North London fox cull halted

Following reports earlier this week of a planned cull of foxes at Muswell Hill Golf Course, Animal Aid and other animal lovers contacted them to urge them to opt for humane methods of deterrence instead of cruel and ineffective lethal methods. We gave them information on humane fox deterrence companies, including Fox-A-Gon and Humane Wildlife Solutions, and sent them a copy of our Alternatives to Culling report.

As a result, Muswell Hill Golf Course have stated that they will no longer consider culling as a solution to any issues relating to foxes.

We would like to thank everybody who contacted the Club about this issue and urged them to reconsider the use of lethal control, and of course to Muswell Hill Golf Course for coming to the compassionate decision not to cull foxes on their grounds in the future.

Not only is trapping and killing foxes cruel, it is entirely pointless and ineffective. Current, long-standing, government policy on lethal urban fox control states:

‘Territories made vacant by culling resident foxes are rapidly colonised by new individuals. The most effective strategies to resolve fox problems have primarily relied on non-lethal methods, focusing on preventative and deterrent strategies.’

In short, if a fox – or indeed a family of foxes – is killed, new foxes will take over the vacant territory, thus failing to resolve the conflict. This will result in an endless cycle of trapping and killing.

However, the good news is that there are plenty of alternative, humane methods of deterrence that can be adopted. These methods do not rely on the killing of any animals and are more successful and economical than lethal methods.