Fox took my full size embden female yesterday! Help!

[melissap]

Right in front of me, at 10 am, a grey fox ran out of the woods and grabbed one of my two embden girls from our pond. I am shocked and heartbroken. We knew that a fox had moved in but I had no idea he was so bold. That explains our goat kid that went missing this summer and a few chickens and ducks as well. They are in a fenced paddock at night but we've been letting them free range during the day if we are home. We have a trap set but he took the meat from it without tripping it...
Ideas???

 

[islandgirl82]

I'm sorry for all your losses!

Fox are very patient especially when they find a good food source. They'll stake out an area and wait for just the right moment to strike. They don't care if it's day or night and they won't care if you're outside either especially when they have young to feed. I had one in my front yard twice within a few days (a few years ago) while my 2 year old son was out there playing. That was it for me. I'd lost all but one hen and half my ducks and when he was brazen enough to come into the yard with my son was out there, I stopped being nice and I shot it. Your fox won't stop until (s)he's taken every last animal (s)he can from you.

No matter how you get rid of it, be cautious because something else will take it's place as resident predator sooner or later.

I grew up on a horse and sheep farm and we had Great Pyrenees (bred as livestock guardians) who watched over our sheep. Not one time did we ever lose any to predators. Dogs are a big investment but can be invaluable to livestock when they're trained properly.