I AM writing in response to Mrs Rukin's letter (Cornish Times, 15.02.08). While I sympathise with her that the dead foxes were left for them to see, maybe she would like to see the damage a fox can do to a flock of chickens or sheep with lambs. I keep around 300 free range chickens and have a serious fox problem, with them visiting each day and killing at lease one chicken on each visit. Does Mrs Rukin suggest we no longer keep our chickens free range and instead keep them intensively as we have recently seen on television? On one occasion we had a fox get into the hen house and kill 17 chickens. Why, when they can only eat one at a time? At this time of year, we are in the middle of lambing and only this week have had a fox half eat a new-born lamb. As much as I like to see the wildlife and understand they need to eat, sometimes there is no other option than to shoot and kill the fox. With regards to the badgers, we have two or three setts on our farm and we refuse to let anyone harm them as they do not cause us any harm.
Mrs H BUDGE North Hill