RSPCA Friends of West Hatch Newsletter Summer 2018 | issue 14 | Page 10

Getting foxy: a controversial topic
by Jo Schmidt
Love them or hate them, foxes are part of
our British wildlife. We do rehabilitate and
release adult foxes, being careful to only put
back, where possible, as near to the location
they were found, whether an urban or rural
environment. Sometimes a fortunate cub
can be reunited with its family.
Each year we get a number of less fortunate
fox cubs come into the wildlife centre,
sometimes unweaned, that have for various
reasons become separated from their
mothers. She may have been moving them
from one den to another and if disturbed
and fearing for her own safety she may drop
a cub. She will wait for an opportunity to
retrieve it but unfortunately there are times
a human finds the cub first. Occasionally
cubs will leave the safety of a den if mum
does not return, maybe a road casualty, and
driven by hunger they will come out during
the day waiting expectantly for her return.
Concerned members of the public will
inform us allowing action to be taken.
When a fox cub arrives at the centre it is
assessed to make sure it has no injuries or
carrying disease. Occasionally it is necessary
to hand rear an unweaned cub for a while
and teach it to feed for itself. When cubs can
do this and deemed fit and healthy by our
vet they can be mixed with others of
a similar age in groups of no more than
six cubs.
They spend the first twelve to sixteen weeks
of their lives at the centre. In this time being
routinely assessed, treated for parasites as a
domestic dog would be and microchipped
for post release monitoring. We try to be
discreet in our contact with them during
this time, especially to clean their pens
and feed them. We want them to be wary
of humans.
We have a number of supportive land-
owners who are happy to ‘host’ a fox pen
for a few weeks. Once the pen has been built
and the young foxes are ready to leave the
centre they will spend about four weeks
in the closed pen, getting used to their
environment. When the pen is opened the
foxes are free to go but food is still offered
each day within the pen for as long as
necessary. We carefully time this to coincide
with the natural dispersal of cubs from
their mum.
So why rear fox cubs for release? Being an
animal welfare charity we would refrain
from euthanasing a healthy animal that can
be legally and ethically released. Regardless
of being a rare or protected species like
some animals, foxes are part of our British
wildlife and have their role to play so we
give them that second chance.