Trail Hunting or Fox Hunting?

[wantmorenow]

Just read a random pop up post in Facebook about hunting with hounds in the UK which I naively thought had been banned. I am shocked and quite amazed at my own ignorance. I genuinely didn't realise this still goes on and despite the law banning hunting. There is footage of the fox being pursued and the data shared is an eye opener.

I saw the same at my school in the 70s/80s. When they had their first kill they’d Strutt around school with the blood still on their cheek.

This is it. There is a loophole that a couple of hounds can be used to hunt a wild animal. Deer are still hunted like this with huntsmen on horses following.

Hunts can also claim that hounds on a trail hunt were 'rioting' and the huntsmen and whipper ins were trying to get them back under control. And therefore avoid prosecution.

It is also an activity which takes place 'privately' in that the only people normally observing it are supporters of the Hunt. It is therefore very easy for hunters to openly hunt without fear of prosecution.

I have been caught in Hunt traffic where the hunt were openly sending hounds into a wooded copse to search for a scent. The only reason to do this is if they were trying to find the scent of a fox.

In short it was a badly drafted law which has effectively enabled hunting with hounds to continue.

it would be a shame if all trail hunting were banned as trail hunting was a legitimate sport in its own right even when hunting wild animals was legal. There are bloodhound packs which follow the scent of a human runner, for example.

Yep. Exactly this.
They think us Plebians are too thick to realise what they are up to.
Foul humans. 😡

We used to rent a cottage on a farm. The farmers were tenants and had to allow the local hunt to cross their land as the owners of the farm were the big shots in the local hunt. We had cats which I always had to make sure were in the house when the hunt came across.

If you have ever witnessed the hunt crossing in front of your garden at speed with a pack of barking dogs then you will know how terrifying it is. They would thunder across the road, which although not a busy main road still had a fair amount of traffic on it.

I have never had any respect for anyone who thinks that terrorising and killing animals for pleasure is a legitimate thing. I have always thought that watching an animal being torn to bits and finding it pleasurable is a sign of someone who is mentally disturbed.

Wrong!!!!

A hunting dog went down the set after the fox during a hunt!
The guys were digging out the dog and threw the fox out too. For the hunt!

Where have I ever said I support hunting??

Assume you meant to tag someone else here as I haven’t commented about your support or otherwise

Who do you think terriermen work for? 🙄

Third time...

Can I ask why terrier men go on trail hunts? I'd really like to know what the terriers are required for...

Twisty Izzy. You are so right.I recall, many many decades ago, that the sabs laid a false trail for the hounds - right across the A 12. Many were killed or horribly mauled by traffic.

@twistyizzy

• I don't eat meat or dairy - though if I did it would be for sustenance and not because I take pleasure from killing animals for pleasure - like you claim you used to.

• I do live rurally. Living rurally doesn't mean you have to have a morality chip missing though does it? I also support the men and women who try their hardest, despite piss poor support from enforcement, to sab these groups too. In fact, perhaps I am one!

• why did you hunt? What was it that made you gain pleasure from killing animals needlessly? Did you enjoy seeing ripped apart animals. Are you normal? What are you doing to rid the rural communities of the scum that pretend to hunt legally but don't? I manage quite easily to access the countryside, despite the house building. I don't need to trail hunt to do so.

Labour said they would protect our wildlife
They said they are committed to ban trail hunting once and for all.
I haven’t done a FOI request but I’d love to know how many licences were awarded in October for hunting on MOD land.

There's some real nonsense being talked about hunt saboteurs here.

I used to be a hunt saboteur. Every single person I knew who was a hunt saboteur was there as they were committed to animal rights, but one. And he didn't last long. Most were vegans. They absolutely never hurt horses or hounds - that would be anathema to them.

They absolutely never spray things at hounds. They use citronella spray to mask the scent of a fox in the hope that the hounds will lose the scent. People who do not understand how hunt sabs work may see them spraying in front of hounds and misunderstand what has happened. Aside from this, sabs use the same tactics the huntsman and whipper-ins use to control the hounds, but to control the hounds to opposite effect. Whipper-ins use whips cracking in front of hounds to control them, so if hounds are rioting ( such as chasing an animal other than that the Hunt chases) the Whipper ins will use whips and calls to try to get the hounds to stop chasing that animal. Sabs use the whips and the same calls to try to stop hounds in cry after a fox ( or whatever animal it is the Hunt chases). Sabs will also use hunting horns and the Huntsman's calls to try to call the hounds to them and away from the Hunt. This means the Hunt wastes time trying to retrieve their hounds. Any time wasted like this is time not spent hunting.

As for Sabs starting violence. 🙄Sabs are always massively outnumbered by Hunters and hunt supporters. Lots of hunt supporters are quite violent people. Terrier men are certainly not 'cuddly'. We never started fights as we could never win and if we are fighting (and being beaten up) we are not stopping a fox being hunted. The strange truth is that sabs can only sab at hunts that will tolerate their presence. We abandoned hunts where we were attacked and only sabbed at hunts that tolerated us being there.

Exactly !

I'm actually horrified to read that fox hunting is still legal in Northern Ireland where I live! I feel a strong email to my MP might be in order.

Have you ever seen a hen house after the fox has got in, OP?

Love to see the proof of the protestors doing that.
Meanwhile plenty of proof of what the so called trail hunters do.

This isn't the argument you think it is.

An animal being an animal doesn't mean that supposedly civilised humans have a right to barbarism.

There are ways of protecting hens from predators
You seem to be missing the point that nature is nature whereas humans and dogs chasing animals for fun isn’t .

Have you seen what happens to hens and lambs etc in an abattoir btw.

Seems we’re of exactly the same mind there Duck. 👍

Wow: why did you hunt? What was it that made you gain pleasure from killing animals needlessly? Did you enjoy seeing ripped apart animals. Are you normal? What are you doing to rid the rural communities of the scum that pretend to hunt legally but don't?

Why is it up to me to rid local community of people who illegally hunt?

I started hunting as a child because that's what you did and my parents took me. As I grew up I realised I didn't like the barbarian of catching a fox. So I moves to blood hounds where you follow a runner and I can guarantee 0 foxes were hunted/caught/dug out. Clean boot packs only.

Have you tried accessing the countryside on horseback? Over 50% of local bridleways near me have been built over.

I will say again, I do not support fox hunting. I do support legal and law abiding trail hunting.

Absolute nonsense.

Did you know that on some bird reserves where foxes kill rare birds 100s of foxes are shot all the year round all authirised by the RSPB?
I also thought at one stage the government were going to allow fox hunting in remote areas where there’s a lot of subsistence sheep farming because research showed it was the must humane and effective way of keeping the numbers of foxes down.

Lambs don’t get their heads chewed off in an abattoir. I don’t support hunting and have never hunted. In fact I’ve never seen a hunt despite growing up on a farm.

On the subject of countryside access, footpaths & bridleways, I urge everyone to get involved in and support the efforts to record & register our footpaths & bridleways so we don't lose them.

The gov recently scrapped the deadline to so this which us great news but means efforts could lose momentum a bit (latest news here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy89yddgg7yo )

Registering paths and bridleways protects them from developers & enclosure. Many also get forgotten through lack of use and once gone, they're gone.