Let's let nature take its course

YOUR articles describing recent attacks by urban foxes on pets were very interesting.

We have recently conducted a local poll of opinion on whether there should be an attempt to rid this area of foxes. The majority opinion was in favour of an attempt being made to rid us of foxes, but there was a strongly held minority view that foxes were attractive and harmless.

The "get rid" camp included many people who were very frightened of the foxes, those who resented the fox damage and the filth they left, and others including ourselves who have been sickened by hearing foxes attacking other wildlife in our garden and leaving us to remove the heads of blackbirds the feathers of magpies and piles of fox vomit and faeces. Where all the frogs and the hedgehogs have gone we can only guess.

The "don’t harm the wild creatures" camp forget the wildlife being killed by the foxes. They also include several owners of domestic pets, who because they fear precisely the situation you described have taken to feeding the foxes so that they will not be driven to attacking their pets.

What they refuse to understand is that well-fed foxes breed and their numbers increase, so the threat increases and numbers of starving animals increases. It is because they can find food in towns that they have moved in.

Surely the best control we have is the natural one. Let them starve. Make sure they do starve by making feeding illegal, and keep domestic pets safe.

Douglas and Hazel Sampson Morningside Park, Edinburgh