Foxes

I stumbled upon a dead fox during my walk in the woods today. It was probably killed by hunters and left there as an example. It was a beautiful adult fox its body already returning to nature. I snapped a picture but won't post it here, it's awful. People here have a deep hatred of foxes. It's ancestral and rooted in old prejudices. Foxes are killer of poultry and one says that they break havoc in chicken coops becoming berserk at the view of hens and at the smell of blood. They are believed to carry rabies, too. Scientists say that they don't kill so many chickens after all and rabies kill them rapidly, so they are not so much a nuisance. Instead they have a role in the ecosystem of the woods, killing many rabbits and preventing them to proliferate and eventually spread myxomatosis. They kill also many country mouses, without this predation mouses would proliferate and attack crops. But what to do against ignorance and hatred? In this parts even to be red-haired can attract suspicion, because it's the same colour than the foxes, you know.