WHEN a fox ventured into a suburban home in Kent recently and attacked a baby boy, biting off his finger, it predictably resulted in calls for a cull.

National newspapers in particular (you can probably guess which ones) immediately shifted to war footing and attempted to gear the nation up for battle against the creeping menace of the urban fox.

Working in the media, I know exactly how the game works. The original story, admittedly a disturbing one, simply could not be left to fade away overnight. In the newspaper industry, that is what is known as a ‘disappearing splash’ – where a sensational front page one day is not followed up with consequent stories.

When the fox attack story broke, you can guarantee that reporters throughout the land were told to “get me a fox story”.

The problem is that a follow-up story about young Denny Dolan making a full recovery from the attack just isn’t going to be enough for some newspapers.

But because fox attacks are so very rare, what we got in the following day’s papers was a number of ‘stories’ attempting to portray urban foxes as a big threat to our children.

A few desperate newspapers ran with a piece on the Manchester hospital which put a notice at its entrance asking people to make sure the doors were kept closed because foxes had been spotted in the area.

One paper dispatched a photographer to the front line to try to snap the suspect in the Denny Dolan attack – eventually being rewarded for its vigilance with a picture of a fox looking sheepishly from behind a car.

Meanwhile one local paper in Littlehampton, not wanting to miss out on the action, ran a searing piece on the woman who had been forced to put her house on the market because she feared for the life of her pet Chihuahua at the paws of a ‘pack’ of foxes prowling the area.

She says she witnessed one of the beasts kill a pet cat in her back garden. Nasty, I admit, but carry on reading the story of the woman and her shivering Chihuahua, however, and you notice she makes a few very telling remarks.

The delinquent foxes were suspected to be living in a passageway at the back of her home, where she admits people left lots of rubbish.

Bingo… there we have it. Foxes are not prowling our gardens and walking into our homes to steal babies.

As we encroach on to the countryside with housing developments, foxes are finding rich pickings in the bins and mess people leave strewn around.

There has certainly been an increase in the urban fox population. As a child and teenager I never laid eyes on a fox, either in the street or out in the country, they were an almost mystical creature to me. That changed a few years ago when I lived just outside London and nearly tripped over one when it darted from under a parked car while I was out for a run. Last year I spotted one on Knavesmire, and just before Christmas I saw one jauntily trotting along Monkgate.

I am not a fox apologist. While they look cute, one should never forget they are wild animals as well as cruel, clever and ruthless hunters. I do not accept, however they are a realistic threat to humans, and talk of a cull in urban areas is ridiculous and in practice, near impossible.

As ever, common sense and education are the answer. Don’t encourage foxes by leaving food out for them in your garden. Certainly don’t try to feed one yourself and make sure you don’t leave rubbish or easily accessible bin bags lying around. And if you do know there are foxes in your area and you have pets or small children, then don’t leave your door wide open.

Thankfully, a knee-jerk cull appears to have been avoided, despite the best attempts of some sections of the media.

Foxes are a part of urban life now and it’s our fault for concreting over their habitat and letting bloodthirsty morons in red coats chase them out of the countryside.

So if you know they are in your area and don’t want them prowling through your kitchen or your child’s bedroom, then keep your door closed.