Fox Hunt Proves Costly--to All Parties : * Now Denied Freedom, the Animals Probably Would Have Relocated on Their Own

The state Department of Fish and Game estimates that it cost about $25,000 and the involvement of 33 state officials to trap and remove Orange County’s freeway foxes from their den along the new one-mile extension of the Costa Mesa Freeway. The foxes have been safely removed, but the total cost of doing so is still being tallied. There is, for example, the matter of overtime during the long vigil for police as well as Caltrans officials.

So was the much-celebrated trapping and removal of this family of animals to the Los Angeles Zoo shortly before the opening of a new road worth this dent in the budget? The Department of Fish and Game, which had to wrestle with the tricky trapping exercise, said from the beginning that red foxes have lived safely along Orange County’s busy freeways for some time. They have shown remarkable adaptability on their own and a facility for picking up and moving when they are not wanted. That was the original plan--to leave well enough alone and let the foxes relocate by themselves.

But then the politicians entered. Besieged with telephone calls from well-meaning animal lovers, agency director Pete Bontadelli bowed to requests from the governor and various legislators that the animals be captured. Fish and Game team member Jeff Lewis was correct when he observed during the long ordeal that “this isn’t pretty.”

The good news is that the scared, flea-bitten and dirty foxes were safely removed to the zoo. The bad news is that they will probably have to be in a zoo, out of their natural element, from now on. And it hardly seems worth the cost to various agencies when foxes are smart enough to know when they’ve outstayed their welcome.