Animal Welfare Bill

I will take advice on that. The urban fox probably would not have been under the control of the person. I am well aware of the activities of urban foxes in my former, built-up, constituency; they are all over the place and are a real nuisance to many people. There would be a duty not to cause the animals any unnecessary suffering because they would not be living in a wild state—I hope that that point is clear—and for someone to gather them up would be quite irresponsible. This might be a moot point, because it could perhaps be argued that there are two wild states, but being wild in an urban state and being wild in a countryside state is not quite the same. Urban foxes have easy access to food from dustbins and so on and are not trained to hunt for other food, so the countryside would be an alien environment. What was done would amount to abandonment because the urban fox would have been under control at the point of its release. Even though it had not been looked after, someone would have gathered it and taken responsibility for transporting it, and so at that point what was done would amount to abandonment. Locating the individuals responsible and ascertaining where the foxes came from in the urban environment—they are not exactly tagged—would be extremely difficult. So this is not an easy and clear-cut matter. If people were seen doing it, action could probably be taken, but that would be a matter for the courts. If the animal is not living in a wild state, then, of course, it will be protected. The argument will depend on its individual circumstances in the urban environment. Just because it is urban does not mean that it is not wild, but that would be a matter for the courts to decide.