Myths at heart of city hysteria

If foxes are killing blackbirds, they would certainly eat the heads, not leave them behind. And while foxes may kill a few frogs, they cannot kill healthy hedgehogs - only badgers are strong enough to penetrate the prickly defences of a hedgehog.

The foxes will certainly be killing rats, so perhaps if some of Edinburgh’s residents get their way and foxes are killed, an explosion in the rat population would be a just reward for their cruelty - and it would serve them right.

Mr and Mrs Sampson claim they have been "sickened" by hearing - hearing, mind you - foxes killing wildlife.

This is absolutely typical of the kind of incorrect assumption some people make, as what they are almost certainly actually hearing is the high pitched shrieking that young foxes make as they indulge in boisterous play together.

I happen to know this happens as I have a wildlife sanctuary which takes in many orphaned fox cubs every year.

I know how these animals behave, and it bears no resemblance to much of what I have been reading in the Evening News. If, as Mr and Mrs Sampson claim in their letter, people are frightened of foxes, then I’m afraid they had better stay at home and never venture outside, for they may encounter such terrifying things as cats and bicycles, and perhaps they will want them wiped out as well.

In these days of cyberspace, letters in the Edinburgh Evening News are read far beyond the confines of the city of Edinburgh.

The reported hatred and hysteria against urban foxes is doing a great job in deterring tourists from visiting your city - not because they want to avoid the foxes, but because they really don’t like the sound of some of the human population whose views are currently being aired in your newspaper.

But few would hope that the foxes starve to death, as do Mr and Mrs Sampson.

Penny Little, founder Little Foxes Wildlife Sanctuary Great Haseley, Oxfordshire