Red foxes have successfully colonised cities across Europe and North America, raising welfare questions about injury, disease, culling practices, and the ethics of human-wildlife coexistence in urban environments.
Urban foxes occupy an ethically complex space: genuinely wild animals living in close proximity to humans, neither legally protected as wildlife nor categorised as farm animals. Mange is a particular welfare concern — affected animals can suffer for weeks. Organised treatment programmes using medicated bait have proven effective. Culling does not reduce urban fox density and simply causes direct harm without population-level effect. Coexistence management is more effective and more ethical.