Chris Packham: It's OK to feed urban foxes

BBC presenter Chris Packham has claimed it’s acceptable to feed urban foxes.

The wildlife expert, who will be following the lives of two urban fox families in the new series of Autumnwatch, which begins on October 29, said it’s fine to give them food “sporadically” and warned humans risked “demonising” the animals.

Packham, 52, said: “A lot of people like to feed foxes in their back gardens, to see one of the world’s most beautiful animals from their home. It’s about feeding them sporadically, not regularly, which can create dependence.”

Packham said that attacks by urban foxes on humans were far fewer than by domestic dogs, adding: “An adult fox is for me much better than a tiger.”

“In the UK we don’t have a rich animal fauna. The biggest mammals that we are left with are badgers, foxes and deer. Foxes are beautiful and young people can be excited by them, it could be their only opportunity to see a wild mammal in the UK.

“It would be a shame to demonise these things,” he told the Daily Telegraph.