Warning to Aussie pet owners after shocking find on doorbell camera
A Sydney resident has warned locals to be wary of small pets after discovering an unlikely visitor on her doorstep.
The video was taken on Saturday morning in Menai, in Sydney’s south-west, and shows a fox stopping in front of the resident’s door before looking around and trotting off again.
Posting to Facebook, the woman said she’d reported the sighting to her local council and urged the community to “please be mindful for pocket pets”.
The animal appears to be young and while some noted it looked “cute”, others were quick to explain why foxes were pests.
“Poor little guys looks like a baby so beautiful,” one wrote.
“That's sad...It looks scared and lost,” another said.
“Not pretty not beautiful not cute,” someone else wrote. “They are vermin and introduced. They prey on our native fauna and cause death and destruction. Don’t leave any pet food around.”
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Others said the fox was a local and could often be seen around Menai High School. The school has its own farm, with some guessing the chickens were attracting the attention of foxes.
Foxes kill billions of animals every year
It is estimated foxes and cats kill over 2.6 billion creatures a year in Australia.
Researchers at Charles Darwin University studied the diet of foxes and found they were commonly consuming native animals including rodents, possums, gliders and macropods, along with feral creatures like rabbits, hares, rats, mice and livestock.
Bandicoots, bilbies, bats, monotremes, moles, numbats, cats and an odd assortment of other species made up less than 30 per cent of their diet.
The Menai resident was right to warn pet owners in the area, as foxes are also known to prey on small cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and even small dog breeds.
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