Parks Canada workers erect a sign warning people against feeding the foxes at Signal Hill
A fed fox is a dead fox.
That’s the message Rock Wildlife Rescue wants visitors to Newfoundland and Labrador’s parks and national historic sites to remember.
A fox was recently struck and killed by a vehicle at Signal Hill, and officials say it’s a direct result of people feeding the animals.
Director of Rock Wildlife Rescue, Karen Brown-Gosse says when you feed wild animals, you are making them used to people and less wary.
She says it also makes the animals more dependent on scraps instead of hunting, which makes subsequent generations even more vulnerable.
She says foxes are bringing their kits to places like Signal Hill for food.
“They’re teaching their young to come to these places as well, and that’s putting them at a very high risk, because when the winter comes, and we’re not at Signal Hill, and those foxes are coming out looking for food, then what?”
She says some will adapt and return to hunting, but the young ones won’t be able to do that.
“Not to mention, people have been bitten.”