Outraged British woman exploited by the universe, abandoned by her fellow man:
A mother from Faversham who found a dead fox in her garden was outraged to be told to put the body in the wheelie bin (garbage can). Carol Whelen, of Springfield Avenue, found the animal in her garden on Sunday, August 7, but despite calling Swale Council, her housing association AmicusHorizon, the RSPCA and an organization called Fox Protection, she found no one willing to remove it.
Please, can’t somebody do something?
h/t
Helpless is as helpless does. However from reading British news on the internet, I can understand her reluctance. They are so barmy over there she would likely get a $500 equivalent fine for having a dead fox in her bin. The binmen would refuse to pick it up etc. Not so Great Britain has totally lost the plot in virtually every area of life.
vcr island mike
Maybe Vίtruvius has a recipe for fox pate’..?
“If it has been poisoned, I can’t put it in my dustbin.”
Why not?
She does sound helpless, but indeed that might
be induced helplessness, as “mike” suggests.
Maybe a shovel … ?
She is oblivious to shovels & garbage bags.
She’s probably been so scared by prior government persecution of anyone who thinks for themselves that she’s been made helpless by the state.
No doubt one would be tossed in jail for 10 years if one were to either bury it, drag it into a ditch, toss it in the trash, or heaven forbid take it to a taxidermist and get it made into art.
Heck, touching it is probably punishable by transportation to a colony.
Black Mamba
Hard on the dustbins…I guess…
Why doesn’t she just place it in the neighbor’s “dustbin” after the sun sets like a normal person would?
Life doesn’t have to be so difficult.
“Why not?” (10:11)
Because she needs a 10-man HazMat team — you know, the sort that shows up every time someone poisons a mouse.
You can dispose of a corpse. You just have to put a little thought into it.
Black Mamba…yea but woodchippers are passe’…
Now in Canada, at least in parts where a sense of humour still exists, this would be an open invitation for spirited nature loving but bored youth to start collecting road kill to keep the late mr fox company in the old biddy’s garden.
Just find the nearest Goth kid. They’ll be happy to take it off your hands.
Okay, let’s have a serious discussion. This animal rights nonsense (and that’s what I think it is) comes about because of ones worldview. If you think that human beings are just one of thousands of species on this planet, and that every species must have dignity and respect and rights on a par with humans, then you get this nonsense. You get PETA’s nonsense. And extreme veganism.
However, if you believe that human beings are unique, that we are a special creation and that we alone have an eternal soul, then PETA is nonsensical and misguided and dangerous.
If you believe that this British woman is a half-wit, then tell me why. What’s your basis for putting her down?
Further comment – I confess to you my blogoshere, that today I drove over a pair of ducks. My review mirror revealed two mangled and flopping birds on the road. What should I have done?
Should I have gone back? Cried? Given them a funeral? Had them for supper? Or just left them for the crows?
ps. I left them for the crows
“If you believe that this British woman is a half-wit, then tell me why. What’s your basis for putting her down?”
She can’t figure out how solve a ridiculously simple, mundane “problem”, and seems unable even to contemplate thinking about trying to grasp painfully basic notions of personal self-reliance. (I mean, you pick the thing up with a shovel and put it in a black garbage bag and leave it in the bin.)
Anyway, I don’t see what’s so repectful and dignified for the dead fox about demanding the council chappie come ’round to dump the thing in the incinerator. If she really wanted to honour it like a dead human she’d bury it with a little shroud and a headstone and give it a nice speech and maybe some flowers, wouldn’t she?
I suppose that if we are going to assume that the fox is the equivalent of a human as PETA would suggest, then we should do with its corpse what it would do with ours. Fire up the barbie!
In the words of Ralph Kline Shoot Shovel and Shut up. It’s just that there is no shooting required.
If you can scare them to death it saves on ammo…just sayin..
Burial with a headstone can be a practical solution here, Black Mamba.
Then plant a tree over it. For the inscription on the headstone, “Do not disturb. Fox below is fertilizing tree”.
“She can’t figure out how solve a ridiculously simple, mundane ‘problem’, and seems unable even to contemplate thinking about trying to grasp painfully basic notions of personal self-reliance.”
Exactly.
Btw, Jack, the woman gave no hint of a suggestion that she was concerned about the dignity of the dead critter; she just didn’t want to touch it, and she believed that someone else had a responsibility deal with it.
Perhaps if it had been a dead robin, or a dormouse, the absurdity of her assumption that someone else – some non-profit agency, or her housing association, or some government agency or other – should be duty-bound to come to her place to take it away would be more self-evident.
@Jack 10:59
What a fowl thing to do!
After years of the socialist nanny state no one in the formerly Great Britain has the capacity to solve even the simplest problem without some bureaucrats approval.Welcome to Canadas future unless we turn things around soon!
After years of the socialist nanny state no one in the formerly Great Britain has the capacity to solve even the simplest problem without some bureaucrats approval.Welcome to Canadas future unless we turn things around soon!
It’s pervasive helplessness encouraged by the state that prefers no-one think or act for him/herself. There is always an authority, agency, or acronym that you should address yourself to, either to ask permission or simply to relieve you of the responsibility. Recall the fellow who received all sorts of punishments and disapproval because he dispatched a nuisance raccoon with a shovel? Or the farmer who got into trouble because some carp died in his flooded fields after the water receded? Perhaps she’s not so foolish after all.
I guess shoot, shovel and shut up didn’t reach its way back to britain.
why not get half a cord of wood and burn it to ash?
p.s. for a twist on bureaucracy watch ‘Brazil’ with Robert DeNiro and Lillian Helman and some saucy brunette plus the hapless guy from Glengarry Glenross.
do what dog’s do with bones …dig a hole and burry it!!
CEO – you can’t possibly mean Lillian Helman. Why, everything you write about this movie is probably a lie, including “and” and “the”!
Since Britain is as bad as California I’m sure there is a Dept. of dead foxes she could have called. The nanny state is all encompassing. Somewhere in that phone book is the number of a bored civil servant just waiting to spring into action. She just did’nt try hard enough.
Frankemm may be onto something there. One of my cousins, who is a retired farmer, went to Siberia for about twelve years after 1990 for an organization to help former Kolkhoz workers begin enterprises of their own. He said it is almost impossible to do this as they have no idea how to do anything without being told what to do. Self sufficiency with the use of fear was beaten out them for seventy decades.
“why not get half a cord of wood and burn it to ash?”
Global warming. Duh.
Like, hello!! Put in a box, get some gift wrap and large bow. Leave it on your front step until someone thinks it’s a Barbie from Aunt Pearl in Toronto. Imagine the look on the guy’s face!
“She can’t figure out how solve a ridiculously simple, mundane ‘problem’, and seems unable even to contemplate thinking about trying to grasp painfully basic notions of personal self-reliance.”
Playing devil’s advocate here, it could be more a matter of government regulation turning a simple, mundane problem into a myriad of (sometimes conflicting) rules and regulations that the layman cannot possibly hope to follow – complete with legal and financial penalties for failing to abide by them.
I think her response would be different depending on what type of dead animal it was.
For instance, if it was a rat, it’s small enough to dig a wee hole to put it in (or put in trash). Neat and tidy.
What if it was a cute little puddy tat?
She might be leaning towards a backyard monument, no?
A fox is a little bit bigger of a nuisance.
Still….not to big to put in the trash.
If it was a deer, I’d be calling for help….just not to the media.
Joe Citizen’s idea rocks!
I hate having to register to vent, so what I wanted to post there I post her:
“A Mother”- “58”- Gee, I don’t know, maybe get one of your obviously adult “children” to man up, grow a pair and get rid of it for you. For God sakes woman, my 9 and 12 year deal with live deer and bear in our yard all the time. This a dead fox. Or is it a Norwegian Blue Parrot? You make me ashamed to be of UK heritage. The next time you need our rescue, forget it. You’ve already surrendered anything worth saving.
It’s obvious: stew.
mamba
how many bodies do you have buried in your back yard?
Now if that fox had been named Layton and was found in Ontario, it would have gotten a State Funeral……
She’s p1ssed because none of the myriad highly paid public health officials will come to do the job that her exorbitant taxes highly pay them to do. And she’s trying to avoid a -fine-. Possibly jail time.
Check it:
“Director of the Fox Project Trevor Williams said he would not recommend disposing of dead animals in a wheelie bin, adding: “We would always say the best thing to do is call the council, because wildlife belongs to no one.”
“However, many councils have decided to avoid what we understand to be their responsibility under the Public Health Act, citing insurance problems when entering people’s homes.”
That there even exists a “Director of the Fox Project” tells one volumes about the bureaucratic minefield to be navigated by the average schlub trying to get rid of a dead fox that’s starting to pong.
The garbage man weighs and inspects the garbage at pick-up to ensure resident compliance with recycling/garbage regulations, which I’m sure fill a four inch thick, 8 1/2×11 binder. Double sided. At least. So if he finds a dead fox in there, and he will, she’s going to get nicked for sure.
Making this seemingly asinine occurrence a genuine Catch 22 for this lady. Solution? Publicly shaming the authorities. Well done, fat lady!
Had it been me, I’d have chucked it in the road after dark. Or maybe left it on the hood of the Director of the Fox Project’s no doubt eco-friendly car. Earn you pay, Trevor old son.
But then I’m an anti-social brute and non-team player at the best of times.
I am pretty sure it was Katherine Helmond in “Brazil”. Michael Palin too. I would have to watch it again to recall more.
An actual SDA entry on the SDA blog.
Nanny Nanny, please do this for me, please do that for me.
Amazing how some people can be so clueless. It’s an easy problem to solve. Every now I then, I find a dead fox near my hen coop or a dead raccoon near my compost pile. Lead poisoning, it seems. And I do the same thing every time:
a. Throw the dead body in my truck box
b. Drive a few miles until I reach crown land
c. Toss the dead body
Less work than burying. The ravens will pick it clean within the day. That’s the beauty of Nature, nothing is ever wasted.
In Italy she would have just thrown it in the side of the road and the maggots would have done the heavy lifting.
Whenever the city I live in won’t take something I put in the trash, I simply drop it off later that evening at the City Hall parking lot.
They tend to promptly pick up anything they find there.
b. Drive a few miles until I reach crown land
c. Toss the dead body
Less work than burying. The ravens will pick it clean within the day. That’s the beauty of Nature, nothing is ever wasted.
Ravens fly.
If they want dinner they can come get it.
Might be a good time delay photography project.
Indy @6:27 – “back yard”? Pft. Amateur.
Phantom – “Solution? Publicly shaming the authorities. Well done, fat lady!” – the problem is that it is not possible to shame any authorities in Britain. Shame does not compute.
Langmann @10:18 – you might be on to something. Self-reliance is not encouraged in Cool Britannia. Thing of the potential Elf ‘n Safety issues.
Mamba, have you not noticed the ultra-sensitive response of The Authorities to any and all public criticism? They have no shame its true, but they do have -fear-. Not of the fat lady for sure, but the greatly fear the ring of the phone coming from The Boss, wanting to know who’s upset the apple cart.
The fat lady is a savvy mariner, piloting her way through the bureaucratic sea of BS. A modern pudgy girl Jason, she is. ~:D
Probably a little too early for fur to be prime, but money is to be made from the fox fur, and they are easy to skin. Heck she didn’t even have to klunk it over the head.