At 78, Nashville songwriter Jerry Vandiver rescues foxes with mange; 60+ treated this year

Nashville songwriter Jerry Vandiver spends hundreds of volunteer hours trapping foxes sick with mange (Image Credit: Facebook/ @Jerry Vandiver) For one Nashville songwriter, answering a call for help can mean getting out of bed in the middle of the night and heading into the woods. At 78, Jerry Vandiver has spent the past seven years volunteering to rescue red foxes suffering from mange around Nashville, Tennessee. In a report, The Tennessean detailed how the singer-songwriter traps sick foxes, transports them to Walden’s Puddle Wildlife Center of Greater Nashville and later helps return them to the wild. Vandiver logged 234 volunteer hours in August alone, while Walden’s Puddle had already rehabilitated more than 60 red foxes by early September, surpassing the 44 it treated throughout all of 2025.A growing rescue effort for Nashville’s foxesVandiver’s work begins when residents spot foxes showing signs of mange. People send him photographs or contact him through Facebook, often asking for help when they see an animal with large patches of missing fur, sores or other signs of the disease. Mange is caused by microscopic skin mites. In foxes, the condition can lead to intense irritat...