AS the dread of foot and mouth disease looms over Ribble Valley farmers, those who farm around Pendle Hill have other worries on their mind -- foxes.

Last year one farmer alone lost more than 50 new born lambs to foxes, most of which he says were not wild foxes but urban foxes which had been released in the area.

The animals not only take farm and wildlife but can spread foot and mouth disease over the wide area they roam.

John Slinger, of Dickinson's Farm, Pendleton, farms land on the hill which is owned by the Huntroyd Estate and is criss-crossed with footpaths.

"We start lambing towards the end of March and it lasts several weeks," he said. "Last year dozens of foxes appeared, in the village and on the land. They were taking lambs from all the farmers in the area as well as hens from people in the village who kept a few. It cost us more than £1,000 in lost stock.

"At one point you would see lots of them roaming around in the daytime. It was obvious they were not wild. Wild ones burrow, but these types live under sheds and tin sheets.

"There were people in the village who kept a few hens which the foxes killed. One man even saw a fox staring into the hen pen at 3pm in the afternoon. Wild foxes do not hunt like that," he said, adding that foxes do not have natural predators and if not controlled would increase rapidly in numbers creating a huge threat to livestock and threatened wildlife. He said the foxes just about wiped out all the ground nesting birds, curlews and lapwings in the area. The situation got so bad, and expensive, that he had to resort to ridding his farm of more than two dozen, all of them dog foxes.

"It's obvious they were being dumped by someone because there are so many. Usually there would be perhaps just one wild fox between here and Worston, but last year there were five run over on the road in just two days. Most people think its the RSPCA who is dumping them but when you speak to them they deny it," he said.

A spokeswoman for the RSPCA said no wild or reared animals were released into the wild without the landowners' permission, and then only when the area was a suitable habitat for them.

"There have been rumours that the RSPCA has released foxes in this way but they are not true, and I am certainly not aware of any having been released on Pendle Hill," she said.