The Fox Attacks and Nature of Nature

The story of the mauling of nine month old twins Lola and Isabella Kouparis; by a fox in the bedroom of their London home, has become big news. Primarily because fox attacks on humans are rare, and secondly any attack on such small children is terrible, and invokes a "there but for the grace of god; go I" feeling in many parents. It's a story people can easily get emotionally involved. Of course the media are describing the attack in highly lurid prose. We have lots of emotive verbs like "savaging" and "mauls". How else were they going to handle it? No; - I was interested by the tone of the debate on the attacks on listening to today's Jeremy Vine show on R2. (a habit I picked up doing a repetitive clerical job.) The fox (I shall be pedantic and explain that "fox" means the red fox; Vulpes vulpes we see in UK), seemingly more than any other creature in Britain seems to elicit a very emotive response from its detractors. Fox haters seem to have a deep personal grudge against them, it is quite bizarre. Listen to a fox hunter, or someone who has lost livestock to them. They will describe them as evil, or vicious killers. Other "problem" species such as rats or mice never seem to elicit such hatred. Yeah they aren't liked, but it is accepted that they are just that way, because they are that way. Too bad for them when they have to be controlled. But the fox seems to be seen as an almost demonic, aberration of an animal. It is claimed they will kill livestock for the hell of it -regardless of their dietary needs. Gruesome tales of a whole coop of headless chickens being found, and the cute cuddly pet rabbit taken from its pen. They are the red furred Hannibal Lector of nature.

I don't know how much of this stuff is true. I know naff all about farming, and rearing livestock. Fending for myself is bad enough, let alone sheep, hens and a manky looking cow. The fox is a wild animal and a predator. It will instinctively attack small livestock, and have that blood lust. It unfortunately seems that a hazardous side effect of foxes being attracted to suburbia's waste bins full of treats, and well intentioned but IMO; slightly naive people who actually feed them (they are wild animals. Emphasis on wild.), that the more adventurous animals are losing thier innate fear of humans, and tragically in this case, went for the most vulnerable - the young.

Unlike a lot of the commentators on Vines show, I don't think that foxes are intrinsically "evil". Evil is a human concept. You can't apply human standards to wild animals. It's facile. Nor does this anthropomorphacised view of nature that seems so prevalent in this country, help in how we deal with the man made world / natural world balance. These ARE wild, carnivorous creatures. They can be dangerous. I don't support fox hunting. But I do see the need to try and keep them out the cities and towns. They aren't bushy tailed semi pets. (Perhaps on some level the dislike of them is due to their similarity to dogs. How can something so superficially like or cute; waggy tailed friends act so viciously?)