"We'd rather eat pigeons over fried chicken," say foxes.
Foxes have been shocked at the negative response they’ve had from residents of London.
While carrying out free pest control in gardens across the city, many foxes have had to make hasty exits, some claiming their lives have even been threatened.
According to a post by one of the victims on social media, they have faced water guns, poison, urine and even actual guns in a few cases.
Renard Foxton, from Stratford, is one of the foxes under attack. He said: “Just last week I almost got shot - they had called pest control on me. I know we’re living for free in their gardens but we don’t have a choice - where else is there to go? It’s grim to think about but I know that if they’d have been successful in topping me, another fox would have moved straight in.
“I’ve heard it’s because we eat the food out of their bin bags - but that’s only a small proportion. About 65 per cent of my diet is pigeon and rat, you know, the other pests they don’t want in their garden. We’re doing them a favour.”
Mr Foxton admitted to rummaging through bins: “I mean…we do supplement with bin treats, like anyone. The lack of opposable thumbs makes it hard to find grub without spreading it everywhere too so I’m sorry about that but…you don’t shoot people for making a mess of a cheeseburger do you?”
Sebastian Balcombe, an angry local resident who read a Daily Mail article on foxes once, said: “These foxes are causing nothing but trouble. We need to eradicate them from the city, they belong in the countryside. It ain’t just the bins I’m concerned about either - every week there’s news of another attack on a baby.”
Since 2010, there have been no more than ten reported incidents of a fox attack.
Mr Foxton defended fox-kind saying: “Hey, no-one’s talking about man’s best friend here are they? They hospitalised over 7000 people in 2014, you’re all just prejudiced.”
Nathan Williams, mammologist and fox expert from the University of Bristol, said: “I suggest buying a proper bin if you don’t want rubbish strewn across your lawn and lock your bunnies up - they’re not great at identifying lagomorphs from rodents and will assume they’re doing you a favour.
“People need to be more considerate. We’ve always shared our habitat with other beings, a city is not an exclusively human zone.”
