80,000 Sign Petition Against State Killing Foxes On NJ Beaches

JERSEY SHORE - The message is simple. Stop killing our foxes, now.

Almost 80,000 residents have signed a petition calling for the state Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Fish and Wildlife Services to stop killing red foxes on barrier island beaches by trapping them, then shooting them to save endangered piping plover shorebirds.

"The DEP contracts with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to trap and shoot the foxes and by law, traps are supposed to be checked every day to minimize suffering...which in itself is an admission to suffering," the petition on Care 2 states.

Dave Jenkins, head of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife's endangered species project, told Patch recently that trapping and shooting predator foxes sometimes reluctantly, has to be done. He denied that any foxes have been poisoned.

"These are not easy choices," Jenkins said. "We don't relish the idea of having to control foxes."

Donna DeAngelis posted the petition on the Care 2 site.

"Residents of Brigantine claim the Fish and Wildlife Services have been seen at the north end of the island setting snares to catch male foxes while the vixens are in their dens with kits; therefore, mother and pups would starve while waiting for the male who is not coming back to return with food," the petition states.

Although the petition is entitled "Stop Killing Foxes in Brigantine, NJ," the state is trapping, then killing foxes on all barrier beaches in New Jersey. The Care 2 petition set a goal of 80,000 signatures. By Wednesday, 79,032 people had signed.

Plovers are a threatened species. Their numbers have dropped to 1o5 nesting pairs in New Jersey. That's down from the roughly 130-140 pairs a decade ago. Predators, like foxes, will eat not only the birds, but their chicks and their eggs. Jenkins has said.

The New Jersey Game Council allowed the use of "foot enscapulating" traps in a controversial decision in 2016, the petition states.

"Some residents claim they have seen traps, snares, or even poisoned foxes....but one thing is sadly for certain...most of the foxes are gone from the island," the petition states. We, the tax-paying citizens, deserve to have a voice in the decision making process rather than it being hidden from us until all the foxes have been killed. We deserve the right to be part of the solution."

To see the petition, click here.
What do you think? Should the state continue this practice? Tell us in the comments section below.
Photo: by Gary Lehman, posted on New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Services website.