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http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...roups-crosshairs/story-e6frfku0-1226131105638
FOXES could soon go from farm predator to family pet.
An uproar has erupted over an anonymous application to import and breed the silver fox - a close relative of Australia's most damaging introduced predator, the red fox.
It comes as animal welfare group Animals Australia says there is "virtually no evidence" foxes or any other introduced animals damage the Australian environment.
Environment Minister Tony Burke labelled the import application "insane", while Australian National University environment expert Professor David Lindamayer said it was "madness".
But the Federal Department of Environment is duty-bound to assess the application.
The application, seen by The Weekly Times, said an escaped silver fox could breed with a red fox "and would pass on its genetics in offspring".
"Its offspring would have immunities to diseases ... red foxes have," the application said.
The application also claimed foxes could not climb trees; that a single chicken kill would feed a fox for a week, and that foxes did not nest, shelter or feed in or around swamps, lakes, dams or rivers.
"The fox, if anything, helps the Australian environment for they kill both fully grown and baby rabbits more often than any other prey," the application said.
The assertion mirrors claims made by animal welfare group Animals Australia in its Introduced Animals Fact Sheet.
The "fact sheet" said there was "virtually no evidence" exotic animals harmed the Australian environment.
It said foxes, cats, goats, pigs, rabbits and rats should not have been listed as "threatening" to the Australian ecosystem.
"Given that where the natural Australian environment remains intact, introduced animals are either unable to naturalise (colonise) or ... appear to have minimal invasive impact ... the obvious way to be rid of (populations of exotic animals) and of their impacts is to gradually restore as much as possible of the landscape to native habitat," the sheet said.
The Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre said foxes cost $21 million a year in lambing losses, $190 million a year in other livestock and native wildlife losses and $40 million annually in control programs.
National Farmers' Federation president Jock Laurie said foxes were "not pets, they're predators".
FOXES could soon go from farm predator to family pet.
An uproar has erupted over an anonymous application to import and breed the silver fox - a close relative of Australia's most damaging introduced predator, the red fox.
It comes as animal welfare group Animals Australia says there is "virtually no evidence" foxes or any other introduced animals damage the Australian environment.
Environment Minister Tony Burke labelled the import application "insane", while Australian National University environment expert Professor David Lindamayer said it was "madness".
But the Federal Department of Environment is duty-bound to assess the application.
The application, seen by The Weekly Times, said an escaped silver fox could breed with a red fox "and would pass on its genetics in offspring".
"Its offspring would have immunities to diseases ... red foxes have," the application said.
The application also claimed foxes could not climb trees; that a single chicken kill would feed a fox for a week, and that foxes did not nest, shelter or feed in or around swamps, lakes, dams or rivers.
"The fox, if anything, helps the Australian environment for they kill both fully grown and baby rabbits more often than any other prey," the application said.
The assertion mirrors claims made by animal welfare group Animals Australia in its Introduced Animals Fact Sheet.
The "fact sheet" said there was "virtually no evidence" exotic animals harmed the Australian environment.
It said foxes, cats, goats, pigs, rabbits and rats should not have been listed as "threatening" to the Australian ecosystem.
"Given that where the natural Australian environment remains intact, introduced animals are either unable to naturalise (colonise) or ... appear to have minimal invasive impact ... the obvious way to be rid of (populations of exotic animals) and of their impacts is to gradually restore as much as possible of the landscape to native habitat," the sheet said.
The Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre said foxes cost $21 million a year in lambing losses, $190 million a year in other livestock and native wildlife losses and $40 million annually in control programs.
National Farmers' Federation president Jock Laurie said foxes were "not pets, they're predators".
