I need to explain how I rate rescues and wildlife hospitals. This is based on 50 years of UK wildlife work and taking into consideration work from outside the UK.
A rating of 10 means that a rescue or wildlife hospital is excellent. I rated Vale Wildlife Hospital as 10. This is how it works;
- If a place puts a fox down due to 20% (RSPCA) or 30% (Secret World) mange they go down to 5.
2. If they kill a fox due to a leg injury (SW and RSPCA) that will take time to heal or because it requires an amputation they go down to 3
3. If a fox is killed (let's stop the Put To Sleep rubbish) because it is blind in one eye or has a facial wound that can be treated they go down to 2.
Amongst other rescues, I found out, know SW is the "PTS centre" (but those centres do not offer up their fox survival rates) but Alpha (I won't name it yet) seemed to be the main hope in treating foxes even though some distance from the City. But they have gone from 10 down to 2. The reason is that they adopt 2 and 3 above.
The problem is that this is such a backward and outdated way of treating foxes. A while back I wrote a long piece about three legged foxes -legs lost through a "natural" accident or because of veterinary amputation. These foxes can get around, hunt and breed and raise young so WHY kill a fox because it will have three legs? There is even footage of three legged coyote living and hunting in the wild.
When it comes to treating facial injuries in foxes we know that can be treated successfully in the wild avoiding stress to the animal. Each case is assessed properly and it is not some fuzzy headed thinking taking over. If a wound is so severe it can not be treated the fox is taken to a vet for euthanasia. Read this post:
https://foxwildcatwolverineproject.blogspot.com/2024/08/treating-infections-facial-injuries-and.html
Killing a fox as it is blind in one eye shows such a lack of knowledge of foxes that I think some vets and people running rescues need to be made to sit through a lecture on foxes. Foxes go by sense of smell as well as hearing -watch a fox sitting and it will face one direction but its ears are constantly moving and listening out for every sound.
There are so many one eyed foxes living in the wild who hunt and survive and even raised litters that the "It only has one eye it will not survive" excuse for killing it is just that. Foxes are born in the wild and they learn all the smells and ins and outs of their territory so there is no question of it not being able to survive with just one eye. Again; a fox does not primarily hunt just on sight; they primarily rely on their sense of smell to locate prey, with hearing playing a significant role as well, meaning they use a combination of senses to find food, with vision being less dominant, especially in low-light conditions.
It is a sad thing to say but there are third world countries where wildlife gets better treatment and a chance to survive because the people there know their wildlife and are aware of how they live and hunt/survive.
It is even sadder to have to say that it seems far better for a fox with a constriction wound (where it has been caught in netting etc.,) it seems better to try treating it in the wild and that increases its chance to survive. Finding a fox blind in one eye with an injury that is treatable -again it stands a better chance being treated in the wild.
It is around a 100 mile round trip to Alpha(not named yet) because we have no place closer. It takes a lot of fuel and time to get there. There is currently a Bristol fox there in an outside enclosure as its leg constriction heals, however, the vet is "concerned" over the sight in one eye (even though it was living with that before the net incident. If this fox is killed for that one eye then Alpha (not named yet) drops down to a rating of 1.
Brutal but we need to progress from this killing through ignorance.I have known so many (many many) foxes killed for no reason other than ignorance or it was an easy way out and I am now at the stage where, with the fox population really needing to be Red Listed because of their decline, that I have exhausted my patience and "being nice" -it achieves nothing. It is why I have said for many years that Bristol needs its own rescue. When I explained why we needed such a place on Bristol Naturalist Society and Bristol Nature Network FB pages the post was removed (despite some Likes) as it was "campaigning". It was not campaigning but I will admit to using the dirty words "fox" and "badger".
A quiet place with no animal hating neighbours or fireworks going off overhead that is safe and secure long term is what is needed BUT the cost of vets and meds is the big hurdle as we are talking of thousands of pounds to keep things going in just one year and there is not that kind of support in Bristol.
So if things go sour we will need to adapt to new situations and luckily Sarah Mills (the Bristol Fox Lady who works alongside the Fox Angels Foundation) is dedicated enough to give it a try but that will still need help financially .
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