I have since 1976 struggled when it comes to getting any type of cooperation on the fox Study. Generally, academic institutions and, of course, the wonderfully paid zoologists have adopted the attitude of “they are just foxes” and point to the copied old dogma that has been repeated ad nauseum over the decades.
“We have no idea how foxes and badgers interact when or should they meet” is just another way of saying that they are not spending cold nights out in shared fox/badger territories to see. So “no one knows” –except that we have now got a ton of photographs and footage from fox watchers/feeders showing those interactions and there are even people who have kept records and observed for a couple of decades. They would never be consulted because they are not “drs” or “Profs” (and most of those get assistants to do the field work.
There are so many fox groups on Face Book alone that what they publish online totally smacks down the pro hunt lobby lies. I explained to everyone on these groups what my work involved, when it started and importantly over emphasised that I did not require exact street locations for my work –the protection of the foxes has been paramount and I NEVER waver on that.
There have been some good reactions but mainly off groups (where chat is more private and information can be exchanged freely). When I started trying to map the mange outbreak in Bristol in March it was going well until I was asked how to treat mange (and the photo sent CLEARLY showed mange). My suggestion that the NFWS or Fox Man mange treatments seemed to work at the outset but if advanced other meds would be required saw very hostile responses and it seemed that one comment to treat a fox with mange (simply “Shoot it”) went without a single response and even the group admin left it there. Mine was censored then removed by one group while certain names became obvious –either they were following me around to harass me or they were entrenched in wildlife and particularly fox groups for other reasons.
Every attack I have responded to politely and countered the arguments because in 45 years I have seen all types of treatments for foxes and although I was 100% against homeopathy two things changed my mind.
The first was when I had a severe sinus problem that kept returning and nothing I tried worked. My doctor at the time gave me a prescription for a homeopathic treatment and I expressed my disgust but was told it was the last option really. I put it off again and again and but tried it and told all and sundry I was going to be taking water pure and simply. In a couple of hours my sinus pain decreased. By the end of the day it had gone. Coincidence! I stopped the treatment and the problem returned with a vengeance. I then set about systematically testing the treatment and the my embarrassment found that it was effective. It really comes down to how pure or how diluted the treatment is –the same as pharmaceutical meds that can go from weak to middling to high doses.
For treating mange I had my doubts but after I saw a severely manged cub that I could not catch and a vixen dying I realised that with vets (almost a monopoly in Bristol now) being far from fox friendly I had to do something or just sit back and watch more foxes die. 1994/1995 saw the urban fox population in Bristol drop to around 6% due to the mange outbreak.
This is where the second thing that changed my mind happened. The two regular foxes I saw one evening and my mind dropped into that nauseous and panic state when I saw mange. I had to do something so I contacted the National Fox Welfare Society and was sent the mange treatment. I started to use it but in my mind I believed I was just doing this to make myself feel better about the situation and when the foxes died I could say “I tried”.
After a few weeks the mange in the foxes had not gotten worse. In fact by the end of the month the hair was growing back and at that time only a few knew about the local foxes and they were “protected” so I know that no one else was treating them. At this time we did not have feeders in the area so it looked as though the mange treatment worked and after a couple months I had two healthy looking foxes….which then decided to move on.
I then did what any researcher investigating something should do. I asked around and found people who had used the treatments and discussed the effectiveness. I then looked at the various mixes and strengths and eventually concluded that if used at the onset of mange the homeopathic treatments were effective –something stronger being needed in mange that had taken hold.
But messages on the groups anti the Foxman and NFWS meds but particularly attacking me and the one or two people who did say they found it worked silenced everyone. No more reports of mange. The intention, as explained, was to see whether we could see how mange spread with the ultimate goal of seeing if it was probable to set up an official study to distribute and pre-treat the cause of mange. Looking at area by area it seemed confident to predict that mange in the City and County could be reduced by 90% in five years. “Shoot it!”/”It’s all water!” and much more from alleged fox lovers killed that project aimed at SAVING foxes.
It does not bring in any money or sell books but I have been referred to since the 1980s as a “noted naturalist” and that is mainly because I do the work and I do not publish or say anything that I do not have references for or evidence for. From 1977 onward I was a UK police forces advisors on exotic animals and believe me the police do thoroughly check out your background before using you. For this work through the Exotic Animals Register (EAR) I later got listed as a Partner Against Wildlife Crime (PAWS) but the Department for Environment Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) which saw me as a pain in its side because of the evidence I had gathered made it clear that unless I was willing to turn over all data and locations etc gathered while a PAWS member I was out. Despite the backing of two Chief Constables and one Assistant Chief Constable DEFRA kept rejecting every form submitted (which you had to do under the new scheme) and I corrected the part where there was a ‘problem’ and another part had a ‘problem’ and this went on for six months. The word then ‘leaked’ down that I was never going to be re-listed on PAWS. In fact two Police Wildlife Crimes Officers left those jobs because of how they felt and one was promising to be as awkward as possible (“forgetful” I think he called it) when it came to sending locations of animals to DEFRA.
Now I still get contacted unofficially because no one out there has been doing this work for 40+ years (and most of my contemporaries have died) and knows the subject.
I have known very good cooperation –a police officer from Wales driving four hours to bring me evidence to look at first hand before having to drive back for four hours! And I have known official harassment and attempting to block me from finding things out.
On wild cats and other wildlife matters I have tended to have fairly good cooperation from outside the UK from museums and academics.
Then 2020/2021 saw me wanting to go further into UK foxes and their history and look at the varying physical types and the coat variations –my one aim has always been to show foxes are not “vermin” –in fact DEFRA agrees with me on this and has stated that foxes have never been officially listed as vermin and that landowners should only kill them if livestock are at risk. The other aspect of this is to get foxes protected status.
All of this is clearly and publicly known and stated and can be checked by anyone. I have never hidden anything about myself. In fact, for every “Here is a photo of the fox(es) I feed” message I end up answering a lot of questions but I see that as expanding education on foxes.
When I ask for information on a geographical area (NOT an address and when someone sends me the street/road name I tend to delete that immediately) for a fox type there is nothing that can lead anyone hostile to foxes to a person’s location. “Eastgate” is a large area. As is “BS3”, “BS16” for somewhere like the City and county of Bristol. In 45 years I have never named a person or given their location no matter what animal is involved –if they give their permission then I give a, shall we call it “very unprecise” location?
On a number of wildlife groups people have given the time (“It comes this way that time every day”) and exact locations with their badger photographs. I generally step right in and politely explain the dangers to the animal and they edit their post. Often I get a “None of your business I’ll post what I want” –same with foxes because, sadly, they are not interested in the animal just the social media “Likes” that they get.
On one fox group a general message was sent out to members to keep quiet about where their foxes were and not to give information out to anyone even persons claiming to be studying them “as their true intentions are unknown”. A friend of the admin of that group told me that she asked about this and the message was aimed at stopping people cooperating with me. Another group saw members receiving private messages (someone on one of the groups forwarded the one they received) that they MUST not cooperate with me.
Another main fox group asked me to be an admin because of my experience and responses to posts there. I politely explained that I was neck deep in research so could not be an admin at present. No response but any posts I made never made it past approval.
I am immensely grateful to all of those who have sent me information and histories of foxes in their area and how they have interacted with cats, hedgehogs and, of course, badgers. That information is included in my current workload. THANK YOU.
But there were names that kept cropping up telling people not to cooperate –people with odd FB profiles that were what was generally looked at in FB fraud cases. “I love foxes! They need protecting!” seems to get anyone on fox groups and that opens up all of the information anti fox people want. A lady in the north shows photos of her fox and some man from the SE of England with a vague profile asks “Oh that’s looks like a beauty –where do you live?” The lady in question did not respond (wisely) but I noticed the man ask the same question on another group. He could, of course, have been one of those internet creeps chatting women up online but I see this a lot.
I asked around and was told that pro hunting groups had members in most wildlife groups and especially fox and badger groups. This is why I never act insulted when asked what my work is and what it aims to do. And the individuals who tell people in open posts not to cooperate with me and that I should go off somewhere to do my research and not ask fox people to help out because “WHY do foxes need protection? Rubbish!” Well, anyone who knows foxes and says that they do not need protection is either not quite right in the head or has not got the best of intentions for foxes –the same applies to the person who jumps in to support that view.
A person claiming that he found a dead badger on the roadside when offering it for sale on a FB taxidermy group (and some of those are actually aiding and abetting in wildlife crime by buying without asking (questions) was asked, by me, which road but all he would say was that every week he passes that small stretch of the road and finds 4-5 dead badgers. He takes a photo of himself with the dead badger on the side of the road to “prove it is all above board” and that’s it. This raised so many red flags that I asked which stretch of the road as I could contact the local badger watch who could look into it. There would be no population in an area if 4-5 to 6 badgers killed by a car on the same short road every week, The result was that I was no longer a member of the taxidermy group BECAUSE I was asking questions.
Look on Ebay and you will see UK sellers offering fox skulls –“100 already sold” and “30 available” shows that these probably come from snaring people or shooters who just kill for pleasure and make money from it. When you consider there are 5-6 sellers offering up fox and badger skulls those red flags get even larger.
But foxes and badgers do not need protection…right?
Apart from lack of cooperation from fox groups I found fox rescues –all given full CVs of my work and background- to be awkward and downright obstructive and in some cases just ignored all communications. I was not asking for information that could harm foxes but suddenly the number of cub and fox rescues they claimed on Fox groups dropped. Yet they were “inundated” on fox groups. I know how cubs are released after care but even here, if I am going by what they stated online, the number released did not add up. In some cases it would mean that 60% of all “they just need TLC” foxes and cubs died while in care.
I have made it clear and always encourage people to support their local fox and wildlife rescues because they need the funding to pay vets, pat for food and much more. Why would these rescues not cooperate or say “We’ll get back to you” and never do despite reminders?
Why not cooperate when the results would show the importance of their work in saving the lives of foxes?
The only time I have experienced this before was when I contacted zoos and wildlife parks about exotics spotted locally and then the “We haven’t done anything!”/”It isn’t ours!” responses began as soon as I identified myself -they were all aware who I was so the responses were odd especially as I was phoning them about general information!
Public museums have also been quite obstructive and the constant “We are looking into your inquiry now” message repeated month after month shows that “its just foxes” is an attitude still prevalent. Some will say that just have fox masks (apart from the tail the only part of the fox left after the “break-up” by hounds) but they will check dates, etc. Months later still nothing. I was told in 2000 by the Royal Museum of Scotland that they had “a few” mounted foxes. Recently I was told they only had a few masks but “would check dates” for me. Nothing. On one recent occasion I identified an animal in a photograph for a museum!
So no UK museums have any Victorian foxes in their stores or on display despite that being the Golden Age of museum collecting? Actually, with some work by a collaborator we have made discoveries about some of these masks that are ground-breaking and prove the conclusion of work published in The Red Paper.
I have been seriously asked why I have not just packed it all in or maybe wait for the next bribe to stop my research comes in and take it? Probably because I am stupid.
With my EAR work I was offered substantial amounts for maps and information by three different newspapers but I knew full well they had paid up front for “hunters” to go to the “most promising” areas –one was a friend of someone I knew and divulged this over a pint. Confronted the newspapers admitted it but tried to persuade me that a dead leopard or puma would prove my life’s work was not a waste of time or fantasy. Well, my ‘life’s work’ was not ending then and it goes on.
With the exotics work there is the added element of persons and groups actively trying to hoax/discredit me and that raises a lot of questions.
For the same work I was threatened and even received calls telling me that “shotguns make a mess of a face” or “there might be an accidental shooting accident” if I went to a certain area to do field work and one police force told me that if I had to go to a certain place I would require an armed escort!
Threats and obstruction are very common when it comes to wildlife work and “working in wildlife is like an ongoing war where you take every victory you can between the losses” has never been truer –and now we have a government determined to withdraw protection from previously protected species.
I have been called a “noted naturalist”, a “Mammalogist” and, totally unbeknownst to me until recently, I have been called a “conservationist” and “ecological conservationist” –I can understand conservationist but the latter -?
After 45 years, giving up any form of private life, I have to admit that I have become used to the obstructions from official bodies as well as groups “pro” a certain species. It makes me dig deeper and then I find the things they don’t really want me to. But considering that this is all being done to study and find out more as well as to try to protect animals.
Who has what to hide and why ?
Therefore I may be posting less to the Face Book groups but will be there for reports of dead foxes or suspicious deaths of foxes/cubs and to try to help or answer questions but “going solo” appears to be the way to go.
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Red Paper 1: Foxes, Wolves, Coyotes & Jackals in the UK
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The Red Paper: Canids Up-dated edition includes section on sarcoptic mange in foxes and treatment plus a list of wildlife sanctuaries and rescue centres in the UK.
By the 1700s the British fox was on the verge of extinction and about to follow the bear and wolf having been hunted for sport for centuries. The answer was to import thousands of foxes per year for sport. But foxes kept dying out so jackals were tried. Some were caught, some escaped. Even wolves and coyote were released for hunting.
The summation of over 30 years research reveals the damnable lie of "pest control" hunting but also reveals the cruelty the animals were subject to and how private menageries as well as travelling shows helped provide the British and Irish countryside with some incredible events.
