‘This fox had ripped the head off our cat'

Janet Richardson has seen how bloodthirsty the urban fox can be. And
she wants it hunted down
By Newsdesk

PETS being torn limb from limb and fears a baby could be savaged next
have led residents to call for hunting on the borough's streets.

Janet Richardson says urban foxes are running out of control and must
be destroyed, whatever it takes.

Hungry vixens in The Mead, Beckenham, have been known to leap through
open windows to steal kitchen scraps and, when confronted, snarl and
snap angrily at anyone who dares tackle them.

Mrs Richardson's patience with the sly intruders finally snapped when
one of them quite literally ripped apart the family pet, a ginger tom
called Anu.

She said: "My nine-year-old son Samuel came home to the most
distressing and grisly scene. A fox had torn the head off our cat.
There was blood everywhere. It was like a massacre.

"For a youngster to have to face this is appalling. Within one week
three cats have been butchered by foxes, their heads torn off and
various body parts left strewn about the place. These foxes have
learnt to hunt in packs to corner cats, they're acting like wolves in
the wild." Mrs Richardson, 43, says they are breeding out of control
and all efforts to control them have failed but claims Bromley Council
has washed its hands of the problem and refuses to get involved.

The research director at the School of Integrated Health, University
of Westminster, has written to Jacqui Lait MP pleading with her to
bring the problem to the attention of Parliament.

In her letter she said: "My nine-year-old son found our pet headless
and torn apart by the foxes. I am sure you can imagine how distressing
this was.

"As the foxes increase, and competition for food becomes harder, it
can only be a matter of time before this happens to a small child.

"The council claims it is unable to treat foxes as pests and,
therefore, does not provide a removal service. Is this due to
government policy or is it simply that they have no statutory
obligation to treat foxes as pests, so choose not to deal with the
problem?" Mrs Richardson says 10 years ago you would only see an odd
fox in Beckenham but last year a local pair had seven cubs and this
year they have produced another six.

"There doesn't seem to be any answer to keeping their numbers down and
if hunting them with hounds was practical, I would certainly consider
it." A spokesman for Bromley Council's environmental health department
confirmed it does not consider foxes to be pests and its officers do
not deal with them.

The only advice it could offer was to put down rags soaked in Jeyes
Fluid.

If residents still have problems the council recommends they contact
A1 Pest Control, in Dartford.

Peter Roberts from A1 insists "foxes are on the vermin list and need
to be controlled".

His suggested methods include, trapping, shooting, poisoning, gassing
or hunting with lurcher dogs.

Anne Holmes from the League Against Cruel Sports said: "This is a new
one on me but it fits very nicely with the pro-hunting lobby's efforts
to vilify the fox in towns and the country.

"There is no reason to believe incidents are happening often enough,
or are severe enough, to suggest foxes are a real threat.

"We could well be seeing the latest publicity stunt from the
pro-hunting lobby who just want to find ways to justify their cruel
and barbaric sport. I doubt we'll see hounds racing across
Blackheath." Trevor Williams from the Fox Project, a charity dedicated
to the protection, rescue, and advocacy for the wild fox in south east
England, said: "It will cause traffic chaos. It's bad enough in the
country but in town it will be crazy.

"They trespass enough in the countryside, so in an urban area it will
be worse. They will be breaking the law every 100 yards.

"I reckon the hounds will end up killing more cats than they will
foxes."