Landlords in Tooting are urging tenants to buy dustbins in a bid to discourage the increasing number of foxes now prowling around the borough. Francesca Cowin, a landlord, claims her property has been experiencing problems with the creatures outside her home for about 10 years.
The house that she protects with landlord insurance has had the same tenants for 18 months and they have complained several times about the high number of foxes in the garden. The young family have a four year old child and the mother is forced to clean fox faeces from the garden if her daughter wants to play outside. Ms Cowin feels the foxes are thriving because of the large number of people using bin bags and not a dustbin.
Francesca said: “Half of the people in the borough don’t have bins. It is important they address this, it is encouraging foxes and crime. I have for 10 years had tenants telling me about problems with foxes. I experienced them myself when I lived there, now there is a family with young children there and I am urging the council to help.”
The local council have always advised their residents to put bin bags into dustbins that have lids to stop both foxes and cats from looking for food waste. However, they claim it is the private landlord’s responsibility to provide a bin for their tenants. The bins only cost around £10 and would prevent this problem from happening.
The landlord’s appeal comes days after Queen guitarist Brian May, an animal rights campaigner, claimed urban foxes, which now number twenty-eight per square mile in the capital, are being encouraged by the amount of litter on the streets. He is against any attempt to cull them as he does not believe they are a danger to humans but appreciates the use of dustbins would deter them from foraging in bags.