We Spent a Night with One of the UK's Urban Fox Assassins
Words: James Rippingdale
2015
It's a quiet night in a Croydon cul-de-sac. Warm and windless, a few leaves are starting to fall around the wide gravel drives and hulking Victorian houses. In the suburbs, Saturday night's winding down.
I've come here to meet pest controller Tom Keightly. His job is one many view as antiquated, inhumane, and highly controversial. He eradicates foxes from urban areas, receiving around three requests per week from private clients, businesses, and residential addresses, from central London to the South Coast.
But for Tom, a countryman with a countryman's skills and a countryman's matter-of-factness, the role is one he views simply as the evolution of his upbringing in the Lincolnshire countryside.
"I've been shooting for around 35 years now," he explains as we sit talking inside the client's home.
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