Urban foxes have successfully adapted to city environments but face specific welfare challenges from human-wildlife conflict, disease, and vehicle traffic.
Urban foxes with sarcoptic mange suffer profoundly - the constant itching, hair loss, and secondary infections cause severe distress that without treatment leads to death from starvation or exposure as the animal becomes too debilitated to forage. Vehicle strikes cause traumatic death. Deliberate harm including poisoning and trapping causes unnecessary suffering. Well-meaning feeding by the public can create food dependency and increase urban-wildlife conflict. Wildlife rehabilitation organizations can treat mange-affected foxes with ivermectin, which causes rapid improvement and recovery. Humane coexistence means neither harming foxes nor creating dependency through feeding.