Residents in a Horsham neighbourhood say they have been plagued for months by foxes chewing through their vehicles’ brake cables and electrical wires.
People living in Spencer’s Road have been most badly affected and are having to ‘fox-proof’ their cars by covering them with tarpaulins overnight.
They say that thousands of pounds worth of damage has been caused to a number of vehicles, and that surrounding areas have been left covered in fox faeces and vomit.
A spokesperson for Horsham District Council said: “It is extremely regrettable that such levels of damage have been caused by foxes in this particular area recently.
“There have been similar episodes of foxes damaging cars across the UK in recent years.
“Foxes are not classed as vermin and as a wild animal are protected by various Acts of Parliament to ensure they are not subject to cruelty.
“Environmental enforcement powers are therefore very limited.
“Part of the solution is for residents to stop feeding foxes which encourages them to inhabit a specific area, and the council’s neighbourhood wardens have been advising this for a number of months in and around this neighbourhood.
Wonder just how common this problem of foxes damaging cars is? And how long it'll be until someone there has had enough and calls in a pest controller. The comments on FB were full of pest controllers saying how easy their job is with people feeding foxes. And of course the usual fox 'lovers' who don't care and insist they'll keep feeding them anyway.
There appears to be an "anti fox" theme to the news this week.
As foxes and humans are forced to live in ever closer proximity, we are going to need to learn how to manage wildlife conflict a lot better than we currently do.