How can Prince William campaign against rhino poaching when he happily kills other animals for sport?

[Hammy02]

I genuinely can't get my head around this. Am I missing something?

Oh dear, I've just read about his jolly hunting trip to Spain earlier this year.

I agree with Hully.

I will not stop murdering headlice though

Ponyofdoom, do you share my concern that hounds will start to lose their fox sense, so if the ban is repealed we'll end up with packs who don't know what to do with a fox? I agree that drag hunting has made the sport more about the 'thrusters' than watching hounds work. Our hunt is definitely faster than before, so you have to be more selective when letting the kids go out

Also, the large public support for the ban may well have something to do with the fact that the majority of the population live in cities and have little understanding of the countryside.

They are the sort who feed the cute little foxes who come into their gardens, then are surprised when the fox population gets out of control and over confident and take to shitting on their lawns and terrorising their pets and demand the council does something about them. So the idiots trap them and release them in the country, to starve to death as they have no idea how to hunt

Hi trebles. I think it depends on what method packs have used to circumvent the ban. The CA didn't advise; they left it to hunts to read the Hunting Act & work it out for themselves. There are so many loopholes that its perfectly possible to retain the hunting instinct I think! BTW with my pack, the kids are far more psycho than the adults I reckon!

Would they lose the instinct though? My Springer Spaniel seems to have a hunting instinct hardwired into his DNA.

I think they retain their hunting instinct, but I'm talking about those experienced old hounds who just know which line the fox will have taken, even if the scents a bit unclear. I guess it just takes a really good huntsman with a good strategy for circumvention to keep the 'fox sense' in the pack

Why would you care about the hounds? The vast majority a shot by the Hunt when they reach the age of five anyway.

Ah, the stale old argument about it being townsfolk voting against the countryside dwellers is been proven time and time again to be a load of bollocks. More than 75% of the UK population is anti-hunting. It's not true that the Countryside Alliance have ever turned the polls around. Lies now, eh?!

Utter tosh about the hounds Boden

So what happens to hounds when they get a bitnold, then? All lying next to fires playing with little children?

we had an ex gun dog as a pet

she was fab

Oh I love all generalisations

And what happens to the wheplps who don't make the grade?

You wouldn't want a fox hound as a pet, Unchartered!

Why on Earth would a healthy 5 year old hound get shot Boden, you must be a nutter to think that!? Yes most are shot when they are too old and unsound to hunt, they are not pets; there is nothing wrong in PTS for an old, unsound animal that is used to being part of a pack. They would not be happy alone and unable to hunt. The poll I recall where we turned it around was 59% in favour of letting landowners and farmers make the decision on whether to allow hunting. Can't get fairer than that!

So, a hound is entered at, what, 18 months or so? 6, 7- maybe 8 seasons? Then what?

Oh, and what about the 50% or so of whelps that don't make the grade?

The age a hounds is PTS would depend on its health and soundness, obviously. As a hound owner myself, I know that dogs of this size only live to around 10 anyway. I have honestly never heard of whelps 'not making the grade;' they are not racing- they are just out hunting with their mates! Sometimes surplus hounds/hounds which don't fit in are drafted to other packs. This is quite common. You would obviously prefer there were no packs of foxhounds at all as they would have no use without hunting. Do you object to drag/bloodhounds being PTS when they are unsound!? Funny you havent mentioned drag/blood hounds!

Disney and it's anthropomorphism really did a number on a lot of sensitive souls who are so anti any kind of hunting etc.

PTS - translate as shot in the head in the case of a hunting hound. Lovely.

Yes, they are about five years old and they live longer than 10 years. I have a thriving 12 year old foxhound.

...and with regards to your 59% - you clearly don't remember that the ASA ruled against that fabricated figure with its "flawed methodology and unreliable results". The only thing the Countryside Alliance gained from that was being labelled as having "unprofessional conduct" by the leading market research companies.

So, once again the pro-hunters have to lie to try to get their own way. And fail. :)

Rhino's are a protected species. Game (in the UK) is not........

'Game' in the UK may not be protected, but the badgers are who are killed in gamekeepers' snares are. Therefore protected species are killed in some bloodports that the Prince indulges in.

I fail to see the problem he shoots animals, so what? I also think YABU to compare shooting game species with protecting endangered species.

Far better to shoot, pluck/skin, gut and prepare your wild caught meat than buy farmed animals in supermarkets...

Shooting is a large part of conservation - Get rid of invasive introduced species (some breeds of deer, grey squirrel, rabbits etc) and maintain a stable prey species population as we've wiped out their natural predators.

"Far better to shoot, pluck/skin, gut and prepare your wild caught meat than buy farmed animals in supermarkets.

"Far better to shoot, pluck/skin, gut and prepare your wild caught meat than buy farmed animals in supermarkets.

""

Isn't that the whole point in shooting? Yes, when you go shooting abroad and here in the UK you can get someone to do that bit for you and then eat the meat in a restaurant or at home. But even being a vegetarian I'm perfectly happy to go and do the above for the carnivores in the family. Who by the way are far too squeamish to do it themselves

If that's what happened, withoutcautipn, I would have much less of a problem with shooting. Sadly what often happens is that people in prepostous clothes bought for th purpose blast away and then go and have lunch. Probably not pheasant.

WithoutCaution*, read up thread. Pheasant chicks, for example, are imported from countries like France and raised in the UK for shooting. That is nothing to do with conservation!

Yes I'm well aware that pheasants are imported (often from the USA - according to a friend who looks after them).

Actually it is related to conservation as what do you think would happen to the shooting areas if they weren't managed? Heather needs to be periodically burnt to encourage new growth, woodland needs to be managed (coppiced, pollarded etc). The income and need for suitable game areas mean that this is done. Yes it's done for shooting but the wildlife that isn't shot also benefits :)