Why shoot the foxes?

New Avon Arms
I wouldn’t pay to shoot anything now, I used to pay to be in a pheasant shoot but that gave me the opportunity to take over the running of it and I now use that position to offer shooting to others which gets me invites to shoot in different places 👍
 
I can't understand why people can't understand other people's sporting interests. Driven shooting is often done by groups of friends and it's the socialising that is the thing. Yes, shooting the odd pheasant is part of it, but there's a fair few times I've been "shooting pheasants" and actually not shot any and have enjoyed my day. Which is why beaters and pickers up do it as well. You might or might not like it for yourself, but it's not too difficult to understand really.
 
AlexD said:
Of course, if you keep chickens or pheasants, you need to eliminate foxes.

However, on arable farmland where I manage the wildlife, we had got to the point where there is a beautiful harmony with rabbits and mice kept down to numbers that do minimal crop damage because there is a rich array of predators: stoats, foxes, both barn and tawny owls, as well as buzzards and other birds of prey. Deer numbers have been brought down low enough that the trees surrounding the fields and the plants in the margins are their food, rather than the crop, whilst still giving new deer each year for the freezer. The bucks are all great, as the rifle does the genetic selection. It has become a wild life reserve, where the crop is untouched and all the mammals we have in the UK are in a harmonic balance: nature at its best.
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Fascinating. There is a study showing that killing foxes can increase the population as there is more food for those left. Looks like you have got to a nice balance
 
As the apex predator and, well, apex everything, it's up to us really if we want to keep a good balance. I've shot the odd fox myself where they have been threats to my endeavours. But to say that you should shoot them to within an inch of extinction (not that that is possible really) is counter-productive. Left to their own devices, the fox population will reflect the abundance or otherwise of their food source. So if they eat too many little critters, then there won't be enough critters to sustain the fox population. So the critters then recover, which means the fox population can reco.....and so it goes on. It'll balance itself out. Really in practice the only fly in the ointment is when old Homo Sapiens come along and fills the countryside with chickens, pheasants and other tasty takeaways. Then you need to lend a hand to keep nature on an even keel.
 
Pedro said:
As the apex predator and, well, apex everything, it's up to us really if we want to keep a good balance. I've shot the odd fox myself where they have been threats to my endeavours. But to say that you should shoot them to within an inch of extinction (not that that is possible really) is counter-productive. Left to their own devices, the fox population will reflect the abundance or otherwise of their food source. So if they eat too many little critters, then there won't be enough critters to sustain the fox population. So the critters then recover, which means the fox population can reco.....and so it goes on. It'll balance itself out. Really in practice the only fly in the ointment is when old Homo Sapiens come along and fills the countryside with chickens, pheasants and other tasty takeaways. Then you need to lend a hand to keep nature on an even keel.
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If you are not going to shoot every fox you see on your property / permission / land you protect - then simply dont shoot any

You are either shooting for conservation or not would be my argument
 
Nickb said:
I suppose it depends on your favourite sport and access to it.
I cant understand why people pay to shoot driven pheasant 👍
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Yeah neither can i on the driven pheasant thing. There are still farmers that want to pay for fox control and such ! Why ? because they want folks who will make the time come and get it proper and sorted. Heck back when i was a teenage apprentice i regular made more shooting and such than i did in my PAYE job.
Shooting an estate in Scotland with a mate only a couple of years back , the farm paid £50 a dead fox , all the guy wanted was its location and nobody had to walk up to where one lay ( presumably because he didn't want to pay for other folks dead foxes , just his own )
 
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Buchan said:
Fascinating. There is a study showing that killing foxes can increase the population as there is more food for those left. Looks like you have got to a nice balance
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What study ? - i dont see it - because anyone that culls foxes - well culls foxes
 
Bo Diddley said:
It must be someone very local, and probably a neighbour, I couldn't see someone so desperate to shoot a fox that they would risk the fac being revoked if caught... that is unless it's someone with an old .22lr off ticket and they don't give a monkeys.
Set some trail cameras up if it's a regular Saturday night occurrence.. I'm sure you may have an idea who it could be.
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I think that is the best route, more trail cams that send the images to one's phone, to remove the false alarms from walkers, deer, dogs on the loose before heading over there.
 
Two bits of anecdotal evidence.

I know a gent who took over a small holding about 25yrs ago.
Only one or two hares in the area.
That first year he took out 39 foxes in his 5acre field.
Scroll forward to today.
Last time I spoke to him he’d seen about 12-14 hares and only shoots about 18 foxes. The majority of which seem to be coming in from the nearby housing estates.

I also know an area on the edge of the Southern Uplands.
The ground was shot over and had a variety of wildlife, nesting birds and hares.
The shooting stopped and the foxes and badgers moved in.
Now the area is silent, there are no ground nesting birds or ground game nd the foxes and badgers having completed their business moved on.☹️
 
It's obvious to anyone who has spent their lives in the countryside why foxes need to be managed, indeed all the apex predators need managing, but we cannot do so.
Just like @LuckyEddie said, the Brown Hare is an easy example, keep fox numbers low and the hares thrive, I have witnessed exactly the same thing in the meadow at the bottom of my garden, I hammered the foxes and now the hares are abundant again.
You only have to look at an earth in the spring that has cubs present to see what killing machines foxes are, it will be littered with all manner of critters, both wild and domestic, with carcasses strewn everywhere.
As soon as mankind put a plough through the soil we have been moulding nature.
 
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