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.
****************************************************************
Red Paper 1: Foxes, Wolves, Coyotes & Jackals in the UK
202 Pages
A4
maps, illustrations and photographs
Price: £20.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days
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.
