URBAN foxes are being dumped in rural parts of the Westcountry, it was claimed last night as the Government threatened legal action against anyone caught in the act.

Farming minister Jane Kennedy warned against moving the animals into the countryside and urged anyone who suspects the activity has occurred in their area to contact the police.

It followed concerns raised by Tory MP Geoffrey Cox over reports that foxes were being routinely collected from towns and cities and released into the countryside.

Mr Cox, a member of the Commons committee on environment, food and rural affairs, believes well-meaning animal lovers are "misguided" in thinking the urban creatures can survive in the wild.

The MP for Torridge and West Devon challenged Ms Kennedy in Westminster to publish any recent reports the Government has received of "groups or individuals releasing foxes captured in urban areas into the countryside".

In a statement, Ms Kennedy admitted: "From time-to-time Defra receives anecdotal reports of urban foxes being released into the countryside.

"The Government does not condone the translocation of foxes from urban to rural areas."

She went on to say that moving foxes is not illegal under wildlife legislation – as long as the provisions of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 are complied with.

However, she added: "There are welfare concerns with releasing foxes into areas unfamiliar to them and the potential to spread disease."

Under section 9 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 it is an offence for a person to fail to provide for the welfare needs of an animal under his or her control.

"This includes failing to take reasonable steps to ensure that an animal has the ability to fend for itself in the wild on release," said Ms Kennedy.

"If it were found that an animal had suffered unnecessarily after release, it could also be an offence of causing unnecessary suffering under section 4 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

"If it is suspected that an illegal activity has occurred this should be reported to the police.

There have been numerous reports in recent years of foxes being released, but few cases have been proven.

But Mr Cox said concerns are mounting in the Westcountry: "The Government is well aware that there are increasing and well-attested accounts of vans turning up in the countryside stacked full of urban foxes. People are seeing it across west Devon."

But he said the foxes, when removed from their urban environment, have "no clue what they are doing or where they are". As a result many suffer an "ugly death in a ditch somewhere".

"Some people believe that instead of culling foxes, as ultimately the urban fox population will have to be, the other way of doing it is to dump them in the countryside which is crueller. It is wholly misguided and wrong from just about every aspect."