Fighting Coronavirus...... Bring on the Hounds!

[exchemist]

Ah...yes. Anal glands. My wife works for a company of 4 vets and she has described how dreadful the smell is when a domestic dog needs to have its anal glands expressed. Foxes must express their glands with much more ease to scent mark, and for some humans this is quite repulsive, so I expect that you are such a victim. My wife can smell if a fox has visited during the night, but I can't, have never been able to.
In the past our ducks would produce two flights of young uns each summer and the foxes would make lightening daylight raids to catch us out. My wife wanted to do dark deeds to the foxes but I didn't as long as any killed ducks were taken away to provide food etc I never felt that there had been waste.
Nearly all our neighbours like the local foxes..... it must be a rural mindset as opposed to a city one, I guess.

Funny how the tables are turned. Traditionally it was the country folk who hunted foxes, while the city dwellers objected to it, because they thought they were cute and fluffy (the foxes I mean ). But they didn't have to smell them in those days. Now that they do, the boot is on the other foot.

 

[pearl]

True. But foxes also scent mark and they defecate to mark territory as well, specifically on the paths that humans take, e.g. to and from the doors out of the house. They also pull up plants and leave KFC wrappers lying around.

I guess the fox certainly can be a nuisance. But with two dogs the skunks are more than a nuisance. They are attracted by the bird feeders and the six foot fence does nothing as they dig under it. The only deterrent we've found is fox urine, until it rains.

 

[oldbadger]

Aside from the human indignities. Just think of it as the dog saying hello! How are you old bean?

A mate of mine trains explosives and drug detection dogs.
He sometimes uses me as a stooge and when his dogs trigger on me they just sit down by me and stare, waiting for their reward (a special ball).
There are many kinds of such dogs, for instance they are used to find very rare tortoises in Africa, the strangest uses.
But my friend doesn't think that enough dogs could be found for covid training..... Detection dogs need to fit with hundreds of criteria and this makes the ideal ones very rare. We'll have to wait and see.

 

[oldbadger]

Funny how the tables are turned. Traditionally it was the country folk who hunted foxes, while the city dwellers objected to it, because they thought they were cute and fluffy (the foxes I mean ). But they didn't have to smell them in those days. Now that they do, the boot is on the other foot.

I'm sure that city dwellers are cute and fluffy as well!
Yes. Times have changed. Almost no creature can be shot or snared now without license or other authority.
Individual licences are required to shoot each kind of pest.
Jays are all around here now, and so many kinds of raptor fly over here. Only forty years ago these sights were so rare.
Foxes have a very short lifespan. Their first injury is usually their end.
I see them around here in absolutely fine condition, confident as anything, and then I might see the same fox limping, and then they are no more.
Four or five years max, I reckon.