How would you react to foxes with no fear of people?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We have A LOT of foxes in our suburb west of Chicago. Very residential, with houses on 50’ wide lots, with sidewalks and curbs. For the past couple of months we hadn’t seen the foxes often, but recently, we’ve seen 2-3 pretty much every day as we walk our dog. I’m no foxologist, but my guess is that these are young ones - tho they look almost adult size.

So, let’s say you are walking down a sidewalk with your 40# dog on a leash, and there is a fox on the sidewalk (or on someone’s front lawn) up ahead of you, showing no sign of moving.

Do you cross the street to try to avoid it?
Do you keep going and assume it will move (or try to shoo it away)?
Do you call the city and ask them if there is anything they will do?
Other options?

I generally like most wildlife (other than skunks, and so long as they are not damaging my property). But I find it mildly unnerving to encounter an animal of this size who displays ZERO wariness of humans/dogs. The other day, one was in our fenced yard when my wife, I and our dog were sitting on the patio. It easily eluded my dumb dog when my dog saw it, but when I let my dog out to do his business, I’d just as soon he not tangle with a fox.

A couple of our idiot neighbors put out what we consider vermin buffets, which I imagine go a long way to encouraging this sort of behavior. In the past, we’ve asked them to stop. If they have resumed, they are being more subtle about it (in the past, they used to put bowls of dog food on their front stoop.)

2

Considering that in the US, most foxes are rarely over 15 pounds and even the biggest tops out to 30 pounds. They probably aren’t dangerous to you and your 40 pound dog. Unless they are acting erratic and/or foaming at the mouth. Then move away and call 911. (Please note, foxes are rarely carriers of rabies, apparently they die quickly from the infection)

I’ve seen a mother cat hold off a full grown fox very well. A full grown human making loud noises and waving them off, should scare them off. The ones you are seeing are probably looking for a handout. Very common in a lot of areas now.

BTW: London has been dealing with Urban foxes for decades now.

If you are seeing a fox as big as your dog or almost as big, it might be a young coyote. They can look a lot like a fox, just longer legs. Coyotes could be a lot more dangerous, I’m not sure. They do take down older cats and small dogs pretty regularly.

Foxes are fed like stray/feral cats in a lot of places in Ocean County New Jersey. It is discouraged, but happens as foxes are very charismatic animals and kits are super-cute. The barrier Island park, Island Beach State Park has a lot of self-“tamed” foxes looking for hand-outs and the Mothers teach the kits how to do it.

@Dinsdale I fixed your title.

3

Avoid them, they are cute but could be carrying rabies or other things you don’t want your dog being in contact with.

Call the city and let them know that people are feeding them, perhaps they could be relocated. Myself, I’d yell and maybe throw rocks towards them if they came too close in order to encourage them not to trust humans. I’d hate to have to do that, but its for their own good.

4
5

They’re probably not a direct threat unless they’re rabid, which as @What_Exit notes is unlikely (especially if they’re just hanging out, and not acting aggressive). But wildlife ignoring humans and our pet predators is, at best, a symptom of some other problem.

Avoiding them in the moment and alerting animal control sounds like a pretty good idea.

6

Though with foxes it is less about humans encroaching on them than foxes adapting like pigeons, rats and deer to where we live. I mean it is a little bit of both, but foxes have staged a massive comeback in New Jersey at least. There are far more today then in the 1970s.

The estimate is apparently very rough at tens of thousands of foxes in New Jersey today. I can’t find solid numbers, but fox attacks in New Jersey appear to be very rare, maybe as little as one per year on average. Cases of rabid foxes appear extremely rare, but about 1 in 5 fox biting/scratching incidents involve rabies.

The biggest threat foxes pose is the same as outdoor cats. Foxes are tough on bird populations, especially shore birds that nest on the ground.

7

Really? So that hedgehog game is a liar?

8

Thank you, fixed.

9

I assume a fox out in the daytime or isn’t afraid of people any time is rapid. Doesn’t matter if they are because I have no need to stay around a fox.

10

That seems a bit extreme—relocating people just because they’re feeding foxes.

11

Then they shouldn’t hang out in the foxes’ habitat.

12

We have a few foxes in our neighborhood, and all I can say is that they’re cute as fuck and don’t seem to be bothering anyone*. They watch me walk the dogs but keep their distance.

(*Except maybe that weird woman who’s raising chickens in her backyard despite it being against city regulations.)

13

These are definitely foxes. I’m able to distinguish fox from coyotes. But I’m not sure I’d go on a strict weight basis in matching my dopey goldendoodle against a wild creature…

I don’t have any real fear that they are rabid. They’ve been quite common in the area for the past few years. I think some of the folk who are somewhat lax in their landscape maintenance may not realize there is a den among their overgrown bushes. I’m happy so see them. But it is just a tad unnerving when an ostensibly wild animal makes no effort to get out of your way. Or, as has been the case in the past, actually follows me and my dog.

The other day one was across the street from us. On that side of the street a guy was walking a LARGE german shepherd that was going NUTS. And the fox just sat there calmly, checking everything out…

14

I’ve noticed that foxes often use drainage pipes as dens, burrow under sheds and I saw one that took over a groundhog hole that was under a spruce tree. Being small animals, they don’t need much to feel relatively safe and any overgrown area with some trees, can house a vixen and her kits.

As I developed a hate for groundhogs, I really cheered when the foxes moved into my area and the groundhog population greatly decreased in just 2 years.

I kind of miss the foxes at my new place. They were nice to see at the last house. I never did feed them, it was tempting, but I knew better.

15
  • Except my GF, who gives me the stinkeye whenever I turn my head to check them out. :slight_smile:
16

I came home from work one day with our dogs in my car and a neighbor flagged me down. They had seen a fox in our front yard just lounging around all day. I pulled into the garage and secured the dogs.

I assumed the fox was rabid. In western PA foxes, raccoons, skunks, and bats are considered rabies suspects. I had killed rabid raccoons before. They tend to stagger around stupidly. My protocol was (and remains) to strike them over the head with a shovel, then bury or have them tested.

So, I grabbed a shovel and went out to dispatch the fox. But the fox was totally “with it”. No foaming at the mouth, no staggering gait. The fox looked at me and began to slowly advance, as if I were a rabbit he planned on eating.

I traded my shovel for my shotgun, went out and circled the animal until I had a safe backstop and killed it with one shot. Put it in a feed sack and drove it to the Department of Agriculture field office. It tested positive for rabies.

Funny note. When our neighbor next saw me she asked me if the fox ran off. I told her no, I shot it and it was rabid. She told me since she only heard one shot it must have run off, because when her husband shot a rabid coon it took 10 or 15 shots. (in his defense, he was using a .22, while I used a shotgun)

ETA: Don’t downplay rabies. In Pennsylvania last year there were 247 reported cases, broken down as Raccoons 85, bats 55, cats 43, skunks 25, foxes 21, bobcats 2, horses 2, groundhogs 1, beaver1, dog 1.

Source: Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

17

That might explain why Pennsylvania is considered a swing state this fall, as opposed to our non-rabid solidly blue state! :wink:

18

Actually, a huge difference. In 2023 you guys only had 51 confirmed reported cases. Bats 34,skunks 15, cats 1 dog 1.

(An old friend of mine, Larry Glickman, is an epidemiologist with a special interest in rabies.)

19

Horses and beaver can get rabies? I did not know that.

20

I think that all mammals can get rabies.