mice and even rats form part of fox's natural diet.
Which would people prefer scampering around at night?

Foxes would kep down the mice and rat population if people did not feed them.

Rather he is pathetic , like his puppet master , Master Balls.

Perhaps we should start by culling Liam Fox?

I have reasons for objecting to the excess fox population in Forest Hill. The population is as big as it is only because of the ready availability of food. The larger population this supports then has problems finding places to live.

The bad smell in my cellar was eventually traced to a fox that had been living, and had then died, under the dining room floor - not nice.

A second fox curled up in a drawer under a bed depositing fleas and blood. It left the house when the front door was opened but returned the next day to curl up on a white sofa and pee on the carpet. Foul.

Both foxes were entering through a cat flap into the cellar, clearly desperate for accommodation and prepared to confront humans to get it. A superior cat flap with magnetic catch solved the problem of them entering the house but I still see far more of them in the garden than I would wish to.

People who feed foxes do not realise that they are subjecting the foxes to increased levels of stress as they try to find territory. A well fed pair of foxes will produce about six cubs every year for 10 years. Of the 60 cubs produced, 58 have to die without reaching sexual maturity in a stable population. The more they are fed, the more unhappy cubs there are to die.

Please don't feed them and let the population stabilise at natural levels.

There may well be too many foxes and I agree that the foxes should not be fed. I think that a cull is not required though, just measures like keeping your waste away from them as already mentioned.

However, there is a much bigger problem IMO and am prompted to reply by the reference to the cat flap. There are too many cats.

This is the elephant in the room when considering nuisance animals. I know this may upset some cat owners but please do consider keeping your pet indoors. They can be just as smelly and invidious as any fox. Furthermore cats, or rather their owners, are responsible for killing thousands of small wild animals including birds.

I am not trying to flame here. I should mention that I am not anti-cat. I am pro responsible pet ownership. This is an issue that, along with dog fouling, we should grapple.

My 2p.

As it happens, my cat now rarely ventures out - probably as a result of territorial disputes and his inability to defend his territory as he ages!

I suspect fox culls will not be effective unless operated on a continuing basis because of the huge reproductive ability of foxes. In the countryside they are not fed and are shot by farmers because they are hugely destructive (my brother in law keep free range chickens ...) so the populations stays relatively low. But in the city, any gap created by culling will be rapidly filled by the cubs that don't die of starvation - which must be the fate of the majority.

The authorities will not cull foxes because it is pointless. There are so many of them if some are culled others rapidly replace them.

Actually your cat is not the issue per se it is more the population.

The environmental response to this is that if fewer cats are allowed out to kill small animals, then natural predators will fill that niche. This should lead to a more balanced ecosystem and foxes would have to make do with their share.

Time for a cull of killer plants?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-14416809
Or perhaps they could be used to reduce the fox population.

The site of countless rat poison bait boxes prompted this thought:

What is the difference between a rat and a fox?

Both brown furry, four legged mammals with tails. Long term immigration status naturalised species and neither in danger of extinction any time soon. Undesireable habits; wanton destruction, transmission of infection and dangerous to small humans.

So why is it that we throw tonnes of poision at one and go all soft and misty eyed when we see the other?

Is it that the people of this great country are, like the admirers of the John Lewis christmas advert, drowning in sentimentality?

If it is OK to persecute ratty (at the Council's expenses) please, please, please why can't we do the same for foxes?

125407, apart from the four legs you could be descibing a good few humans as well.

basil brush has a lot to answer for. He popularised the fox cause. I would love to be able to do a bit of fox assasination - is that legal?

Actually no its not. A neighbour apparently tried to shoot one a few years ago and was cautioned by the RSPCA.

I would however like to do something to Basil. Like unpick the stitches, perhaps.

I never liked him either! Yes lets unpick his stitches, take out his stuffing, unscrew his eyes and then put him in the wash with a load of red clothes so he comes out pink. That will learn him.

Meanwhile, if all you get is a caution from the RSPCA.......

Hilarious! I'd go ahead and shoot it Deano.

If poisoning rats is allowed presumably the same must go for foxes. Indeed, as far as I am aware killing foxes is not a problem provided you do it in a humane manner. You can't shoot foxes in urban areas because firearms licences restrict the way in which the particular gun can be used. You wouldn't get permission to use a gun powerful enough to kill a fox in an urban area. As a result it is much easier to use a gun to kill foxes on farmland.