The Hunted One

Two weeks holiday in my beloved France passed by too quickly and although I have more stories to tell I will start with a sad one which impressed me the most. 
On the day of arrival I inspected the wild meadow of the accommodation and was disappointed that I could not find one single butterfly; instead a few metres in front of me a fox was sitting. Unfortunately only for one second because as soon as he realized that a human being had entered his wild area he was gone. The last time I was that close to fox was 40 years ago when I was a little girl and looking for easter eggs in a German forest.  
The third morning I stepped outside, I saw something moving and noticed a fox near the accommodation, I was surprised and happy to see a fox again but immediately noticed that something was wrong. The fox could not run away as he was badly injured at his both front legs. The fox tried to crawl and it was horrible to see and to realize how much pain and fear he must have. He was lying on the grass and wanted to run away. I pet his head and very carefully I picked him up, carried him to some bushes and gave him some dog food. As it was very early in the morning I did not know what to do. Two hours later I send a sms to our contact person in France (which was living nearby) to ask for the address of a vet or an animal rescue organisation. Unfortunately I received no reply (in the evening he called me that he was that day in an area without any signal) so I tried to find a vet and finally a vet was found nearby….but he was closed due to lunch time. The fox was still lying under the same bush and because I was assuming that I would drive with him to the vet I put him into a box with again some food. Some later, when the vet was available again we called him again with the question if he could release a badly injured fox but unfortunately the answer was NO…..because, the vet was not allowed to treat a wild animal and gave a telephone number of ‘le marie’ to find somebody who is allowed to kill a wild animal! 
I was very very angry because it cost me almost the whole day to find that vet while in the meantime the fox was suffering and because I can not understand that in such an urgent situation I was confronted with bureaucracy.
In the evening I visited the fox in the box and gave him again some dog food to avoid dehydration….very conflicting because at the same time I was considering methods to release him.....but I was unable to kill him. 

The next morning I found him dead in the box. He had eaten the food, left a big turd and finally passed away. I was sad and happy at the same time!
Later that day I buried him in the wild part of the garden and before putting him into his grave I was looking at him very well and found out that one leg was damaged before and that he must have been cripple for a while and that a big part of his other leg was missing (a fresh wound). 
I  do not understand why such a beautiful harmless and useful animal is hated that much by a lot of people and although it is 2016 that their methods to catch/kill them are still medieval!
This male Renard I will never forget; I only took one photo of him with the 'flower' setting (large aperture) of the day before but this look speaks for himself. R.I.P.