But to some people, they are just another pet on par with cats and dogs.
Charlie Jackson-Martin currently fosters 12 foxes as part of Sydney Fox Rescue and says they're the "most happy, joyous, cheeky creatures".
"Sydney Fox Rescue was founded by myself in 2012. We're a rescue program, a sanctuary, a shelter and also do a lot of advocacy work.
"Advocating on behalf of I guess what a lot of people would consider a pest species.
"Had these foxes not come into our care they might have been euthanised or alternatively they might have gone to live in the wild.
"If we can take them out of the wild and keep them in captivity it’s a kind of win win situation for foxes and for natives."
Yet government agencies and environmentalists are unmoved in their stance that foxes are more foe than friend.
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"Obviously a fox is a predator, not a pet," says Lee Parker from NSW Local Land Services.
"Foxes are predatory animals... it's cruel to have a fox in a cage locked up 24/7 because naturally they do not behave like that.
"So foxes are very, highly destructive. I get numerous phone calls every single day in regards to fox attacks on livestock."
In 2014 the NSW government declared war on foxes via a pest control order. The aim was to eradicate foxes, save wildlife and phase out pet fox kept ownership.
Currently there are 70 licensed fox owners in NSW but when those foxes die, no new licences will be handed out: effectively putting an end to pet foxes in Australia.
In Australia it's estimated that foxes cause around 230 million dollars worth of damage each year and around 40 million dollars of damage is inflicted on livestock.
And whilst its easy to measure the effect of foxes on agriculture, it's often our native flora and fauna that suffers silently.
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"Obviously we've got a lot of ground dwelling birds that have been heavily affected by foxes," says Parker.
"We've got the brush-tailed rock wallaby, that's a threatened species from foxes."
Jackson-Martin, however, couldn't disagree more.
"At the end of the day, what's the most harmful to the environment in Australia is the agricultural industry.
"It's also the agricultural industry that wants to kill foxes the most.
"It's time that we took some responsibility for this animal that we brought here. And they do have complex and often negative interactions with the Australian environment.
"Nobody is trying to argue against that."
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