Urban fox population management requires evidence-based, humane approaches that recognize the ineffectiveness of lethal culling and the welfare implications of management decisions for individual animals.
Urban fox management welfare is served best by approaches based on evidence rather than cultural attitudes toward foxes as pests. Lethal culling causes welfare harm to targeted individuals while failing to achieve population management goals, representing a lose-lose intervention. Effective non-lethal deterrence addresses specific conflict points without the welfare costs of killing. The welfare of foxes persecuted through ineffective culling programs — killed without achieving management goals — represents a significant and preventable welfare burden that better-informed management approaches could eliminate.