>#Meet the urban foxhunters: ‘I don’t feel any remorse’
>__Fox populations are on the rise in British cities. Are they really such a menace? Josh Glancy investigates__
>Josh Glancy
>Saturday December 17 2022, 6.00pm GMT, The Sunday Times
>Watching the assassination of a fox is a strange and surprisingly painful experience. Strange because I’m sitting in the upstairs bedroom of a charming semi-detached house in Putney, southwest London, lights off, speaking in whispers. Next to me is Bruce Lindsay-Smith, possibly Britain’s pre-eminent fox killer. We’re exchanging pleasantries over a steaming cup of coffee and complaining about London traffic. In fact, this might be the most bourgeois fox execution since the kimono-wearing barrister Jolyon Maugham brained one with a baseball bat on Boxing Day in 2019.
>The back garden is chummed for action. Over the previous four nights the house’s owners have been putting dog food out on the lawn. The skulk of foxes that are active in the area have been feasting at their leisure. On this night, however, nemesis awaits.
>Our stakeout is relaxed at first. Lindsay-Smith, a burly, affable 63-year-old man, shows me his gear. He has a long .22 rimfire rifle with a silencing mechanism. This fires segmenting subsonic hollow-point bullets that separate into three core parts on impact, resulting in “maximum energy transfer”. He also has a selection of infrared and thermal telescopic sights, which he says have been a “game-changer”. I feel as if I’m on SAS Rogue Heroes.
After about an hour, Bruce spots a fox in the thermal sight. The atmosphere tightens. We watch it poking about in the hedgerow.
>Eventually it emerges and Bruce reaches for his rimfire. The fox senses the movement and looks up, catching my eye. Much like their cousin the dog, foxes will often make direct eye contact with humans. Some find this impertinent but at this moment, knowing the fox’s life is about to end, I feel a chest-tightening sadness.
>Anxious that the fox has detected our presence, Bruce takes his shot. A fox’s brain is only the size of a fist but Bruce’s aim is perfect: he’s been at this 43 years and shooting since he was a child, when he tagged along on rabbit hunts with his dad. The fox doesn’t even get a last meal, instead crumpling into a heap on the lawn, its legs wiggling for a split second. Then stillness.
>“He’s dead then?” I inquire, mostly just to break the silence. “He’s dead all right,” Lindsay-Smith says.
>This is all perfectly legal. I mention this because most people I tell about it are surprised. Lindsay-Smith has an open firearm certificate, which means he can shoot where he sees fit. He’s done a safety assessment and informed the local police of his presence, in case anyone is alarmed by the sniper rifle poking out of an upstairs window.
>In fact, not only is it legal but as most local councils no longer have the resources or energy to deal with foxes, Lindsay-Smith is busier than ever. He reckons he’s only had about ten nights off in the past two years. He averages about four or five kills per job.
>The red fox sauntering along a city street has become an image of our age: they are everywhere. There are no hard statistics for fox populations in Britain, but Lindsay-Smith’s heavy workload tells its own story. What numbers we do know back this up. A study in 2017 by Brighton and Reading universities put the current number of urban foxes at close to 150,000, with the highest density in Bournemouth, followed by London. Other cities in the world also have large fox populations — Melbourne, for example, or Warsaw — but Britain appears to be a leader in the field. No one is certain why — it may relate to our long tradition of keeping foxes for hunting.
>The fox is considered native to Britain and reappeared here after the last Ice Age, about 15,000 years ago. The population was then expanded by the Normans, who imported foxes to feed their passion for the hunt. But it wasn’t until the 1930s that foxes were reported in British cities, a product of our suburban sprawl.
Britain’s overall fox population has actually dropped considerably in recent decades due to a fall in rural numbers, probably down to a decline in prey and more of them being shot. So the urban tilt of the population continues to grow. According to the Newcastle University study, 65 British cities that didn’t have foxes in 1995 now do. “There are more than ever,” Lindsay-Smith says. “I would say they’ve gone up and up in the towns.”
>Many city dwellers are becoming fed up with their furry-tailed neighbours. They maraud through cat flaps, eat dog food and defecate all over the garden. They fornicate loudly in the bushes, shriek at each other across the hedgerows and urinate on the patio. They dig holes and make homes under sheds, defying our demands for total control over the built environment. They have also become increasingly relaxed around humans and can often be seen strutting carefree through city streets, as demonstrated by the recent viral contretemps between Larry the Downing Street cat and an urban fox.
What the actual fuck is this? People fucking “hunting” foxes by luring them in with food to their gardens and then shooting them? This country just can’t help stooping ever lower can it?
> but it does sadden me to think that we can’t accept even a hint of wildness in our cosseted urban lives.
Seriously. Foxes are great. [This family spent many happy evenings in safety in our back garden](https://imgur.com/B1mLcKl.jpg) and without causing any fuss at all (besides enjoying spam and anti-mange treatments).
I don’t really want to read this in all honesty as these kind of folk are the real vermin here.
As soon as I read urban foxhunters, I already knew it was going to be the dreggs of society who have nothing better to do than lure an already desperate animal and kill it, in order, to probably get likes on an app.
They’re essentially a few rungs lower than them big game hunters who pretend to be “hunters” by paying, what is essentially a wild zoo, to shoot one of their animals.
Foxes are fucking horrid little creatures when desperate and if they have pups. I get why they are seen as vermin.
But anyone who does this, or even Tory fox-hunting peers (who, let’s face it, go do it in private farms in Scotland or Wales behind closed doors), are only using the vermin argument as an excuse for their actions.
The reality is, is that they just want to look hard in front of their mates (or in this case, SocMed followers).
I only fear that this will now become a fad, and in this case, as we can only really get our hands on air or gas powered rifles with what, 0.22 calibre (is that right?), they can’t even call themselves foxhunters as a 0.22 would probably only kill a fox with a direct shot to a fleshy part of the skull. That ain’t gonna happen every time.
I could be wrong here, they may use other methods as I really can’t be bothered to read this pap.
There’s one that chills near my old student flats…. Never hurt anyone, and actually doesn’t hurt the cat that chills there either
Just so weirdly nasty
“Meet the complete wastes of their own fathers ejaculate”
Fixed it for you.
I think these people are cunts.
But urban foxes munch cats and shit everywhere.
The Fox Project, which is mentioned in the article, has a very [useful webpage](https://foxproject.org.uk/deterrence/) on humane deterrence for foxes. There really is no need to kill them as deterrence is often cheaper and longer lasting.
The one Jo Maugham project r/unitedkingdom can’t bring themselves to support.
There are probably more foxes than people on my road in South London. I’ve even started recognising individual ones. If foxes were a genuine nuisance, I would know about it. They’re not. At all. Leave them alone.
Simply put they are fucking cunts!,I hate how this country is turning into the shit hole it is
People who shoot animals for fun are kind of fucked in the head but it doesn’t dissuade from the fact the government should be instituting mass culls of foxes and deer. Since wolves were eradicated in the UK these two populations have been out of control and overpopulation is going to push them to interact and be aggressive towards humans.
I don’t care if I get downvoted to oblivion, their population, especially in London, has skyrocketed and it won’t sound too out of place to bring whatever those numbers may be, down a little bit.
The only possible way this nation will finally decide to reduce their population is once they start to introduce disease amongst our local ecosystems.
Not advocating for full extinction.
He looks exactly like I expected he would after checking him on Facebook.
Fat, bald, ugly. Probably says “he’s just saying what we’re all thinking” when some right -wing mouth breather like that actor, I’ve forgot his name, spouts something slightly racist.
How scummy of a human do you have to be to do shit like this? Don’t urban foxes have a really low life expectancy as well? How about you let the cute animals enjoy what little time they have in peace…assholes man.
We are happy to feed our local foxes, they live near a small river nearby, yeah they screech a bit some nights but no worse than some pissed up people, as for killing cats, we often seen our foxes waiting patiently for the local cats, to finish eating their fill of the food we put out for them, before they can eat…
It’s one thing to kill an animal for being a pest. But these “Foxhunters” clearly just want an excuse for torturing animals to death.
We have a fox that lives in our garden during the day. My 19mo son loves seeing it in the morning. Of course, this fox has had our food waste caddy out a couple of times in the past, but with a new placement, it doesn’t happen anymore, and if this fox is my son’s gateway into appreciating nature and building empathy for living creatures, then sign me up for letting him (the fox) be!
“I don’t feel any remorse” that’s a psychopath, that guy will be a serial killer in a couple years
Our country is devoid of wildlife and we are doing our best to destroy whatever is left.
Foxes are beautiful animals.
There wouldn’t be half as many urban foxes if folk weren’t scruffy bastards and picked up after themselves. Same for feeding them.
Occasionally the neighbours cat will sit on a wall and hiss at it, the fox doesn’t even react. Only thing that gets it to move is when I turn the lawnmower on.
These people are literal scum. I wish I knew where they lived…
This guy will get tired of foxes and move onto people…
‘I don’t feel any remorse ‘
I doubt anybody does after killing animals.
[removed]
>Katie, 31, from Hackney, made the mistake of getting a cat flap installed last year, but opted not to splurge an extra £350 on a microchip-activated flap. “Huge error,” she says.
What the hell?
Microchip flaps are about £50, if that for a standard one.
Who the fuck is spending £350 on a cat flap?
What an absolutely pointless endeavour. Are they getting paid from the council? Do they do this for “sport”? Or worse yet, fun?!
I’m not paying to read this and find out the answers. So I’ll assume it’s because they are just giants douchebags.
Absolutely disgusting, what vile human beings. Fox numbers might be on the increase, but so too are humans… Maybe we should lure all the scumbags like this somewhere with the promise of money/food) iPhones, then exterminate them all.
29 comments
>SPECIAL REPORT
>#Meet the urban foxhunters: ‘I don’t feel any remorse’
>__Fox populations are on the rise in British cities. Are they really such a menace? Josh Glancy investigates__
>Josh Glancy
>Saturday December 17 2022, 6.00pm GMT, The Sunday Times
>Watching the assassination of a fox is a strange and surprisingly painful experience. Strange because I’m sitting in the upstairs bedroom of a charming semi-detached house in Putney, southwest London, lights off, speaking in whispers. Next to me is Bruce Lindsay-Smith, possibly Britain’s pre-eminent fox killer. We’re exchanging pleasantries over a steaming cup of coffee and complaining about London traffic. In fact, this might be the most bourgeois fox execution since the kimono-wearing barrister Jolyon Maugham brained one with a baseball bat on Boxing Day in 2019.
>The back garden is chummed for action. Over the previous four nights the house’s owners have been putting dog food out on the lawn. The skulk of foxes that are active in the area have been feasting at their leisure. On this night, however, nemesis awaits.
>Our stakeout is relaxed at first. Lindsay-Smith, a burly, affable 63-year-old man, shows me his gear. He has a long .22 rimfire rifle with a silencing mechanism. This fires segmenting subsonic hollow-point bullets that separate into three core parts on impact, resulting in “maximum energy transfer”. He also has a selection of infrared and thermal telescopic sights, which he says have been a “game-changer”. I feel as if I’m on SAS Rogue Heroes.
After about an hour, Bruce spots a fox in the thermal sight. The atmosphere tightens. We watch it poking about in the hedgerow.
>Eventually it emerges and Bruce reaches for his rimfire. The fox senses the movement and looks up, catching my eye. Much like their cousin the dog, foxes will often make direct eye contact with humans. Some find this impertinent but at this moment, knowing the fox’s life is about to end, I feel a chest-tightening sadness.
>Anxious that the fox has detected our presence, Bruce takes his shot. A fox’s brain is only the size of a fist but Bruce’s aim is perfect: he’s been at this 43 years and shooting since he was a child, when he tagged along on rabbit hunts with his dad. The fox doesn’t even get a last meal, instead crumpling into a heap on the lawn, its legs wiggling for a split second. Then stillness.
>“He’s dead then?” I inquire, mostly just to break the silence. “He’s dead all right,” Lindsay-Smith says.
>This is all perfectly legal. I mention this because most people I tell about it are surprised. Lindsay-Smith has an open firearm certificate, which means he can shoot where he sees fit. He’s done a safety assessment and informed the local police of his presence, in case anyone is alarmed by the sniper rifle poking out of an upstairs window.
>In fact, not only is it legal but as most local councils no longer have the resources or energy to deal with foxes, Lindsay-Smith is busier than ever. He reckons he’s only had about ten nights off in the past two years. He averages about four or five kills per job.
>The red fox sauntering along a city street has become an image of our age: they are everywhere. There are no hard statistics for fox populations in Britain, but Lindsay-Smith’s heavy workload tells its own story. What numbers we do know back this up. A study in 2017 by Brighton and Reading universities put the current number of urban foxes at close to 150,000, with the highest density in Bournemouth, followed by London. Other cities in the world also have large fox populations — Melbourne, for example, or Warsaw — but Britain appears to be a leader in the field. No one is certain why — it may relate to our long tradition of keeping foxes for hunting.
>The fox is considered native to Britain and reappeared here after the last Ice Age, about 15,000 years ago. The population was then expanded by the Normans, who imported foxes to feed their passion for the hunt. But it wasn’t until the 1930s that foxes were reported in British cities, a product of our suburban sprawl.
Britain’s overall fox population has actually dropped considerably in recent decades due to a fall in rural numbers, probably down to a decline in prey and more of them being shot. So the urban tilt of the population continues to grow. According to the Newcastle University study, 65 British cities that didn’t have foxes in 1995 now do. “There are more than ever,” Lindsay-Smith says. “I would say they’ve gone up and up in the towns.”
>Many city dwellers are becoming fed up with their furry-tailed neighbours. They maraud through cat flaps, eat dog food and defecate all over the garden. They fornicate loudly in the bushes, shriek at each other across the hedgerows and urinate on the patio. They dig holes and make homes under sheds, defying our demands for total control over the built environment. They have also become increasingly relaxed around humans and can often be seen strutting carefree through city streets, as demonstrated by the recent viral contretemps between Larry the Downing Street cat and an urban fox.
What the actual fuck is this? People fucking “hunting” foxes by luring them in with food to their gardens and then shooting them? This country just can’t help stooping ever lower can it?
> but it does sadden me to think that we can’t accept even a hint of wildness in our cosseted urban lives.
Seriously. Foxes are great. [This family spent many happy evenings in safety in our back garden](https://imgur.com/B1mLcKl.jpg) and without causing any fuss at all (besides enjoying spam and anti-mange treatments).
I don’t really want to read this in all honesty as these kind of folk are the real vermin here.
As soon as I read urban foxhunters, I already knew it was going to be the dreggs of society who have nothing better to do than lure an already desperate animal and kill it, in order, to probably get likes on an app.
They’re essentially a few rungs lower than them big game hunters who pretend to be “hunters” by paying, what is essentially a wild zoo, to shoot one of their animals.
Foxes are fucking horrid little creatures when desperate and if they have pups. I get why they are seen as vermin.
But anyone who does this, or even Tory fox-hunting peers (who, let’s face it, go do it in private farms in Scotland or Wales behind closed doors), are only using the vermin argument as an excuse for their actions.
The reality is, is that they just want to look hard in front of their mates (or in this case, SocMed followers).
I only fear that this will now become a fad, and in this case, as we can only really get our hands on air or gas powered rifles with what, 0.22 calibre (is that right?), they can’t even call themselves foxhunters as a 0.22 would probably only kill a fox with a direct shot to a fleshy part of the skull. That ain’t gonna happen every time.
I could be wrong here, they may use other methods as I really can’t be bothered to read this pap.
There’s one that chills near my old student flats…. Never hurt anyone, and actually doesn’t hurt the cat that chills there either
Just so weirdly nasty
“Meet the complete wastes of their own fathers ejaculate”
Fixed it for you.
I think these people are cunts.
But urban foxes munch cats and shit everywhere.
The Fox Project, which is mentioned in the article, has a very [useful webpage](https://foxproject.org.uk/deterrence/) on humane deterrence for foxes. There really is no need to kill them as deterrence is often cheaper and longer lasting.
The one Jo Maugham project r/unitedkingdom can’t bring themselves to support.
There are probably more foxes than people on my road in South London. I’ve even started recognising individual ones. If foxes were a genuine nuisance, I would know about it. They’re not. At all. Leave them alone.
Simply put they are fucking cunts!,I hate how this country is turning into the shit hole it is
People who shoot animals for fun are kind of fucked in the head but it doesn’t dissuade from the fact the government should be instituting mass culls of foxes and deer. Since wolves were eradicated in the UK these two populations have been out of control and overpopulation is going to push them to interact and be aggressive towards humans.
I don’t care if I get downvoted to oblivion, their population, especially in London, has skyrocketed and it won’t sound too out of place to bring whatever those numbers may be, down a little bit.
The only possible way this nation will finally decide to reduce their population is once they start to introduce disease amongst our local ecosystems.
Not advocating for full extinction.
He looks exactly like I expected he would after checking him on Facebook.
Fat, bald, ugly. Probably says “he’s just saying what we’re all thinking” when some right -wing mouth breather like that actor, I’ve forgot his name, spouts something slightly racist.
How scummy of a human do you have to be to do shit like this? Don’t urban foxes have a really low life expectancy as well? How about you let the cute animals enjoy what little time they have in peace…assholes man.
We are happy to feed our local foxes, they live near a small river nearby, yeah they screech a bit some nights but no worse than some pissed up people, as for killing cats, we often seen our foxes waiting patiently for the local cats, to finish eating their fill of the food we put out for them, before they can eat…
It’s one thing to kill an animal for being a pest. But these “Foxhunters” clearly just want an excuse for torturing animals to death.
We have a fox that lives in our garden during the day. My 19mo son loves seeing it in the morning. Of course, this fox has had our food waste caddy out a couple of times in the past, but with a new placement, it doesn’t happen anymore, and if this fox is my son’s gateway into appreciating nature and building empathy for living creatures, then sign me up for letting him (the fox) be!
“I don’t feel any remorse” that’s a psychopath, that guy will be a serial killer in a couple years
Our country is devoid of wildlife and we are doing our best to destroy whatever is left.
Foxes are beautiful animals.
There wouldn’t be half as many urban foxes if folk weren’t scruffy bastards and picked up after themselves. Same for feeding them.
[my local dude](https://i.imgur.com/m5RRiat.jpg)
Occasionally the neighbours cat will sit on a wall and hiss at it, the fox doesn’t even react. Only thing that gets it to move is when I turn the lawnmower on.
These people are literal scum. I wish I knew where they lived…
This guy will get tired of foxes and move onto people…
‘I don’t feel any remorse ‘
I doubt anybody does after killing animals.
[removed]
>Katie, 31, from Hackney, made the mistake of getting a cat flap installed last year, but opted not to splurge an extra £350 on a microchip-activated flap. “Huge error,” she says.
What the hell?
Microchip flaps are about £50, if that for a standard one.
Who the fuck is spending £350 on a cat flap?
What an absolutely pointless endeavour. Are they getting paid from the council? Do they do this for “sport”? Or worse yet, fun?!
I’m not paying to read this and find out the answers. So I’ll assume it’s because they are just giants douchebags.
Absolutely disgusting, what vile human beings. Fox numbers might be on the increase, but so too are humans… Maybe we should lure all the scumbags like this somewhere with the promise of money/food) iPhones, then exterminate them all.
I’m so sick of reading about animal cruelty.