A MARKSMAN perches on the edge of a bath in a suburban home – as a flicker on
his imagery scope shows his target is approaching.
It slinks into the crosshairs of Bruce Lindsay Smith’s .22 rimfire rifle —
unaware.
Bruce tenses, there is a muffled bang and the fox drops dead.
This is the frontline of a war across Britain on an urban fox population
that has exploded in recent years to 33,000.
Tonight, Bruce, a pest controller of 37 years’ experience, has made four
kills. But he says: “There are more urban foxes around than I have ever
known. People are struggling to cope — they are wrecking gardens, strewing
rubbish everywhere and attacking pets.
“The best we can hope for is to keep numbers to a minimum and that means
culling annually or twice annually. Man’s own filthiness is to blame. Foxes
will remain as long as they have enough to eat.”
While illegal for an unlicensed member of the public to shoot a fox, there are
some 100 permit-carrying marksmen like Bruce in London and many more outside
the capital. Using the same night-vision and thermal-imagery kit as US
military, he tracks prey then kills with a single shot to the brain.
Hired by householders, businesses, schools, local authorities, hospitals and
golf clubs, his company County Pest Control takes out up to 1,500 foxes a
year.
He killed 33 foxes in one night at a golf course and 13 in two hours in a back
garden. Another job involved a fox that had holed up in a ceiling vent above
an operating theatre in a London hospital.
Bruce, 56, says: “The kindest thing is to shoot them. They don’t know you are
there, then are stone-dead. Trapping them and moving them is stressful for
the animal.”
His clients the night I joined him on a job were a couple with two kids who
had got fed up with the mayhem caused by eleven foxes colonising their
garden — and now hire Bruce for £400 annual culls.
Mark and Louise, whose names we have changed because they fear reprisals by
animal-rights groups, live near a supermarket car park which is a magnet for
foxes.
Louise says: “Every morning the garden would be littered with dirty nappies,
fox poo, carcasses, and all manner of rubbish left by the foxes. I would
spend an hour a day clearing up before I could let the dog or children go
outside.
“The foxes are aggressive and bare their teeth, and I was worried about the
diseases they carry which can be passed to dogs and humans.”
Bruce had told Mark and Louise to put out food every night for a week, so when
he arrived the foxes would be in safe range to shoot.
Louise says: “At first, I couldn’t bare the thought of taking a life. But I
know now it is right.”
Until the 1930s foxes kept to the countryside, running the gauntlet of
farmers, gamekeepers and hunters who mercilessly culled them.
But then the growth of towns and cities, with their leafy gardens and rubbish
bags full of food, offered foxes a tasty alternative home.
At first they were not welcome. Until the 1980s London authorities shot and
trapped them. But then TV wildlife shows made townies fall in love with
foxes and leave out food in the hope of glimpsing the mysterious creatures.
There are now thought to be 16 per square kilometre in London and more than
20,000 in UK towns and cities.
But they soon began upsetting urban folk. Penguins at London Zoo were killed,
car brake hoses gnawed and family pets mauled, while there were even reports
of human remains dug up at cemeteries.
Worst of all, foxes also got bolder with humans. Bloody attacks have left
victims including babies and small children scarred and maimed.
Many wildlife experts argue that the number of serious fox attacks each year
can be counted on one hand, while some 5,000 people are put in hospital by
dog bites.
John Bryant, of Humane Urban Wildlife Deterrence, says: “Fox attacks are very
rare if you consider how many children are harmed by dogs.
“And culling doesn’t work. If you shoot a family of foxes, within days they
are replaced.
“They are native animals, here to stay. The only way to get rid of them would
be introducing some sort of virus but that would not happen because of the
risk of it transferring to dogs or humans.”
RSPCA senior scientist Adam Grogan adds: “There’s a thought that foxes are
moving into our towns and cities but they’ve always been there. It is us who
have taken over their territory. Our advice is to keep areas like gaps under
sheds blocked off, plant prickly vegetation and spray repellant.”
Indeed, various fixes are offered by so-called humane “fox solution”
companies. Terry Woods, consultant at one such firm, Fox-a-gon, says: “We
use harmless sprays, water-shooters and LEDs to make a vixen think there is
a bigger predator.”
But Bruce says this just moves on the foxes, like “dumping your rubbish on
someone else’s doorstep”.
Then again, Bristol University’s Mammal Research Unit reckons at least 70 per
cent of urban foxes would need to be culled every year to reduce numbers.
I am an animal lover, squeamish about fox hunting, but seeing Bruce pick
off foxes even I admit it does not seem a bad way to go.
They die in an instant, after having enjoyed that final meal put out for them.
When we inspect them later, they are bone-thin and riddled with mange — a
result of too many living in so small an area.
As Bruce bags them up ready for incineration, he tells me he is an animal
lover and keeps a tame fox, Charlie, who he rescued as a cub.
So the battlelines are not clear.
Springwatch telly host Chris Packham says: “We should enjoy sharing our space
with foxes. It is important to have a harmonious relationship, as they are
the most exciting animals we are likely to see in the flesh in this country.”
That may be true — but perhaps there are just too many.
What the law says you can do
LEGAL fox control includes baited-cage trapping, snaring and shooting but only
with a licence from the police.
It is illegal to poison, use self-locking snares, a bow or crossbow,
explosive, other than firearm ammunition, or a live decoy.
Hunting with dogs is also outlawed. This includes deliberately using hounds to
chase foxes from gardens – but not cases where one gives chase when its
owner does not intend it.
It is also an offence to move an urban fox to a rural area.
Have your say: #FOXHUNTER
TV Ben in dog fight
TELLY host Ben Fogle rugby-tackled a fox that ran at his pet labrador.
Ben’s elderly dog Inca was set upon in central London in February 2011. He
said: “Inca and my other dogs were running out of some bushes with
what looked like a dog chasing them. But it was a fox and Inca couldn’t get
out of the way.
“The fox was very large, the size of my dogs. It started chasing Inca and I
flung myself in between the two. I rugby-tackled it and gave it a nudge, a
hard nudge. Inca was fine but I twisted my ankle.”
Cot maul horror
NINE-month-old twins were mauled in their cot after a fox sneaked into their
home, slinked up stairs and entered the girls’ nursery.
Isabella and Lola Koupparis had been sleeping when they fell prey to the beast
in Hackney, East London, in summer 2010.
Mum Pauline, 42, rushed to rescue them after hearing a cry. She said: “I
thought Isabella had a nosebleed. But I put on the light, saw the fox and it
wasn’t even scared. It looked me in the eye.
“I started screaming as I realised Lola was covered in blood.”