SE23 Forum

Anyone had any experience of getting the council to remove a dead fox rom a private garden?

We woke to find a dead fox in the garden this morning. The Lewisham Council helpline is closed, presumably until after the bank holiday. I reported it online and got a message on-screen saying someone would come to pick it up today"as an emergency". That was about 11.00 a.m. and nobody has come round and there is no number to call. I'm starting to fear that, despite what they tell you in messages on the website, Lewisham Council might only collect dead animals on Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays.

Does anyone know what is meant to happen in these instances? Failing that, does anyone know of other organisations that will take on the unwholesome task of removing the dead fox? I'm not really up to digging a four foot hole to drop it in.

Thanks

BigED

I doubt that the Council will collect from your garden.

The council did collect from the front of the house for us, asking us to put the body in a plastic bag. We managed to find one large and strong enough to contain what was quite a large animal.

Can't remember which day of the week it was but it was removed pretty quickly after we reported it.

thanks - we've managed to bag it up with the help of a couple of good samaritans. not sure how to dispose of it now if the council can't be contacted until tuesday - may just have to hope for a couple of cold days.

Do Foxes eat dead foxes I wonder?

I think there is someone on the Council switchboard 24/7.

The website says:-

Contact

Emergency Planning
Tel: 020 8314 6000 (via the Council switchboard)
Email: emergencyplanning@lewisham.gov.uk

They may not regard a dead fox as an emergency.

We had a similar problem a couple of years back.

Council (unsurprisingly) weren't interested.

In the end - of all places - the Celia Hammond Cats Trust said that they would arrange for disposal of the corpse if we could bag it up and get it over to their premises over on Lewisham Way
You might want to try giving them a shout to see if they are still willing to do this...

Lewisham council has a section on 'Animal Fouling and dead animals' under its Environment/street cleaning site. It says:

Dead animals

If you discover a dead animal in a public area or street, phone us on 020 8314 7171 and we will remove it. We also remove dead animals from the gardens of private residences.

'course it may not be possible to contact anyone at weekends but they do collect, as they did for us with a dead fox last year.