Well we pulled our traps today after a week of trapping a subdivision. They complained that red foxes were following the kids around the neighborhood like dogs. I didn't believe it till I saw it. We set live catch cages in areas they were known to frequent around the subdivision and were given permission to use coil springs in the green space areas. After scouting the greenspace and finding kids forts and lots of toys we shyed away from coilsprings. We did set three inside den sites. We had four days of good weather and three days of rain. The two we caught were both on day three. Both had severe mange and grossly under weight. Possibly worms and parasites. Mind you all the stories from the neighborhood reported the foxes that were following kids looked sick. We saw one other fox while scouting the area which was healthy.After reporting to the client he stated that he had personally seen 4 foxes in the last two days.We think he saw the one healthy fox 4 times. I was very pleased that we were able to remove the two that lost the fear of humans. Guess the client wanted them all removed. Even though the fox we did see had a very healthy dose of fear and was showing no signs of being a nuisance. Guess he just chose the wrong area to call home. This is the issue with people moving from the Atlanta area into the country and seeing wildlife. Any one had this issue in the past? If so what is the best solution you have found to deal with this?

ttt

How dare the wildife live where we want to!

Yep kinda thought that to. We trapped the two sick ones that were approaching the residents.Kinda had to remind them we deal with nuisance wildlife not resident wildlife.

Tell them you fullfilled your contract and if they would like you to continue to trap that you would be happy to for a fee.

You would be surprised how fast they become satisfied with the work you did accomplish and how they didn't see a need to trap further.

You'll never catch them all or even most of them in that type of setting. Barring a major fence installation, and then it can be defeated, they are either going to have to learn to live with it OR sign you up for a regularly scheduled service.

Scott has the right approach, imo.

Are there still sick looking fox following the kids around?

Nope there are no more sick looking foxes that we saw. We have talked to several homeowners in the area and they are not reporting any. We have call the trapping session a victory. It just tickles me that any fox seen out in the daytime has to be sick and has to be removed from the area. I can not count the nuumber of times we have seen foxes around our chicken house in broad daylight. We were just trying to find the polite way of telling them we resolved the problem and non-nuisance foxes have a right to live in the area.

We considered pitching a regular scheduled service but when working with someone with such high expectations we are leary. When we tested out with DNR we agreed to be ethical trappers. I can't find any thing ethical about trapping down every fox they ever see running thru this neighborhood. I have no problem dealing with the nuisance issues but when you build a 500 plus home subdivision in a natural wetland you are going to see wildlife. They lived there before the houses were built and did not move out just because the houses were built. We knew going into this job that we could never catch them all. Our goal was to trap the sick foxes that were following the kids looking for a hand out. We reached this goal and were very happy with the outcome.

JMO, but I do not consider population control, as opposed to eradication, to be unethical. Consider it the same as if fur trapping was allowed in the area, skimming the cream.

I have come to this conclusion after getting the exact same call from the exact same clients year after year knowing that each time I go in I'll pull out an entire family group of foxes or coyotes. The same can be said of beaver on certain sites where proximity to other colonies and lack of trapping access can not stop new ones from moving in.

The fact that there were sick animals in that population indicates an overpopulation issue and without predation, ie trapping, the problem will reoccur sooner than later.

I understand fully what you're saying about ethics and I would be the last to advocate eradication, other than non natives such as hogs, dillers and coyotes, but face it in our urban enviroments with the readily available food and habitat these animals are faring far better than they would in a more rural/"natural" setting leading to almost constant overpopulation. I see almost constant mange inside the metro as opposed to outside.

If the client is unhappy after you have completed the job then one of two things have happened and both are your fault.

1. Failure to educate your client

Remember we are called becasue they just plain don't know, if they do then why call. You need to fully analyze the circumstances and explain, in simple terms they can understand, just what is occuring. Next, offer options that will resolve the issue to their satisfaction. Then discuss what exactly they expect to happen. If you can meet this expectation then proceed but bring the conversation back to expectations and hammer out the specifics, if need be put it in writing.

2. Failure to live up to your commitments.

If you reached a clear understanding in step one and failed to meet your end of the agreement then you are in the wrong. If you failed to reach a clear understanding in step one you're still in the wrong.

In the case above the scheduled service option would have been on the table before I ever set the first trap because there is no way on God's green earth that I could ever offer long term control in a single trapping service nor could I or anyone else even hope to offer short term control outside the scope of the delineated time on site. It is my job to make my clients fully aware of this if for no other reason than CYA but hopefully to gain their faith that I speak the truth. If that happens then we can talk about what they need to happen in the future.

David,
You hit the nail on the head. I just put two and two together. We were working for a management company that runs the Home Owners Assoc. Well we met with the Management person and had this discussion in full. The President of the individual neighborhood is the guy that seems to be unhappy. This is the same guy that was to busy to field any calls from us and to come out and join the meeting when we started. Everytime we called him for updates and for progress reports he said he was to busy to call the management company. So I guess you were right. He did not make it to the meeting where we discussed expectations. He did not have time to involve himself at all in the process. the management company understood all the limitations of the job and understood our goals. The management company was pleased that we reached our goals and resolved the issue that they called about. Guess the old saying still applies" You can please most of the people some of the time, but you will never please all the people all of the time". I guess the lesson from all this is if someone wants to involve themselves and their opinion they must be met with to discuss their expectations and explain the limitations and the process involved. I sure am glad the management company is pleased since they write the checks. Thanks David for enlightening me on the issue. I was really trying to pin down the issue. Now I can apply this to every call.