Internewscast Journal
  • Home
  • US News
  • Local News
  • Health
  • People
  • Guest Post
  • Support Our Cause
Internewscast Journal
  • Home
  • US News
  • Local News
  • Health
  • People
  • Guest Post
  • Support Our Cause
Home Local news London’s Foxes Have Their Own Ambulance Service for Rescue
  • Local news

London’s Foxes Have Their Own Ambulance Service for Rescue

    In London, the fox has its own ambulance service when it needs help
    Up next
    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said 9News US Correspondent Lauren Tomasi had been targeted when she was shot by a rubber bullet while covering intensifying protests over mass immigration raids and arrests in Los Angeles. 
    Albanese claims 9News reporter was deliberately hit by a rubber bullet in LA shooting incident
    Published on 10 June 2025
    Author
    Internewscast
    Tags
    • ambulance,
    • Charlotte English,
    • Fox,
    • HAS,
    • help,
    • its,
    • Lifestyle,
    • London,
    • needs,
    • OWN,
    • science,
    • service,
    • The,
    • trevor williams,
    • When,
    • world news
    Share this @internewscast.com
    FacebookXRedditPinterest

    PADDOCK WOOD – The injured fox is cornered in a cage, teeth bared and snarling at the woman trying to help it.

    Nicki Townsend is unperturbed. Donning only rubber gloves and attire fit for yoga, she approaches calmly. “All right, baby,” she murmurs softly as she adeptly places a towel over his head, grasps him by the neck, supports his injured legs, and transfers him to a fresh cage.

    It’s not the way her day typically begins, but there’s nothing routine about rescuing foxes.

    “You can never predict what you’re going to arrive at,” Townsend said.

    Though not as iconic as phone booths or double-decker buses, the red fox is a staple in London, a city not typically associated with wildlife. Surviving in the streets, alleys, and backyards of this populous urban area can be challenging, and when foxes are in distress, they have their own rescue service — with Townsend potentially on the move.

    The foxes didn’t invade London so much as adapt and expand their range inward as the city spread to their habitat in the 1930s and suburbs grew.

    Love ‘em or hate ’em

    But people and the bushy-tailed member of the canine family have not always lived in harmony, and the species has admirers and adversaries.

    While many people are captivated by the sight of a fox sauntering down the street at twilight or lounging in a sunlit garden, there are those who view them as nuisances. They defecate wherever they please, rummage through trash, and during mating season in winter, the vixens emit spine-chilling cries that reverberate through the night.

    “It’s like Marmite with foxes,” Townsend said, referring to the food spread that is an acquired and divisive taste. “You either love them or hate them.”

    The divide between the two camps led Trevor Williams to found what became The Fox Project nearly 35 years ago.

    Once a bass player in the rock group Audience that opened for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, Williams had been active in the campaign to stop fox hunting when he redirected his protection efforts to the city, where foxes were once routinely killed.

    “Because of the myths that have occurred over the years, there’s still a lot of suspicion about what foxes might be,” Williams said. “You know, they’re going to bite the baby, they’re going to eat the cat, they’re going to run away with your husband.”

    The project has since grown from providing information on deterring foxes to rescuing 1,400 a year, including 400 cubs, though only about half survive to be released.

    City offers cheap eats and unique hazards

    There are estimated to be 15,000 foxes in London. The project covers a swath of south London and its leafy suburbs while other organizations not devoted solely to foxes handle other parts of the city.

    While the omnivores survive on small animals, bugs and berries in the wild, they favor easily scavenged leftovers in the city and handouts that make them more dependent on humans.

    Their main urban menaces are cars, getting snagged in soccer nets or getting stuck in tight spaces. In their effort to get free, they often get nasty abrasions that can become infected. Many also suffer from mange, a parasitic infestation that leads to all kinds of problems.

    Townsend pilots her VW Caddy on city streets, highways and narrow lanes that roll through lush hills, responding to calls about injured or ill foxes or cubs that have lost their mothers.

    She’s seen a bit of everything since her first humbling call 2 1/2 years ago when the supposedly injured fox bolted.

    “In my inexperience, I chased after him, which is comical because you’re never going to outrun a fox,” she said. “I just remember he ran very fast and I looked silly running after him.”

    Despite many challenging situations — she once managed to rescue a fox that lost its footing atop a fence and ended upside down at eye level with its paw lodged between boards — she’s only been bitten once.

    Heartbreak with hard cases

    Her van carries the distinctly musky scent of foxes. The odor becomes unpleasant when an anxious passenger in a litter of cubs relieves itself enroute to being delivered to a foster care pen where they will stay until being released in the wild.

    “Feel free to open the window,” said Townsend, who is accustomed to the stench. “This is a stinky job.”

    On a recent day, she was dispatched to meet a heartbroken couple who found a cub with a puncture wound collapsed on their back lawn.

    “We thought he was asleep at first, so we went to go and have a close look because we love them,” Charlotte English said. “Then he just didn’t move, so we knew something was wrong.”

    That cub had to be put to sleep, as did the adult Townsend transferred at the start of her shift.

    Cubs that recover are socialized in packs of five until they mature and are then released in a rural location while the adults are freed in the neighborhoods where they were found.

    The fox does not say ‘Thank you’

    Given a second chance, it’s not clear how well the foxes fare, because they are rarely tracked. A 2016 study in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science found that rehabilitated foxes were more likely to behave as if they had been displaced when returned to their original territory. They were tracked wandering farther away, potentially exposing them to more traffic and greater stress.

    “It is a gap in the knowledge and there’s an assumption that when you release them, they thrive and I think that that assumption needs to be challenged more,” said Bryony Tolhurst, a University of Brighton honorary research fellow and lead author of the study.

    For Townsend, fox deaths are offset by the joy of seeing little ones venture into the unknown or an adult darting into a neighborhood it instantly recognizes.

    “Sometimes they look back and people like to romanticize that they’re saying ‘thank you,'” she said. “They’re just making sure we’re not chasing after them.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    Share this @internewscast.com
    FacebookXRedditPinterest
    You May Also Like
    Who will Pritzker pick as new running mate? Governor says top qualification is ability to do his job.
    • Local news

    Who Will Pritzker Choose as His Next Running Mate? Governor Prioritizes Capability to Handle Governor Duties

    CHICAGO (WGN) — Now that Gov. JB Pritzker has made his re-election campaign…
    • Internewscast
    • June 30, 2025
    Jury deliberates for 2nd day in the triple murder trial of Australian accused of mushroom poisonings
    • Local news

    Jury Enters Second Day of Deliberations in Australian Mushroom Poisoning Triple Murder Case

    WELLINGTON – On Tuesday, a jury was in its second day of…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Musk calls for new political party amid criticism of Trump megabill
    • Local news

    Musk Proposes New Political Party in Response to Trump Megabill Criticism

    Elon Musk renewed his calls Monday for a new political party as…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Bryan Kohberger appears set to plead guilty in 4 Idaho college students' deaths
    • Local news

    Bryan Kohberger Poised to Admit Guilt in the Deaths of 4 Idaho College Students

    Bryan Kohberger, the individual accused of the fatal stabbing of four college…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Beaufort Waterfront shut down indefinitely, 2 weeks before annual Water Festival
    • Local news

    Beaufort Waterfront Closes Indefinitely Just 2 Weeks Before Annual Water Festival

    BEAUFORT, S.C. () — Gates and caution tape were never planned to…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Bill O'Reilly meets CCP leaders, calls for cooperation with China
    • Local news

    Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” Is “A Bunch of Bull”: Bill O’Reilly

    () Bill O’Reilly believes that despite President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” being…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Kohberger, 30, a former graduate student in criminal justice at Washington State University, faces murder charges for the deaths of Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Ethan Chapin, who were killed at an off-campus house near the University of Idaho on Nov. 13, 2022. He had pleaded not guilty.
    • Local news

    Victim’s Father Says Bryan Kohberger Plea Deal Is Far from Justice

    () The father of slain University of Idaho student Kaylee Goncalves criticized…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Pasco mom fights for legislative changes after daughter gets hit by car biking to school
    • Local news

    Pasco Mother Advocates for New Laws Following Her Daughter’s Bike Accident on the Way to School

    NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (WFLA) — A new law went into effect…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025

    Idaho: Man Fatally Shoots 2 Firefighters After They Request Him to Move His Car, Sheriff Reports

    A man in northern Idaho opened fire on firefighters after they requested…
    • Internewscast
    • June 30, 2025
    LIST: Fourth of July fireworks displays, celebrations and more in the Tri-Cities
    • Local news

    Guide to Fourth of July Fireworks Displays and Celebrations in the Tri-Cities

    TRI-CITIES, Tenn./Va. (WJHL) — The Fourth of July is right around the…
    • Internewscast
    • June 30, 2025
    Carter County Commission passes first budget after Helene
    • Local news

    Carter County Commission Approves First Budget Since Helene’s Term

    Carter County commissioners in Elizabethton, Tenn. (WJHL) gave the green light to…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Husband of Suzanne Morphew to appear in court to face murder charge a second time
    • Local news

    Suzanne Morphew’s husband faces murder charge in court again

    DENVER — On Tuesday, the husband of a woman who vanished on…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Dutch Queen breaks silence after being accused of mocking Donald Trump
    • News

    Dutch Queen Responds to Accusations of Mocking Donald Trump

    Queen Maxima of the Netherlands has revealed what she really said when she…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Trump will visit a remote immigration detention site in the Florida Everglades
    • US

    Trump to Tour a Remote Immigration Center in the Florida Everglades

    WASHINGTON (AP) — On Tuesday, President Donald Trump is taking a brief…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Trump sets new deadline for Gaza ceasefire as Israel's Netanyahu plans White House visit
    • Asia

    Trump Establishes New Deadline for Gaza Ceasefire Amid Netanyahu’s Upcoming White House Visit

    Donald Trump is demanding that there be a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    People fleeing in panic.
    • US

    Dramatic Scene: Russians Flee Fireballs During Ukrainian Kamikaze Drone Attack on Putin’s ‘Gun City’

    THIS is the dramatic moment Russians sprinted in terror as Ukrainian kamikaze…
    • Internewscast
    • July 1, 2025
    Internewscast Journal
    • Home
    • Privacy Policy
    • DMCA Notice
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Guest Post
    • Support Our Cause
    Copyright 2023. All Right Reserverd.