Dear All,
Yet another bit of lunacy by the pet industry. An application to import Silver Foxes (not the type that hang out in upmarket bars) as pets, has been lodged by someone in NSW. Fortunately most of our steamed leaders have not been terribly enthusiastic. Tony Burke, the Fed Environment leader has said “at first glance it seems insane”. Personally, I think the idea is insane no matter how many glances, or even a long, hard stare are given to this idea. It is about as intelligent idea as the attempt to import Savannah Cats.
Details can be found at http://m.smh.com.au/environment/animals/silver-fox-import-plan-condemned-20110905-1jubj.html
Carl Clifford
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Is it legal to keep foxes as pets now? I would have thought that encouraging that, now matter what colour they are, will result in escapees.
Peter Shute
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Yes, but supplementing our wild foxes with an entirely new gene pool can’t be a good thing. It could make them genetically more robust and better able to resist diseases, which could make any future biocontrols we might come up with less effective. Just an example of one possible knock-on effect, who knows what impacts this could have that we would never anticipate ahead of time, like Gambusia making Mosquitos worse, or that insect they released to control Lantana that attacks Fiddlewood instead.
Also, would allowing them to be brought in as pets suddenly allow a loophole to bring them into Tasmania freely, or onto other islands like Norfolk or Lord Howe?
Our environment is already pretty stuffed, lets not mess with it any further I say.
Cheers, Chris
ps. I agree that this isn’t as bad as the Savanna Cats idea though, that was far more terrifying.
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Fortunately, that idea seems to have been thoroughly hit on the head. I wonder what the next bright idea will be.
Carl Clifford
Not as stupid a plan as importing Savanna Cats, which could outcompete the feral cats already here and kill wildlife even more efficiently,. Silver Foxes are just a colour-phase of the Red Fox and if they escaped would just merge into the gene-pool. Australia is already fully-stocked with feral foxes.
John Leonard
On 6 September 2011 13:52, Carl Clifford wrote:
Not as stupid a plan as importing Savanna Cats, which could outcompete the feral cats already here and kill wildlife even more efficiently,. Silver Foxes are just a colour-phase of the Red Fox and if they escaped would just merge into the gene-pool. Australia is already fully-stocked with feral foxes.
John Leonard
Greg,
They will make interesting looking hybrids with the Red Fox; see http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/arctic-foxred-fox-hybrids/
Carl Clifford
Carl
Fully agree mate, there are enough exotic pests in the country without introducing more.
Greg Little
Carl
Fully agree mate, there are enough exotic pests in the country without introducing more.
Greg Little
Well Peter, you know what the paving on the road to hell is made from. Never seems to be a shortage of it.
Carl Clifford
I find the fact that someone thinks that’s a good idea more frightening than the idea itself.
Peter Shute
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I find the fact that someone thinks that’s a good idea more frightening than the idea itself.
Peter Shute
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