The Official Nonsense Thread

[Minty]

Sounds like it was desperate. Usually they're only that brave in the wee small hours because they're familiar with drunks trying to feed them take aways.

Or maybe he was a door to door sales fox wanting to sign you up for Foxy Bingo

That said, one of the farmers down the road from us told me years ago about encountering a fox in his backyard. He had a chicken coup, but it had ignored it to go for his bins. When the fox saw him, it ran up to him - it was so used to locals in the nearby village (relocated "townies") leaving out food for them it expected the same.

He clapped his hands to shoo it - he hadn't the heart to blow its head off, first time he'd ever done so. Later on, he decided that had probably been the best from his point of view - foxes are territorial, & having one in his area with zero inclination to hunt but only to scavenge was a lot less to worry about than one with a taste for chickens. But he found it worrying that wildlife were becoming so dependent on people to a passive extent: no longer trying to get food even by stealth, let alone hunt. Farmers & foxes may not be best friends, but tame foxes meant more rats, & rats are something no one wants around, on a farm or elsewhere. Plus a nice smelly fox going through his fields helped deter the bunnies.

I didn't quite know what to make of his claims, until I heard about London foxes being found dead from heart disease caused by eating too many discarded McDonalds