While the fox in my backyard was a beautiful specimen and fun to photograph, foxes have long been the bane of farmers. The St. Joseph News-Press published an article on August 17, 1952, about Paul Gillespie, a Ridgeway turkey grower who raised about 8,000 birds a year. He took out an ad in the Bethany paper declaring titled “An Open Season on Foxes Needed – Let’s Get It.” In the ad, he said he would “carry the fight” to the state legislature and asked that other farmers send him a postcard detailing raids by foxes on their livestock. He received about 150 cards from other farmers who also described fox raids on lambs and pigs as well as poultry.
The Missouri Conservation Commission added a reminder that farmers were always permitted to capture or kill both red and gray foxes that were damaging property. While there is no open season on foxes, they may be killed or trapped legally in Missouri from mid-November through January.
