Some years ago I watched two foxes tear a cat from limb to limb. No amount of shouting or threatening by me or my neighbours could stop them. They only left when we started throwing heavy stones at them. The cat died in agony.

We later found out that someone in the road had been feeding the foxes on a regular basis.

There are several myths which have grown up about foxes, notably that attacks and incursions are very rare. This is simply untrue, as recent press and television coverage has shown. Why on earth would anyone want to feed an animal which endemically carries mange (a disease which is excruciatingly painful for cats and dogs), kills for pleasure rather than food, screeches for hours at night when fighting for territory, fouls private homes with dangerous faeces and attacks defenceless babies.

Feeding foxes does not ‘tame’ them or encourage them to leave you alone, they simply tell their friends and come back for more. Feeding foxes encourages them to breed — a poorly fed fox loses its breeding instinct as a method of natural selection. Eventually feeding foxes will lead to the death of a small child.Are those of you who feed foxes prepared to have that on your conscience?

I would like to see a campaign for the criminalisation of fox feeding, so that stringent fines can be imposed on those who are so selfish they put their own enjoyment of their ‘fuzzy, furry friends’ above the health of their neighbours pets and children.

Maybe it is their thinking which is ‘fuzzy and furry’!

Teddy Graham, Oakleigh Gardens, Whetstone