Fox hunting protects cows?

Probably from someone who thinks that cows are cute little white woolly creatures that frolic in the spring, and foxes are large pack animals that howl at the moon while they eat grandmothers and hunt little girls in red cloaks.

Easy to mix up a cow and a lamb, mooooo and baaaaaa are so similar

Foxes aren't a joke though.
Yesterday I was walking along the lane with our dog and she saw some grey and white feathers in the ditch. She started sniffing of course, then up fluttered a poor pigeon, with some of her wing feathers missing. She managed to fly to nearby woods. Definitely the work of a fox, they're hungry at this time of the year.

Think they're getting confused with badgers? They carry TB which is a threat to cows...

Fennel, cats hunt too

Fox hunters will use any excuse Even if the statement was true, it is still unforgiveable to get all dressed up and have a jolly day out while hounding the foxes to death in some grotesque and cruel game. Foxes can be a nuisance to farmers, but shooting them is more humane than chasing them and having them ripped apart by hounds.
And, -foxes are not vermin. They are beautiful animals.

What a load of .......!
There are some people who feel anything that moves is worthy of being shot. My father once took me to a hunt [we lived in a rural area] and since then I've been against it. It's an excuse to kill as far as I'm concerned I can't believe all the wasted time spent discussing whether the law should be repealed when there are so many other real problems that need to be addressed.
As for badgers - don't get me started on that!

Exterminated is a very strong word! Do they want every single fox in the country to be annihilated (and every fox in a stable loving relationship too?? That is what extermination means.

What would then happen to the corpses of wild animals which had died naturally? Foxes eat more carrion than they do prey caught live and remove these carcasses before they go rotten. They are the binmen of the woods. The live wild animals, like the poor pigeon, take their chances with the fox, as they do with injury, infection, hunger, cars and all the other hazards.

If there are too many foxes in an area to feed themselves on the wildlife and they start on lambs, cats and dogs, then there needs to be a cull - soberly and with care, not as a jolly day out - but if that removes every one and creates a vacancy for a predator, then the post will soon be filled by one of the youngsters old enough to leave a home nearby in the autumn.

According to the UK Government Burns Commission, “the overall contribution of traditional fox hunting, within the overall total of control techniques involving dogs, is almost certainly insignificant in terms of the management of the fox population as a whole.” The fox population has not changed either since the Hunting Act as hunting with dogs never had a real effect on populations due to the fact that foxes are territorial predators whose population self-regulate. If you kill some in an area you are going to have foxes from other areas coming in to replace the population you eliminated. The proof of this is that when hunting with dogs stopped during the foot-and-mouth crisis, research from Bristol University (Harris, 2002) showed that the fox population did not increase. On the other side, if you try to kill many foxes in an area using all possible means, research (Baker & Harris, 2006) has shown that the likely effect is an increase in fox numbers.

Rubbish. Just trying to build a case to bring back fox hunting.

"On the other side, if you try to kill many foxes in an area using all possible means, research (Baker & Harris, 2006) has shown that the likely effect is an increase in fox numbers."

Official research confirming what I posted, Jalima. Attempting to "exterminate" them completely would never work, and is not desirable anyway. There needs to be some kind of agency which controls the numbers to a reasonable level. What that reasonable level might be would probably be very difficult for all involved to agree on! So might the methods of control.

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.

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

Foxes are very good at controlling their own numbers
Unlike humans

"The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable".

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

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

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.

And improved sanitation.

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

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.

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

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.