It’s Time to Save Animals’ Habitat

With respect to the relocation of three gray foxes from the back yard of a home in Corona del Mar (“A Second Family Roused From Den,” June 3), it appears that this small family was displaced by the enormous Newport coast development.

We need to ask ourselves: What of the countless other animals whose habitat is being destroyed? The story of an adorable mama fox and her two babies being safely relocated is heartwarming; the fate of those who are not so fortunate is akin to a holocaust. Those who are not slaughtered by the advancing bulldozers are doomed to death by starvation or on the highway.

The lucky fox family was released into the Laguna Canyon area. At least this time there was some open space left to which to relocate them. How long will they find safe haven there? If the proposed San Joaquin Hills tollway is built, this last remaining available habitat will be bisected by a concrete and steel curtain that will irrevocably alter the balance of the ecosystem there.

Your article mentioned that the relocation was relatively simple since the gray fox is indigenous to the area. Once the remaining habitat is covered over by homes, hotels, golf courses and toll roads, only the memory of this and many other species will survive. Commemorated, of course, by the housing tracts and boulevards that bear their names.

ANITA M. MANGELS, Laguna Beach