I have just seen a dying fox. Well, he or she was not dying in front of my eyes but she had multiple leg injuries that would make it almost impossible to survive. She looked depressed and was limping badly. She had come to my porch for a rest and some sun. It is a bit of a sun trap. I heard some scrapping noses outside and went to the door that leads to the patio porch area. She was resting on the mat out there. I wanted to feed her but as soon as I gently opened the door she limped off. She tried twice to jump the wall at the end of the garden and just made it. It must have been painful for her. She licked her paws constantly indicating that they were painful.
Urban foxes in the UK get a lot of leg and foot injuries as they travel fast, climb lots of walls and land on rough surfaces. They are also shot at and persecuted sometimes. All this happens if they survive mange which strips their fur off them. They then die of hypothermia.
I don’t want to see a fox in this condition. I don’t want to see a cat in a poor condition because I feel what they are feeling. It is this very feeling that motivates everything I do. It is the feeling that motivates all people who care about cat welfare. It is almost an act of selfishness to want to alleviate a fox or cat or dog of his or her pain and distress because it is distressing to me. I find it almost unbearable. The problem is, we can’t help.
I wanted to hold this fox and take her to a vet to put her to sleep, to be free of the struggle to survive and the pain and discomfort that goes with it at the end of her short life in the urban jungle of London because simultaneously it would rid the discomfort from me. It would be an act of desperation and defeat.
Does someone out there feel like that?
What makes it all doubly painful is that this dying fox may be the fox I cured of mange last year and who disappeared. Perhaps she has come back to a place where she knows she is safe. This is a video of her before she got mange:
The last time I saw her was when she was rolling in the grass in the sun, her mange almost cured. It is a picture in my mind that I will never forget.
Thanks for your sympathetic comment. I know of nothing and no one who can help in London. It really messes me up, the whole experience. I wish it was easier to help. We just let a animal who is injured go off to suffer and die. Is this right? It feels very wrong to me.
Poor fox. Could she perhaps be trapped like we do feral cats for TNR? to get her to a vet then they could tranquilize her and see if they can help? If she’s too horribly injured it would be better to put her down so she won’t suffer.
Is there a wildlife rehabilitator you could ask for advice?
I’ll try and help her next time but I don’t think there will be a next time. Correctly, they run away from people.
I thought about that after she went. It would be a big thing to do and I am not sure I could have captured her. If she comes back I’ll try. It’ll be dramatic because no one does that. I might get bitten and there will be some chaos but if it helps this fox, I’ll do it, if the fox doesn’t make it impossible. Foxes are very wary of humans. They just move on, disappear, when humans are around. I really want to help this fox. There are too many animals to help.
That was so sad for you Michael, seeing the injured fox but unable to help her because she’s so afraid of humans. No doubt she’s been chased away from other gardens.
It’s terrible that the authorities are wanting to kill the foxes in London, that they are using the fact that one is supposed to have got in a house and injured a baby.
Dogs often injure babies and children yet no one calls for every dog to be killed!
It’s down to parents to keep their children safe.
It’s also terrible that the government are desperate to overturn the hunting ban it took us years of campaigning to have it passed and use any excuse to blacken the name of foxes.
I hope your fox comes back soon and allows you to help her.
Michael; Knowing myself and my love of animals, I probably would have captured the fox and taken her to a vet to see if she could be saved. I would have spent the money if there was any encouragement of the fox healing. Healing to where they could actually hunt. Then, I would have taken it far out into the country where it could run free.
Animals, wild and domestic are at the mercy of humans. I believe we should all be good stewards of our wildlife. After all, it is humans who have encroached on their habitats. It is so sad when an animal wanders into ‘civilization’. I can only imagine their fear trying to survive.
Maybe, by the grace of God, your little fox will survive. Or….even come back to your place and try to heal where a kind person lives.