Crofts Veterinary Surgery
Crofts, Petworth Road, Haslemere
Surrey GU27 2HR
Telephone: 01428 653056

Mr & Mrs Cornick
Hydestile Wildlife Hospital
New Road
Hydestile
Godalming
Surrey
GU8 4DJ

16.02.00

Dear Lynn & Graham

Many thanks for the copies of letters and articles which have appeared in the Press, including the Veterinary Record, over the last few weeks concerning the fox nicknamed "Copper".

I find it very hard to understand the comments made by some of my Veterinary colleagues to try to explain the shock that this animal was suffering at the time it was taken to Mr Richard Edwards' practice for treatment. To imply that the shock was induced by being handled by humans, caged in darkness and subjected to road transport for the first time in its life, suggests to me that they have never treated a fox before.

Having treated many foxes for wildlife hospitals over the last twenty years, it is my experience that once captured and confined, foxes will settle down to a car journey without suffering undue stress. I also find that if they are restrained firmly, it is possible to examine a conscious fox, again without causing undue stress and certainly without producing the degree of shock that Mr Edwards described. Once they are released into a hospital cage, with a heat lamp and bed they very quickly settle down, often basking in the heat and appreciating a meal at regular intervals.

Being a Veterinary Surgeon in general practice in a rural area where I deal with both indigenous wild animals and working animals belonging to game keepers I have to be even handed in my treatment, as my prime concern is always the patient presented to me. My own personal opinions regarding fox hunting are not a concern in my every day work, nor indeed are they as far as this letter is concerned.

I am certain that if someone was to fund a research project into stress in foxes they would find evidence of stress in foxes being handled, caged or transported. However, having carried out all these procedures with foxes over the last twenty years I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the state Copper was in when admitted for veterinary treatment was not due to the handling and transport to which he was subjected. I leave any reasoning person then to work out what else might have been the cause.

Yours sincerely

M. J. Sealey BVMS., MRCVS