Hackney Council to cull foxes in Clissold Park
Hackney Council wants to cull foxes in Clissold Park. Photograph: © Kuba Novak
Hackney Council has confirmed it plans to cull “a number of foxes” from the deer enclosure in Clissold Park.
The council says the foxes pose a “severe health risk” to the deer as well as to people visiting Clissold House.
A spokesperson said it has been “advised against” relocating the foxes as this will cause them “high levels of stress” and could lead to the animals suffering a prolonged death.
But John Bryant, an independent wildlife consultant specialising in urban foxes, said the plans were “ridiculous” and had written to Hackney Council to advise them against the plans.
Bryant told the Hackney Citizen: “There will be a cull of foxes in the deer enclosure, but it doesn’t make any sense because they will be living all over the park. A family of foxes has a territory of 40 acres at least.
“Killing foxes is pointless because in days they are replaced. The council seems to be thinking that they are a danger to the deer. That’s ridiculous , in Richmond Park there are hundreds of deer and plenty of foxes and never have any problems.”
Not a solution
Caroline Allen, a vet and Green Party member, who is a regular visitor to Clissold Park said: “It doesn’t make much sense, they say there is a health risk to people at Clissold House, but it sounds as if they are making it up as they go along.
“Culling doesn’t work. You kill the ones which are there and others will take over. Unless they are dealing with the resource issue, they will probably make things worse and animals will be killed unnecessarily. I just don’t see how this is the solution.”
A spokesperson for Hackney Council said: “Qualified contractors will be humanely trapping and disposing of the foxes in strict accordance with animal welfare guidelines. The trapping is being restricted to the deer enclosure and nowhere else in the park.”
A council spokesman said it did not know the exact number of foxes they were trying to trap.
Clissold Park User Group has been approached for comment.
Hat tip: Hackney Hive
PLEASE reconsider this idea. Look after and be proud to have this beautiful wild animal in your midst. Educate people about nature and also about rubbish and food waste
We are bombarded by daily news of budget cuts in vital council services and you waste your money in this barbaric, senseless, pointless and stupid initiative?
Why is our instant reaction even when there isn’t a problem – KILL? Leave wild animals alone – they’re perfectly capable of sorting themselves out and they are no hazard to deer or people.
This is cruel and unnessary !!
Leave the foxes alone
What a load of rubbish and an archaic and idiotic approach to the situation. Shame on anyone pushing this silly and cruel idea through.
Please reconsider these plans.
If you kill these foxes more will move in. Anyone who knows anything about foxes will tell you that. It will not solve the `problem`. Leave them alone.
I am both saddened and horrified to read of the proposed cull of foxes in the deer enclosure at Clissold Park.
I grew up in Highbury New Park, just a stones throw from the park. My earliest recollections of wildlife are the creatures I saw there as a small child on my father’s shoulders, as we went looking for birds and mammals. Him talking to me about them and instilling in me a love of nature that would last throughout my life. The deer enclosure was, ofcourse, my favourite place of all. Only rarely did we glimpse a fox in those days, but I remember the excitement those sightings engendered.
These days the fox is well ensconced in the city, but to see them wandering freely in the park is as close to an authentic countryside encounter as most local children will ever get. How do we explain to them what those cage traps are for? How do we answer when they ask what will happen to the foxes (and other wildlife) that get caught in them?
Do we say there are too many? The council do not appear to know how many there are so that would be untruthful.
Do we say that they are a danger to the deer? No evidence of this has been given, and since foxes and deer have shared environments not just here but nationwide for thousands of years, this cannot be true either.
As far as we know, no study has been done to show where the foxes seen in the deer enclosure have their dens. So what area are we really targeting?
If foxes are culled here, others will simply move in to replace them, because it is a habitat which clearly fulfills their needs.
I say welcome all wildlife to the park and rejoice in it.
I implore Hackney Council to think again about culling this iconic british carnivore. Clissold park would not be the same without them.
This is illogical and in humane. What is the precise nature of this purported ‘health hazard’? Foxes and deer have co-existed for millennia. It will
Be ineffective too as new foxes will
Move straight into vacated territories. Be proud of these beautiful creatures that live in our cities. Leave them be. And it is an outrageous waste of public money to carry out this cruel
And pointless exercise in these days of dwindling resources. Please stop.
Strange folk…..
I cannot see what risk the foxes pose to either the deer or the public but, just assuming they do, isn’t this akin to removing woodworm in just one room?
Man’s interference with nature does not work.
What scientific evidence has the council offered, indicating that the foxes threaten the deer? I assume their ‘advice’ came from the same company that will be contracted to kill the foxes? It seems like a highly biased source of information to be building a strategy around…
This is barbaric and unnecessary. Please find a more humane way to deal with this problem.
Stop thinking that killing animals is your right! It’s not. I meet foxes quite often in the area i live and they are inteligent and beautiful animals. Who gave you people right to decide which animals are good and which are bad? They all are living beings, not commodities! Both deer and fox want to live their life witout fear pain or being killed, and they have right to it, as a living beings.