Hunt is a four letter word

I dispise any form of animal cruelty, it’s why I went vegetarian after I saw what the meat on my plate went through while it was still alive.

I, like many other people read the news stories about the babies that were attacked by a fox in their home, and more recently the story about the 13-year-old girl who was bitten on her leg by a fox while camping in her garden.

Apparently, this is just cause to go and hunt urban fox down and brutally kill them using anything you can get your hands on according to people things like this.

Other people in cities that have a large population of urban foxes are snaring foxes to use as bait in dog fights by chaining them up and unleashing dogs on the fox. A fox is lucky if it wins a fight with a cat, let alone one or more dogs!

Urban fox hunting has been around for years,* I wont pretend it’s a new fad, however, the spotlight the media have put on the recent “fox attack” stories in the UK have fueled these peoples actions and have provided the “hunters” with something that justifies their cruel actions.

It no longer just upsets me when I hear about this sort of behaviour, it angers me and when I came across the blog of the ‘Urban fox hunters’ who are so hard that they have to cover their faces and can’t catch the fox they’re going to kill unless it’s drugged I reported it to the RSPCA immediately and they were outraged by what was on the website.

I also mentioned it on twitter and was amazed at the response from people who were also angered by the blog and the behaviour of the hunters who then went on to also report it to the RSPCA, the police or the Met who have a wildlife crimes unit.

There have only been a handful of attacks by foxes this year but for people like the urban fox hunters that is a good enough reason to start hunting them and treating them in this barbaric fashion.

I can’t help but view it as cowards choosing selective victims. I mean, if they’re going to justify their behaviour with the whole “foxes attack humans” argument, then they also need to be looking at domestic dogs and cats that attack humans too. Not to mention that chimpanzee that attacked it’s owners friend, and cows – those bovine devils stampeed and kill people every year.

If urban fox are to be culled it should be left to the experts who know how to undertake such action in a more humane manner. Not by thugs who brag that they’ll continue doing what they do “until the foxes get the message”**.

I would urge anybody here who is equally as disgusted as I am to phone the RSPCA and report it, or the Met wildlife crime unit.

RSPCA – 0300 1234 999

Met wildlife crimes unit – 020 7230 8898 (Monday-Friday between 0800-1600) or e-mail wildlife@met.police.uk

* Funny how the Daily mail branded the hunting as sickening in their 2006 article, and then go on to fuel the behaviour in 2010 through their sensationalist reporting of “Fox attacks”.

**this is an actual comment the owner of the Urban fox hunters blog replied to me with.