Poison and dead animal arrangement

[CAPP0]

There, that title got your attention didn't it? I think this is Lounge-y rather than All Creatures.

There's been a recent spate in our village of dead foxes being found around the place in the mornings, along with some rats. The foxes are mostly young cubs.

Someone from some fox conservation place has had a look and has confirmed that they've been poisoned. People are generally a little jumpy due to the risk to dogs, and small children, depending on how the poison is being placed, which hasn't been determined yet. Police are now involved, I'm told.

Anyway, to the thread title. The latest one found, on Friday, was a fox cub which the fox expert said was about 9 weeks old. So far, so "I'm pissed off with foxes so I'm putting poison down". But here's the twist: the latest one was neatly laid out on a patch of grass, and laid out on top of it was a dead bird. Haven't seen it myself, so no pictures, but it certainly seems a little weird.

My question then is, what particular brand of weirdo follows a belief where dead foxes and birds need to be neatly arranged together post mortem?

[trickywoo]

Nobody can answer that.

There were reported to be quite a few symbolic elements around the Croydon cat killer also. The police concluded, wrongly in many people’s opinion, that there was no evidence of foul play.

[Jasandjules]

CAPP0 said:

My question then is, what particular brand of weirdo follows a belief where dead foxes and birds need to be neatly arranged together post mortem?

I would say one you want to find, and punch. A lot. Then punch him some more.

[Brads67]

Foxes don't need "conserved" so god knows what a fox conservationist does.

Basically everything you have listed says, no evidence of any wrong doing at all.
I'd also be interested in how he determined they had been poisoned.

[CAPP0]

Jasandjules said:

CAPP0 said:

My question then is, what particular brand of weirdo follows a belief where dead foxes and birds need to be neatly arranged together post mortem?

I would say one you want to find, and punch. A lot. Then punch him some more.

Seems entirely reasonable, I must say.

Brads67 said:

Foxes don't need "conserved" so god knows what a fox conservationist does.

Basically everything you have listed says, no evidence of any wrong doing at all.
I'd also be interested in how he determined they had been poisoned.

I'm getting this mostly via MrsC, who's talking to the person directly dealing with it, so conservationist might not be the exact correct term - someone who looks after foxes in some capacity, anyway. Not sure how they've determined poison but they seem pretty certain, and given the number of otherwise-uninjured animals that have been found dead in the past week or so, it wouldn't be out of the question.

[Drive it fix it repeat]

What you need to do is catch yourself a live fox. Fit it with a go pro and then you can watch where it's going and hopefully see where it's getting poisoned. Film yourself fitting it with the go pro

[Cold]

I wonder if they're eating rat poison or even poisoned rats rather than being deliberately targeted.

[Jasandjules]

Brads67 said:

Basically everything you have listed says, no evidence of any wrong doing at all.

Are you certain? Do you perchance think chasing a fox across land for ages then it being torn apart alive is great fun ?

[CAPP0]

Cold said:

I wonder if they're eating rat poison or even poisoned rats rather than being deliberately targeted.

That would almost be the “best” outcome rather than someone doing it deliberately. Still doesn’t explain the weird sculpture arrangement!

[sospan]

It might be a case of someone using rat poison to kill rats. Foxes are not good hunters but tend to scavenge. So a dead rat is ideal. They eat the rat and ingest the poison. Fox cubs are small so smaller doses would kill them. Carrion eating birds will also die in the same way.
That is the problem with rat poison. The rat doesn’t die immediately but scampers away to die somewhere else.