Blackburn North: Macreadie family take chickens on the playground
Chickens are more than just egg providers to Blackburn North four-year-old Loretta Macreadie, who takes her feathery family members to the playground. But her family is worried about the area’s brazen fox population killing the beloved animals.
Outer East
Don't miss out on the headlines from Outer East. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
To get to the playground, if you are one of the lucky flock belonging to Blackburn North’s Macreadie family.
Loretta, 4, and sister Millie, 11, love their chooks so much they take them to play on the swing and slide at nearby Koonung Reserve.
But the family fears their feathery family members are under threat from the increasingly brazen local fox population.
Dad Peter Macreadie, who recently woke to the sound of his chickens in distress at 2am and chased a fox down the street in his boxers, said it was time for a cull.
He was lucky his chicken survived after he forcibly got it back from the fox.
“(The fox) probably got the fright of its life seeing this half-naked man running down the street.”
He said even once he took the chook home the relentless fox stayed watching him, waiting for him to leave the victim unattended.
“The foxes are acting like thugs – they don’t just take one chicken, they kill the lot, generally decapitating them, leaving the bodies in the yards for the families to wake up to,” he said.
He said those whose chickens had been hit by foxes over the weekend was a common topic among parents chatting at Old Orchard Primary School.
The father-of-three walked past a dead chicken outside the school last week and said he regularly saw foxes around, having repeatedly chased them out of his yard.
“Everyone sees them walking through the school,” he said.
Neighbour Renton Ziegler, who lost his beloved flock a few months ago, said he heard foxes roaming every night and caught fox cubs playing in his garden in broad daylight last Friday morning.
Mr Macreadie is calling for more to be done to reduce the fox population, with people losing chickens even after their best efforts to secure the pens.
“People are just so frustrated now.”
MORE: CHEEKY FOXES STEALING SHOES, BEFRIENDING CATS
STREET LIBRARY RULED A ‘DANGER’, NEIGHBOURS THREATENED WITH FINE
WHY BLACKBURN’S ONLY SUPERMARKET IS SHUTTING UP SHOP
Agriculture Victoria biosecurity manager Jason Wishart said ongoing management was needed to mitigate the impact of foxes and it was the responsibility of landowners to manage fox numbers.
“Fox numbers can fluctuate from season to season based on weather conditions, diseases and parasites, access to food and shelter, and effectiveness of control programs,” he said.
Whitehorse Council infrastructure general manager Nigel Brown told Leader in June the council fumigated fox dens on council-managed park land, but it was up to people to make their properties less appealing by removing weeds, food scraps and locking up pets.