species are left unchecked they will become a problem, also since there is no hunting or trapping for the fur trade like is allowed here for management, the population is allowed to breed out of control, also more animals will reach large sizes as they are living out their natural lifespan more often since they are not killed and have an abundant feed source.

Click to expand...

Yep.

In the UK they used to be quite small years ago.

My grandfather used to feed foxes. The neighbors always used to criticize him for it, but he would brush them off. He was an animal lover & wanted "Happy, well fed" foxes in his garden.

But when I was a child, I remember him commenting on their size, that they seemed to be getting bigger each year. Eventually he couldn't afford to keep feeding them & stopped. By that time they had gone from jackrussel size to about the size of a spaniel - in 7 years, Each year he would feed the pups especially & they were always very chubby. He used to feed them any meat or dog food when he had no meat & tripe to or suasage meat (for dogs) fish etc.