Fox traps removed from Clissold Park as last-ditch petition forces council rethink
‘Severe health risk’: a fox family. Photograph: Kuba Novak
Clissold Park’s foxes have been handed a lifeline after an eleventh-hour petition forced Hackney Council to remove traps it had laid in the deer enclosure.
The petition against plans to cull foxes in Clissold Park deer enclosure attracted 400 signatures in 60 minutes, triggering a rethink by Hackney Council, which has pledged to “humanely kill” the animals.
In light of recent concern, we have removed fox traps from Clissold Pk deer enclosure till further notice. Full update tomorrow
— Hackney Council (@hackneycouncil) October 8, 2015
News of the fox cull was confirmed earlier today, with the council claiming the foxes posed a “severe health risk” to the park’s herd of fallow deer and to people visiting Clissold House.
The council explained that foxes have bypassed a council-installed fence designed to keep them away from the deer, bringing rubbish into the enclosure with them, endangering the deer’s health and apparently putting their lives at risk.
To solve the problem, Hackney Council has announced it will bait, trap and “humanely kill” the foxes in accordance with government welfare guidelines.
A Hackney Council spokesperson said: “Government guidance indicates the relocation or release of foxes once trapped should not take place. In addition we have been advised that releasing the foxes into the established territory of other wild foxes will cause them distress or injury which could lead to extreme suffering.
“The alternative to this cull is that the deer are put at risk.
“The deer have been monitored for the past year, and have been witnessed eating the plastic rubbish on a number of occasions. In addition, the fox earths [burrows] can cause hazards to the legs of the deer – such earths have injured deer in other deer parks.
“There are roughly four or five adult foxes currently living in a deer enclosure of seven deer. This far exceeds the ratio in any other London park – it is the equivalent of having many hundreds of foxes living in Richmond Park.
“We are looking into how we can prevent foxes returning to the site and the earths.”
Concerned residents reacted angrily on social media today, leading to the petition on change.org calling for the council to reconsider culling the foxes.
A letter attached to the petition, addressed to the council and London Mayor Boris Johnson, claimed there is no evidence foxes pose a risk to the health of either deer or humans.
“The reality of a fox ‘cull’ is that it would achieve nothing. Prominent wildlife ecologists, including DEFRA, accept that previous attempts to reduce the numbers of a self-regulating species that annually replaces its lost numbers and may not breed at all if numbers are already optimal have failed – WILL always fail,” the letter stated.