Residents of the Canbury Park Road area in Kingston have recently reported incidents of foxes entering their homes, leading to divided opinions within the community.

A resident-conducted survey from a neighbouring street indicates that seven of the road's 55 households have experienced foxes inside their homes.

Additionally, 35 residents report they have been disturbed by fox noises, 43 have witnessed foxes fouling their gardens, 30 have noted damage to outdoor items, and four have had property damage inside their homes.

Notably, three residents reported fox fouling within their homes, and one resident's pet was reportedly harmed by a fox.

Despite these occurrences, some residents view the situation positively.

In an exclusive interview with Nub News, resident Neil recounted how he and his wife were awakened by a fox entering their home at night.

He said: "Foxes in the Canbury area are fairly endemic, and there's little people can do since they navigate the wooded areas between railway lines.

"Although we often see foxes, and they sometimes stray into our garden, it's just part of nature."

Neil's wife, Thea, described the experience, explaining that she woke up to a fox licking her arm while she was asleep in their loft-converted bedroom on the second floor.

She said: "Neil thought I was dreaming, but he got up out of bed and went to investigate and he went down the first flight of stairs down to the first floor and he saw the fox's tail disappearing into one of the other bedrooms."

"So, as soon as he got to the bottom of the stairs, the fox then ran out of the bedroom, right the way down the stairs into the ground floor, went round and into Neil's office."

Thea continued: "Now, none of the doors were open or anything, so it couldn't obviously quickly get out - we guess it must have come in through the cat flap, which seems extraordinary as the fox was enormous.

"The fox then proceeded to jump on top of a bookcase, which is six or seven feet tall, running across the bookcases, knocking everything off, then shot down into the kitchen, and Neil thought, 'I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get this out', so he opened the back door and then as he went round, the fox must have come around the other side of the kitchen and gone out the door."

Though she said, "there was never a point [she] felt scared".

Thea added: "I didn't think the fox was going to eat me or attack me or bite me or anything, it was literally just licking my elbow, it was just that it was cold that made me aware of it.

"I think the fox was simply curious. It was likely following the scent of our cats, which are frequently in and out."

However, she added that if she had children living at home, she might be more concerned.

"And there is obviously a hygiene issue with some of these things as well, but, I didn't mind it at all," Thea continued.

Neil explained that some people in the neighbourhhod are "really up in arms about the foxes".

However, he said, "We see it as just nature going about its business - foxes don't really want to be in the cities, but they are in the cities and they have to make the best of it that they can and usually they don't cause any problems."

Neil added that his cats often chase the foxes out of his garden, but the foxes never cause his cats any harm.

He said: "They generally seem to co-exist quite happily, to be honest, and I'd be very surprised if the fox would do any potential damage to a cat unless it was completely cornered or starving.

"But again, they usually go after smaller prey, like rats or mice and occasionally birds, I would imagine, and a lot of waste.

"If people are not conscious of waste management and food waste, I think that's certainly going to attract foxes. But they've got to eat something."

Opposition

Conversely, resident Brenda expressed discomfort with foxes entering her home.

She told Nub News, ""One of my favourite things is when we come back from London at night and see the foxes just lying in the road because it's warm, but letting them into homes is concerning."

After a fox entered her residence through a window and caused some damage, she voiced worries about the impact on families with young children.

Brenda reported that a fox entered her home early one morning after she had opened her back window on the first floor.

She explained that she thinks the fox got onto her roof from the fence next door and then climbed into her spare room.

Brenda said: "Luckily, we didn't have much in the room, but the fox chewed through some things I guess he thought were food. I don't know if it was scared of our dog as we heard nothing.

"We had no idea at all that a fox had gotten into that room - it was only because a neighbour told us about a fox getting into her home and chewing through their sofa and other leather stuff.

"There were papers scattered in our spare room office and I noticed a bag had been chewed through - luckily that was the only damage."

The resident added that while she is "definitely a fan" of foxes, she is not a fan of them in her house.

She continued: "I'm not really sure what issues they bring - I mean, I don't know if foxes carry anything.

"But, we have a lot of families around here with babies and I don't think allowing foxes in homes should be something that's encouraged.

"I also don't think people should feed them because they obviously get enough food from the food bins and stuff like that.

"They're meant to forage and hunt, and I think the more people try and make them into sweet little pets in such an urban area, it's only going to cause serious issues.

"I don't want to sound like a spoil sport, but like the deer in Richmond Park, foxes are wild animals and they should be treated as wild animals.

"I just don't think anything good will come of people letting them into their houses."

One of Brenda's neighbours, who will be referred to as Ms X, also did not enjoy having a fox entering her home despite being an animal-lover.

Ms X has had multiple home fox intrusions over the past two years and noted that despite employing various deterrents, they proved ineffective.

"I don't know what the solution is - there are people who can remove other animals from homes, but foxes are so protected, we cannot get someone in to remove them," she said.

Ms X reported that she first experienced a fox entering her home last year, which she said was "quite scary" because her daughter was downstairs by herself.

She added: "I think it got through the cat flap and I think it came in a few times.

"So it had come in, and my daughter was screaming, and the fox was running around, and urinating all over the sofa, and then we had the difficulty of trying to get it out of a box."

The most recent incident happened on the same day as Brenda's whereby Ms X was woken up by a fox in her daughter's room, which is opposite hers.

"But fortunately, she wasn't sleeping in there," Ms X said.

She reports that she found her BIRKENSTOCK shoes in the middle of the room.

Ms X said: "That was really strange, so when I entered the room, I thought, 'Why on earth are my shoes in my daughter's room? They shouldn't be there. That's so strange'.

"And then as I was getting closer, I could see that they'd been bitten and there were bits of the leather shoe all over the floor, and the window was wide open because it was over 30C."

She explained that the fox had managed to climb her six foot tall fence and enter her home through her extension.

Ms X said: "it was so disturbing because I wasn't sure if the fox had got into the kids' bedrooms and if it was still there or if it had gone.

"When I went downstairs, it had already started to bite through the leather sofa. There were these chunks of my sofa missing as well.

"And what makes it worse is that we never heard the fox in our home - it was only after we woke up the next day and noticed the damage that we realised it had been there.

"You don't want anything coming into your house when you're sleeping. Foxes are wild, and should be outside and not coming in.

Ms X said she did not realise the scale of the issue until she found that several of her neighbours had experienced similar situations.

She continued: "So, it's a bit of an issue, and I don't know if there's something wrong with the foxes - whether they're ill or something because they're not behaving as wild as they should.

"They shouldn't be coming into our homes, so my main concern is that they might not be well."

However, she explained it is difficult to pinpoint the cause of the issue as this is not something one can report to the police.

Ms X added: "And a lot of animal rights groups just advise us to close our windows, but that is not possible during the current heatwaves - especially when we can't afford air conditioning.

"So, we just need to find a solution that works, but there doesn't seem to be a sensible one."

"The issue is that people are feeding the foxes and they don't realise that they may be blurring the lines between a wild animal and a pet, and their foxes are then becoming more confident around humans, and that's creating a whole new set of issues, but nobody seems to want to think about that."

Kingston Council has been notified of the situation, and residents are awaiting feedback.

While a solution remains elusive, the community continues to deliberate over how to address the matter effectively while considering the animals' welfare.

Nub News has reached out to Kingston Council for comment.