Fox hunting protects cows?

Faeces, but I don't mind if anyone says 'poo'

How about 'droppings'?
Is there a more scientific name for fox... oh... umm.. excrement?

I like poo. I reserve shit for when I drop a cake on the floor.

say it as it is Baggs!

My garden's full of deer shit. They pass through every day. There used to be vast quantities of hen shit and goose shit too. Never made any of us ill. Chicken shit in particular is a very good compost activator.

Poo is a baby word. That's why I don't use it. #info

Around here dogs aren’t allowed in children’s play areas. Difficult when you have children and dog.

I was brought up to watch where I put my feet and be especially careful sitting on the grass, but these days with less dog poo around children don’t seem to be taught this and there seems to be more, tamer wildlife - and its poo. Fox poo, deer poo, badger poo, cat poo, duck poo and the outsize goose poo. All capable of carrying TB and other diseases. I don’t know what the answer is to protect cows, perhaps deer height pig netting fencing buried deep. With a low electric fence to catch out rabbits!

Is this the same parasite that can cause blindness in children if they get infected?

That is one of the reasons I am so against people exercising dogs and allowing them to defecate in children's play parks.

That's interesting about dog and fox shit, Caled. Thank you. It does explain, I think, what the comment I saw was about. Glad I asked

I'm taking a deep breath before posting as I'm new here. I need to address something which arose in responses to the original question.
Foxes and dogs carry a parasite passed on through their poo in contact with grass. It does not make the cow ill, but once in the system she will never be rid of it and can pass it as a lifelong condition to any daughters. The immediate result is that she will abort any calf she is carrying when infected and there is an increased chance of future losses, because it is difficult to detect in the mother. Dogs which are wormed regularly do not have the parasite, though many farmers are now being encouraged to create paths to keep dog poo off the grazing. There have been articles in the farming press and I believe Countryfile have also broadcast about it. Most dog walkers are very careful once they know about this.
So, yes, foxes are a danger to cattle but, speaking for my own small corner of Scotland, I don't know anyone who thinks fox hunting with dogs and horses is a good way of dealing with the problem. It never has been.
As far as the hen house goes, the pine marten is on the increase and a much bigger danger, but as a protected species it can do what it likes ... and recently did, sadly.

@ Annie - yes I think it was most likely to be a cat. A fox would have carried it off.
We've lost quite a few chickens and ducks to foxes in the past.
Our neighbour has a gun, and I quite often hear it going off - thinking there goes another fox, or a magpie (which steals eggs.)

Foxes are nicer than some humans beautiful animals much maligned imo

The territory needed and defended by a fox anf her family will be smaller where food is plentiful and easy to find than where it is scarcer and more time and energy has to be spent finding and hunting it, so there could be more per square mile.

The food is towns is easy to find, since humans are very good (some deliberately, some by being untidy) at leaving their scraps around to be scavenged. If there is plenty of food, more cubs will survive.

Perhaps mange spreads more easily if there are more foxes in any given area? Or perhaps a mangy country fox will be seen less often among the vegetation than a mangy city fox on a bare street?

Where my daughter lived, with a long garden backing onto farmland, most of the residents fed foxes. However, I live in a downstairs flat, in a rundown area, with communal bins which overflow, etc. Not so great to see foxes being encouraged into the mix.

Yes, there is an abundance of food and, of course, some people do encourage them.

There are very many urban foxes around these parts. They have nowhere else to go, I would imagine, since the place has hardly any green areas left.

Was reading an article t'other day that. claimed many urban ofxes have mange.

And improved sanitation.

We were but I wondered if the claim about foxes controlling their numbers applied to urban foxes or whether the abundance of food that foxes can get at in urban areas means their population has grown, as the human population grew once we increased food production.

I thought we were talking about the countryside
There be cows in the countryside that need protecting!

Does that mean there aren't more urban foxes than there used to be in spite of claims to the contrary?

"The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable".

Foxes are very good at controlling their own numbers
Unlike humans

Rubbish
What is, my link?
It's an old one from 2006 and does not seem to be in support of fox hunting.

Let’s not forget that foxes are very good at controlling the rat population, particularly in urban areas.

Foxes are very good at controlling their own numbers. They have been remarkably constant for many years as the information provided by Jalima confirms.