Bloody urban foxes, coming in here, eating our babies…

Back at the start of June, the media was awash with the story of Isabella and Lola Koupparis, nine month old twins who were allegedly seriously injured in a fox attack. The fox gained entry in to their house via an open door on a hot summer’s night.

There followed a series of exaggerated articles describing out of control animals wandering around our neighbourhoods looking for small children to maul. People complained about the noises they make, how nasty they were, and that they shouldn’t even be there.

Daily Wail article here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284505/Baby-twins-Isabella-Lola-Koupparis-seriously-injured-fox-attack.html

Foxes are by nature shy, and wary of humans, with very good reason. It’s all about survival for them. I’ve never managed to get within 10 feet of a fox, unless it’s lying dead on a road – and there are plenty of them knocked down by cars every single day. I find the sight of a dead fox saddening when I realise there’s probably cubs waiting for a meal somewhere, and eventually starving to death. They’re beautiful, and I feel honoured if I do see one of these wild animals. The chances to see anything wild are fading fast, as we continue to cover their habitat with concrete car parks and housing estates. I find it amazing that they adapt and develop to enable them to survive in an urban setting.

But, let’s say, for argument’s sake, that this wasn’t a neighbour’s dog, – and previous ‘fox attacks have been proven to be dog attacks, when investigated – but a fox that came in to specifically target and attack two young children, inside their home, and in two seperate cots. The parents must be distraugt, of course – who wouldn’t be? I have seen people accusing them of negelect for leaving a door open – that’s not on. It’s a hot summer and people leave doors and windows open all over the world. This isn’t their fault. However, to demonise an entire species on the back on a single attack after humans and foxes have lived side by side for thousands of years is illogical at best.

Illogical, and suspiciously fishy scented, with the new coalition government having expressed a wish to overturn the Hunting Act 2004. This shouldn’t be a class issue, but unfortunately politicians ave made it so. Anti-hunt opinions are seen as left-wing and working class, while the Conservative Party are keen to appease their funders, who are, in general, upper class, well-off and far more likely to be involved in activities such as fox hunting. What better way to turn the tide of public opinion on foxes to get the bill overturned, than to use the media and demonise the fox?

Yes, it’s true that hooray-Henrys in red coats don’t generally gallop down the main shopping street in a city, so why should a fox attack in an urban area have anything to do with a hunting ban being overturned?  Well, it shouldn’t, simply. But it’s also naiive to imagine that demonising the ‘Urban Fox’ will have no bearing on the public perception of the ‘Country Fox’. It most definitely will, and already has. You only need to read the hysterical rantings of the Daily Mail readers and their comments on the story to realise that people will blindly believe anything they are told, and all rationality will go out of the window (as fast as a fox would). Hooray-Henry must be laughing his fat, red little face off.

One single supposed attack does NOT equate to foxes running rampant, attacking everything in their paths. Nor does it need a knee-jerk reaction, such as killing a fox in the area (even though they have no idea if it was the one that allegedly attacked those babies – what was the point in that?), or changing a law that has little to do with urban fox populations anyway.

In the last few days a group was set up on Facebook in response to this story and the subsequent villification of foxes:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Urban-Fox-Defenders/133367853341725

You’ll notice that it’s filled with intelligent people who are able to articulate their arguments (aside from the odd troll that’s hell bent on causing trouble – always defending fox hunting, by the way). This has attracted the attention of the saviour of the human race, the Daily Mail. Journalists have been sniffing around, trying to find out about the person who set the group up – as though a person’s background can in one swoop can undermine their opinion and those of the thousands of people who have joined the group. It will be interesting to see what stories turn up in the Daily Mail in the next few days. The BBC are about to air an episode of Panorama about the fox attack, and as ever, the DM are keen to piggyback on the story and get some more mileage out of it. Hardly surprising from a ‘news’ paper that still makes money from Princess Diana at any opportunity (or sometimes where there’s no opportunity at all) – given that she’s been dead for almost 13 years. It’s difficult not to imagine that something bigger is in the pipeline, and that the media machine is about to get into full swing. A campaign to bring back hunting is bound to be on the cards.

To anyone who fears for their kids, with foxes in the area, please take the tie to learn a little about these animals. A little knowledge goes a long way to lessening your fear and your desire to kill anything you fear. There are plenty of websites out there to inform and amaze you about the fox.

Unfortunately, foxes could find themselves targetted as the new problem in society, which must be a relief for immigrants, asylum seekers, the unemployed, single mothers, teenagers with hoods, Muslims, black people…