Urban foxes have adapted successfully to city environments but face chronic welfare challenges from human persecution, traffic, and mange that require humane management responses.
Urban fox welfare is shaped by a combination of natural threats and human responses to fox presence. Mange — a parasitic skin disease — causes intense suffering through hair loss, skin thickening, and secondary infection before death. Vehicle collisions are the leading mortality cause. Human persecution through snaring and poisoning is both welfare-harmful and largely ineffective. Homeymune mange treatment programs that provide medication in bait have successfully reduced mange burden in treated areas. Lethal control should be avoided given its ineffectiveness — territory vacated by killed foxes is filled within weeks by immigrants. Coexistence management that secures attractants and treats disease is more welfare-positive and more effective.