The Brighton Lawn Bowling and Croquet Club has a few unwelcome visitors taking up residence at the clubhouse.
A family of foxes has returned to their “home” for the second year at the clubhouse located at 10 Veterans Way in downtown Brighton.
Treasurer of Brighton Lawn Bowling and Croquet Club, Malcolm Rawlings said last year the mother and kits left the clubhouse around August and the club tried to prevent them from returning.
“The Municipality told the Club they didn’t want the family of foxes back, so the Club hired a person who put thick wire barrier three feet down and under the foundation on the north and south side where the family had burrowed into their den.”
“Unfortunately we did not know there was another potential entrance at the front of the building, which this year she came back and found.”
There is a mother and five kits underneath the clubhouse.
“All we knew at the time is she was digging at the north and south ends of the building where she had burrowed under last year. We didn’t know that she’d actually got in. So we came over and put a bunch of rocks in the hole as a temporary measure just to stop her from continuing to dig through the wire barrier.”
An idea the club came up with was to place patio stones around the perimeter of the building to stop her from digging.
“This Friday (May 1), two Club members came down and put additional patio slabs on the east side of the building, but leaving the entrance/exit that she was using open. Basically to shore up and stop her from digging any further along that side.”
Rawlings said, “all we’re doing is protecting club property.”
Once the family of foxes leaves, the club will seal up around the building to prevent next years unwanted guests.
A social media post has created controversy and Rawlings said, there were a lot of inaccuracies in the post.
“It basically went viral.”
Rawlings said people were falsely accusing the club of harming the foxes, wanting to poisoning them, filling in the only entrance to smother them, smoking them out and trapping them.
“I’m thinking who the hell put the trap here, it wasn’t one of us.”
There was no trap that any members found.
‘Smoking them out’ was figurative term used by one member to describe our intention to encourage the mother to vacate once the kits were ready to leave. Unfortunately, this was taken literally and used as a basis for attacking the club.
“It just spiraled way out of control.”
“Basically we ended up with a (online) mob. There is no other way of describing it.”
The club tried its best last year to make sure there was no way the fox and her new kits would be able to take up residence below the clubhouse.
“We hired somebody to come in and do this. You expect them to do it.”
Another reason the club was concerned about the unwanted guests is some people are feeding them. Some photographers, coming from all over, also try to bait the kits out with food in spite of the he club posting signs saying ‘Do not feed the wildlife’.
“Last year we had lots of activities in the nearby bandstand and children were feeding the foxes.”
“Our concern was something might startle the foxes and a child could get nipped.”
“We even asked the children not to feed the foxes and they went back to their parents and their parents came back and gave us a hard time.”
Rawlings is asking people to keep their distance and not feed the foxes. “The club wants to reassure everyone that the fox and her kits are fine, have never been harmed and will be allowed to vacate when they are ready. Also MNR is aware of the clubs plans and have no concerns about the foxes welfare.”
They will be on their way in the coming weeks and the club will be able to permanently secure the area around the building.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
