Neighborhood fox

[Water Rat]

I saw this guy across the street from my house yesterday. Every year I see what the mange does to the local red fox population. Once a red fox gets the mange , it'll den up with another fox and then they both will have it.......and on and on it goes. I feel bad for it but there's too many houses around to end it's suffering.

 

[Doc]

It's just another reminder of the other ways that animal numbers are controlled by Mother Nature. This is just one of the alternatives to hunting. The populations of critters will be controlled, either by a bullet or a trap, or by the suffering of disease, starvation, and predation that over-population results in. It's just the way that nature works. The animals do not peacefully die in their sleep of old age. People have to be kept reminded of that.

[airedale]

Sad thing is that mange could be easily cured with a good dip or a shot of Ivermectin.

Al

[Northcountryman]

Too bad; Foxes are such beautiful animals.  Saw one last month while up in my tree stand. Couldnt take a pic cuz my phone cam not working, but was. easily, the biggest/healthiest Fox I had ever seen.

[Doc]

This is only one example of the cruelty of disease in the wild. I have seen rabid animals and those with distemper and others that I simply didn't have a clue as to what their problem was. It is not a very kind ending that all the critters face. I've witnessed the massive deer yards over in Honeoye where you could see deer that were just waiting to die from starvation, and the deer that were too weak to clear fences that were just hanging there until they died. It's pretty brutal stuff to see.