Killing Foxes - DIY

[ButtonquailGirl14]

So those of us who have had chickens killed by fox are to lazy huh, its so nice of you to judge! I suggest you save the the please, please, please BS and realize there just may be good reasons.
Most people aren't going to kill the fox without having tried to exhaust all other options including as myself and sometimes there is only one option left.
Fox aren't always lovely cute fury little creatures. Sometimes they are diseased and sometimes they are pushed to the point that they feel they need to take the risk to get a meal or even release that natural instinct to just run its prey down for no reason.
I myself had done everything I could to protect my flock but that doesn't much matter when out of desperation a fox decides to attack and kill five chickens in broad daylight one a Sunday morning. I wasn't home at the time but my daughter was and she wound up face to face with that fox because she did what was a natural thing for her and that was to try to save the chickens. Now this fox had been around many other times besides this day but it was always at night when the birds were locked up so this attack was a act of desperation that would be repeated. My daughter chased the fox off once but when I returned home my daughter was still outside and the fox sitting in the drive leading back to my neighbors old farm. I went to chase the fox away again and I was literally within fifteen feet of it before it slowly retreated. I watched it go off into the woods and just when I thought it was gone it was back within ten minutes and didn't sat down and stared at me, it didn't care. In PA if an animal is killing your livestock you have full rights to kill that attacking animal and after contacting the State and getting an answer that they basically won't help I took it into my own hands so I wouldn't have any more losses. So sometimes there are no other options to take and when it becomes your turn in having your chickens slaughtered, I hope that you just stand there and watch because God forbid something more drastic be required.

Sorry, i only meant that sometimes there are other options and to look into those before killing. i wasn't stating that everyone who has killed a fox was lazy. sorry it came out the wrong way.

 

[Howard E]

Years ago, I learned about the futility of trying to kill my way out of a problem animal issue. I thought I was making a pretty good dent in the local starling population. I could easily whack several hundred over the course of month. Then one day I happened to drive past the area where all these starlings were roosting at night and observed numbers maybe exceeding a million or more. It suddenly dawned on me there wasn't that much lead on the planet to kill them all. I wasn't making any dent in anything. I hadn't even scratched the surface.

The same thing exists in the predator threat most of us face daily. If one animal is causing us problems, we might be able to take him out, but that is only a short term solution until one of his cousins steps in to take his place. So in this constant battle to save birds, you may win, lose or fight to a draw. But the threat never goes away. Short term solutions don't solve long term problems.

I'm a big advocate of electric fences, as those have allowed me the option of not having to accept losses and whack animals. An electric fence is very much like the goats blood Moses and his cohorts placed over their doors.......and signaled death to pass them by.

For me, the battle was over before it began. I use the same strategy Judge Roy Bean gave Bad Bob. I never give them a chance. It is my intent that they lose every single time they try. That is my long term solution.

Having said that, in the event you do have a problem animal, sometimes there is a need to step in and stop the carnage. Rid yourself of that short term threat from one single problem animal until you have the time, funds and knowledge of how to do better to protect the birds in the future. In short, develop your long term solution. Ultimately we should all start out there, but some don't realize how good some predators are at getting past our defenses. We learn the hard way and our birds are the ones paying the price. For some, you have to evolve and learn and it may take time to get there.