Fox cub strangled to death in football net in south London back garden

A fox cub has been strangled to death in a football net in a south London back garden, prompting the RSPCA to issue a warning about the danger netting poses to wildlife.

The owner of the south London garden called the RSPCA when they saw three fox cubs trapped in their children's football net.

Jade Guthrie, the RSPCA animal rescue officer who attended the scene, said: "It was a very upsetting sight.

"Three little fox cubs had become entangled in the kids’ football net overnight.

"Their mother – the vixen – had been desperately trying to free her cubs but could only watch helplessly as one of them gave up the fight for life.

"The other two were thankfully still alive and I was able to gently cut away the netting that was trapping them, before letting them dash back to the safety of their mum".

Last year were 277 reported incidents of animals trapped in nets in back gardens in Greater London, more than any other county in England and Wales.

Guthrie said: "Sadly these incidents happen far too often.

"That was the second incident in just one week I’d attended to help entangled baby foxes and my colleagues are being called out to multiple netting incidents."

The RSPCA is urging people to take extra care with any garden netting, to protect the foxes, hedgehogs and other wildlife that visit their gardens.

Evie Button, RSPCA scientific officer, said: "We would urge all those using sports netting to remove and store the nets after their game and put any discarded or old netting safely in a bin.

"Any garden fence netting should be replaced with solid metal mesh and use wooden panels as fencing instead of netting."

This is particularly important in May, when young and inexperienced animals are likely to be venturing out and about for the first time, and can easily become trapped.