Red fox may be hunted (but not trapped) by a resident, without a licence and at all times of the year on any privately owned land to which he or she has the right of access. Check with your municipality on any restrictions on the use of firearms. Never feed foxes.
UK instructions for the DOC traps are available at the manufacturer's website here. Thus, since 1 April 2020, it has no longer been lawful to use Fenn-type traps (Fenn, Springer, Solway and copies of these traps); Magnum 55, 110, 116; or WCS Tube Traps to catch stoats.
Humane traps, or box traps, are an effective means of capturing certain dogs and cats that won't allow humans to approach. Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue has trapped hundreds of cats and dogs in Tru-Catch humane traps without a single significant injury.
Spring traps can ONLY be used to trap a small number of mammals – NEVER birds – that the government (and the shooting and agriculture lobbies) lists as 'pest species' and/or non-native species that don't have the same protection in UK law as native species. NO OTHER SPECIES can be legally killed in a spring trap.
The Pests Act 1954 makes it is an offence to use a spring trap for the purposes of killing or taking animals in England and Wales other than one approved by an Order of the Secretary of State. The approval of traps is a devolved issue.
Body-gripping traps—such as steel-jaw leghold traps, snares, and Conibear traps—are inhumane and inherently nonselective, meaning they indiscriminately injure and kill nontarget animals, including endangered and threatened species and even pets.