I had the extreme pleasure of watching a local fox emerge from his den…while his misses tended to what I hope were a big litter of kits. For some reason, fox, and other predators, get a bad rap from a lot of people and I have to assume they are living in the past. The fox or coyote or wolf you have nearby is not the demon of legend, or some wily, dark intruder that’s set to do no good. All of these predators, we’ve come to find, are fundamentally valuable to the habitats that the reside in. In some cases, like this fox, they are almost as close as man’s best friend, apart from the domesticated canids. Fox help to keep mice and other disease carrying rodents, in check, and will do so happily, if left alone to hunt, and care for their families.
To be clear, I am not anti-hunting for sustenance. Eat it and you should legally, and ethically be able to hunt it. But predators? Sorry…I cannot support predator hunting on any kind of broad scale. For predatory animals that are killing livestock, there is certainly room for discussion…with relocation being the first option. But sport killing or trapping of fox, coyote, wolves, mountain lions, and bears…sorry, but no.
They all are simply more valuable to us alive, rather than dead.