Saying he’s heard reports from neighbors of Brown’s Restaurant that they’ve witnessed children leaving plates of doughnuts for red foxes, Councilman Mike DeVlieger said Thursday that he’d like the city to consider creating an ordinance specifically prohibiting feeding the wild animals.
“There’s a certain level of intelligence you have to have to tell your children not to feed the foxes,” DeVlieger said in a half-hearted attempt to be diplomatic at the public council meeting on Thursday.
Business Administrator Jim Mallon said he believes an existing ordinance about feeding wildlife would suffice in allowing the city to post signs on the boardwalk near Brown’s and enforce the ban.
Brown’s has posted its own signs asking customers not to feed the animals.
Ocean City is home to a growing population of red foxes, and the animals are becoming increasingly comfortable with their human neighbors. (See gallery of reader photos of red foxes in Ocean City.)
With pups grown enough to leave their dens by June, fox sightings increase in late spring and early summer — particularly on trash nights and in places where people might be feeding them, according to Bill Hollingsworth, executive director of the Humane Society of Ocean City, which is responsible for animal control in the municipality.
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Also from City Council on Thursday:
Council Takes Power to Clean Up Eyesore Gas Stations: Council Roundup
Pickleball Players Rally for Permanent Home in Ocean City
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The Humane Society is not allowed to euthanize a healthy animal, and state law forbids them from relocating wildlife off the island (except to rehabilitation centers willing to accept them), Hollingsworth told OCNJ Daily last year. There are several active dens in Ocean City, he said.
Hollingsworth said in the four years the Humane Society has been doing animal control in Ocean City, it has received no report of aggressiveness to people or animals and it has identified no rabid or diseased foxes.
“People don’t need to be afraid of them,” he said. “They do come out.”
He said people should be educated about them — never feed them, use lids on trash cans and use outdoor lighting to keep them away from backyards. They are most active in the early morning and late evening.
The animals typically are less visible as the kits grow older and the peak summer crowds arrive.
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