Out Foxed

So, why is the BBC running prime time documentaries about those children who were allegedly bitten by a fox? Whilst I'm sure it was very traumatic for them and their family, it is hardly newsworthy, particularly several weeks after the event. So what's going on? Is this a slow news day? I mean, I know there were no World Cup matches on today, but bloody Wimbledon is still going on, and, as far as I'm aware, peace hasn't broken out in Afghanistan, there's still a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and the Greek economy is still turning to shit. So, why is the BBC running prime time documentaries about those children who were allegedly bitten by a fox? Whilst I'm sure it was very traumatic for them and their family, but it is hardly newsworthy, particularly several weeks after the event. But then this is all part of an anti-fox agenda, isn't it? After all, "fox bites baby" isn't exactly the most newsworthy of pieces in the first place. Sure, it was unusual enough to get on the news, but not as the lead item, surely? Then there were all the follow-up items in the papers and on local news. It was almost as if someone who didn't like foxes was orchestrating it all. Which they might well have been. According to one rumour I've heard, the story was only picked up news outlets after it was relentlessly pushed by the pro-hunting Countryside Alliance.

Their attempt to make the fox public enemy number one was reminiscent of their smear campaign against badgers a few years ago. You remember that - they planted stories in the press about how badgers were disease-ridden carriers of TB. And that they hung round outside schools, peddling drugs to kiddies. When they weren't mugging pensioners, holding up sub-post offices and burgling houses. Now the poor old urban Fox is being described in the same terms as illegal immigrants. The papers have been full of stories of how they're "coming into our cities and living under our sheds". Not to mention the fact that they're "stealing the bin contents which rightfully belong to our feral cats". Next thing you know, the papers will be full of stories of foxes going on killing sprees. That's where Derrick Bird went wrong. If only he'd waited a couple of weeks before going on his shooting rampage in Cumbria, he could have blamed it all on foxes and got away with it: "Honestly officer, I thought these two foxes were just normal fares, but then one of them put a gun to my head and forced me to drive for hours while the other one blasted random people with a shotgun! Finally, they got me to drive into the middle of nowhere, where they jumped out and ran off, leaving their guns on the back seat!" No jury would have convicted.