Gardeners disturbing foxes in garden risk £5,000 fine 'per animal'

Whether you love or hate foxes, every gardener has at some point encountered one of the furry orange invaders in their garden or around their neighbourhood. Some gardeners love to feed them, leaving meaty treats out for their foxy friends, others tear their hair out trying to banish them from their prized green spaces.

Some Reddit gardeners have shared various tips on how to stop foxes entering their garden - but fox control websites have issued a £5,000 fine warning.

User u/longjumpingtoe said: "Hi everyone, I really could do with your help on this one!

"A fox has taken a liking to my garden and tends to poo everywhere. In addition to that it's been digging behind my shed to get under it and I believe has created a den there. I've tried to scare it away, which works for about 30 seconds.

"Any suggestions on how to stop it from coming to my garden permanently? (no shotguns allowed!)."

And one user came up with an extraordinary way to combat them: "We had a chronic fox poo situ in the front garden. My wife peed in a cup and chucked it out there and it stopped. Apparently it's only supposed to work for man-wee but we're lesbians so we did what we could."

Another, u/dazzling-Example, had a slightly less rude approach: "What worked for me was putting clipped hawthorn branches in the places they were pooing, they must've got quite a shock when they tried, some of those thorns were like nails. Never saw any fox poo again."

But gardeners are being warned to be careful when dealing with foxes - because you could be hit with a £5,000 fine per animal if you cause a fox to come to harm when you disturb them or interfere with them.

Website Fox-A-Gon warns: "Foxes are protected under a series of wildlife protection laws against poisoning, gassing, asphyxiating, maiming, stabbing, impaling, drowning, clubbing and most forms of snaring, with anyone convicted of carrying out such acts liable to 6 months imprisonment and/or a £5,000 fine per animal.

"Most fox 'nuisance' experienced by people in urban and suburban areas falls into three categories; digging, fouling and noise.

"These are all aspects of natural fox behaviour. Depending on time of year and location, digging may be to establish a breeding earth, a bolt-hole, a route from a to b or simply to locate insect and invertebrate prey.

"Foxes are not and never have been classified as 'vermin', so local authorities have no legal obligation to act against them. They are also well aware there is little point. Private "pest controllers' who offer such a service often omit to inform you there is no such thing as a vacant territory. Remove one fox and another will take over the territory within weeks.

"Removal or destruction of foxes is, at best, an expensive confidence trick and at worst, an act of cruelty."

The experts even advise that because foxes are good at self regulating their population, if a fox is removed from the area or killed, numbers will remain stable because foxes innately manage their species numbers to avoid overcrowding anyway, so there's little point removing foxes as they'll just be replaced.

A more humane solution is a deterrent. The website then recommends scatter granules, such as these you can buy from Asda, as an effective deterrent, which work by removing scent marking smells which foxes use to mark their territory, meaning they won't come back again while the granules are in your garden.