Tom Keightley says there should be a 75% cull of foxes (Letters, September 1).

I have lived in my home for 50 years with dogs and cats without any attacks, disease or damage from foxes in my garden. They are a delight to see.

Mr Keightley says people don’t tolerate cockroaches, bed bugs or rats but have sympathy for foxes because they are cuddly.

Let’s stop this frenzy for killing anything that moves in nature, such as seagulls, pigeons, foxes and rats. What next? Large cats?

Mr Keightley wants a cull only because he’s a pest controller and looking to make money – or is he doing it for free?

Beth Clarke, The Drive, Hove

We have far too many foxes in our towns and cities.

A 75% cull would hopefully keep most of them in the countryside where they used to be and where they belong.

We have had to extend our garden fences and put trellis and wire netting above to stop them climbing in as we have small children.

When you go out at night they are in the street and sometimes during daytime, too.

It’s time to get rid.

Sue Prior, Woodruff Avenue, Hove

It would seem that from reading recent Argus features some people would be happy to live in this coastal area without seagulls and urban foxes.

Brighton and Hove – a seaside resort without seagulls? A city without the urban fox?

I know many people who would be very upset at the thought of it.

Not surprisingly, loud complaints are coming from pest controllers.

Tom Keightley wants to shoot 75% of our urban foxes – I think he’s a little trigger happy.

He says we would then enjoy the occasional fox without problems, which is rubbish because people with a fox issue would still be there.

He says trapping and handling them stresses them – if I were a fox I’d go for that option rather than bullets from Tom’s gun.

Comments from another pest controller say gull numbers are rising, yet we are told by the RSPB and British Ornithology Trust that many gull species have declined dramatically – the herring gull by 50% since 1970.

Do these experts know nothing? People who do not want seagulls should place deterrents in April after expert advice, before the nest is built. Once the nest is in place the breeding has begun and any interference from that stage is illegal.

I have seen a female parent sit for days just looking at the place where her chicks had been after being taken by a pest controller.

With foxes and seagulls, we need to go for a more compassionate approach. There are answers from experts which do not include death or cruelty.

Brighton and Hove City Council says “live in harmony” with the wildlife. My thoughts entirely.

Gloria Wheatcroft, The Drive, Hove