THE fear of foxes is running so high on a Borough Green housing estate one man is threatening to shoot them.

Declining to be named as he is afraid of reprisals, he said he was horrified when a fox slipped through three doors and was about to go upstairs, where his baby was asleep.

CAMPAIGN: A resident has put up these posters on Harrison Road in Borough Green

He is among many on the Woodlands estate concerned about foxes breeding in their back gardens and appearing in their lounges and kitchens.

Harrison Road resident Jenny Wolny, who has two young children, said: "I have never seen foxes quite so brazen. You see them almost as often as you see cats."

She urged others not to feed them.

"A wild animal is a wild animal," she added.

But McDermott Road resident Sandra Lee admitted she has sometimes left out food.

"I like the foxes and wish people would be more kind," said the social worker.

"One is quite tame and comes into the kitchen.

"They come under enough fire, and I think they find things more difficult than people realise."

Nearby neighbours Steve and Nicky Gannon were reluctant hosts to a vixen who had six cubs under their garden shed.

Mrs Gannon said: "One day I was sitting reading a magazine and the mum came in the house. I just screamed."

Pat Head, of Staleys Road, was brought up on a farm and thinks of foxes as "vermin".

Humane wildlife deterrent consultant John Bryant has been inundated with calls from people throughout the district.

He said fox attacks on East London twins Isabella and Lola Koupparis and three-year-old Brighton boy Jake Jermy had led to "mass hysteria".

"Every year 5,000 people are hospitalised in the UK by dogs, including several babies killed," he said. "A thousand people are hospitalised by bee and wasp stings and a dozen or so die, and we know cows kill people on occasions.

"But no one has ever been killed by a fox."

Trevor Williams, of the Fox Project in Pembury, did not recommend feeding the foxes unless they were obviously poorly or under-nourished.

"We like wildlife because it's wild," he said.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) says foxes can be controlled by local authorities, land owners or home owners – but only by using humane methods.

The Fox Project has a 24-hour advice line. Call 01892 826222.