... hundred years, how can this be? How can it be that over the greater spaces of France and Germany the fox is mangy, decrepit and rare, yet the finest examples, brightest of eye, bushiest of tail and glossiest of coat, are right here in our shires. The reason is simple; the English fox has been carefully husbanded, nurtured and culled. The hunt is the annual cull, operated in a narrow non-breeding season. Another fact. Amid all the intricate lines of the food chains that operate here in the country, with predators night and day hunting their quarry, only the fox sits at the top of the chain. No one preys on him. Without a selective reduction in his numbers, he would experience a population explosion with disastrous results for the rest of the ecology and just as bad for the foxes, reduced to scavenging garbage or fighting each other ...

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