Red foxes have adapted successfully to urban environments across Europe and North America, but face distinct welfare challenges from traffic, mange, persecution, and human feeding.
Urban foxes experience a complex welfare calculus. Abundant food and reduced hunting pressure extend lifespan for some individuals, but mange outbreaks can devastate local populations with prolonged suffering. Road mortality kills large numbers of animals each year. Human-fox conflict occasionally results in lethal control or deliberate poisoning. Mange treatment programs using medicated bait have proven effective at reducing disease burden in urban populations, representing a practical intervention for improving welfare at population scale.