Urban red foxes are highly adaptable animals that increasingly live in cities, requiring coexistence approaches that avoid unnecessary lethal control.
Urban fox welfare involves both the suffering caused by mange infestations and the welfare harms of lethal control methods. Mange causes intense itching, secondary infection, and progressive weakness before death. Effective approaches include mange treatment programs using medicated food and non-lethal deterrence to reduce human-fox conflict. Education about coexistence reduces unnecessary killing from public pressure.