Ripping live animals apart is a wonderful British tradition that should be preseved.

[ItsAWonderfulCervix]

Let's overturn the ban. After all boxing day just isn't any fun without a few dead foxes and blood and guts and stuff.

And while we're at it, don't you just love a bit of badger baiting for variety When shredding foxes gets dull.

Catgirl you talk a lot of sense. I come from a horsey background too and hunting has never appealed to me.

The culling argument always makes me laugh. In what way is spending a whole day persuing ONE fox an effective method of culling? There was a post up thread that suggested that fox numbers are more likely kept down by cubbing or farmers shooting them which sounds far more plausible. Anyone unsure what cubbing is click here:www.harperaspreywildliferescue.co.uk/cubbing.html (upsetting but no nasty pictures)

Stop with the bullcrap re. why you enjoy hunting and perhaps you'll not look so ridiculous to the 'townies'that don't understand your country ways.

Drag hunting has none of the standing about in the freezing cold waiting for the hounds to get a scent, none of the riding on unsuitable and dangerous surfaces that damage the horses, instead you have a course, planned to be exciting with good, but safe, hurdles. What it lacks is the thrill of the kill though and, to those who are prepared to be honest, that is why it's not so much fun and why these illegal hunts still take place isn't it?

Be honest about why you do what you do, and quit with the ridiculous culling excuse and, whilst I'll still disagree, I might have a bit of respect for you.

For the record, yes, I do eat meat. I buy free range. If I had to kill it myself though, I'd be vegetarian.

Thank you for the link re clubbing sleep. Puts across what I was trying to say perfectly. I also eat(free range) meat. I cannot agree with hunting as a good way of culling and the enjoyment they get from it sickens me. I know so many people who hunt( kennels close to me) but I cannot get my head around their enjoyment.

Cubbing.ffs

YANBU.

It is so much better now that we can only shoot them. We needed a more painful. sadistic way of killing them.

Maybe we should cut out the small ginger middle men, and just chase down the "hunt saboteurs". There are far too many of them and they are a bloody nuisance!

I would chase those hypocritical shits around all day long.

Yes, so much better to be chased to the point of heart-bursting terror and exhaustion before being ripped to shreds by a baying pack of hounds than to be shot. What's your view on Bear Baiting DizzyZebra; that's dogs ripping a wild animal apart too, sounds like it'd be right up your alley?

What a horrid bloody title no idea of the point you are making grow up.

Well, Parliament banned it.

Sleep - I don't think i said im pro hunting. I said shooting them is worse. Which it is for a number of reasons. You cannot sit there whining about the type of death being cruel and then advocate shooting.

DizzyZebra, how is being shot worse than being chased to exhaustion and torn to death? You need to explain, I'm clearly not up to speed here. When cubbing, is it not customary to shoot the protecting vixen to give your green hounds a crack at the cubs?

I can't answer your question on cubbing. I wouldn't know and i don't agree with it.

Run of the mill fox hunting, choice between the dogs and a gun... shooting it is no kinder than the dogs getting it. in the high liklihood that you don't kill it its going to die slowly. Starvation or infection... Niether are any prettier than the dogs getting them.

Not to mention shooting takes away from natural selection. In fox hunting usually the healthier ones get away (Unless interfered with otherwise, which again i do not agree with). The sick ones are caught and then arent targetting repeatedly and causing massive ammounts of damage.

TBH I don't have a problem with Anti hunters. But dont dress up other methods as something they aren't.

Saggy I agree with your sentiment wholeheartedly, but I wonder when you talk about your own animals. Are they farm animals or pets? If your horses are for recreational sport, why would you not pass them on or maintain them in their old age, rather than kill them?

Some hunts don't drag hunt.

They hunt humans with bloodhound packs. Volunteers. And they still dress up and have all the booze and charging horses. Happy dogs, happy horses, happy humans.

And they still get attacked by very stupid hunt sabs.

TBH Hunt sabateurs should be forcibly disbanded.

Because I respect them. They are amazing creatures who have enjoyed life and have given great enjoyment. I would never pass them on because Ive seen far too many 'retired' 'companion' ponies suffer. People either take them and use them beyond their abilities, sell them on into god knows what, or take them as company for horses. You cant take a native pony and expect it to fit into the life of a thoroughbred for example, it just doesn't work.
IF my lovely friends are healthy and happy then of course I will maintain them, but if they became unhappy, or ill, I wont be keeping them hanging on into miserable old age or giving them away.
Although ponies have many emotions, moods and feelings, they aren't people and don't understand why they are miserable.
And the same goes for ex hounds and even my own dog.
Prolonging life into uncertainty or stress, who exactly is going to take on an elderly, past it, un house trained pack dog, and what kind of life is it going to be, isn't fair on any animal.

Joan my local bloodhound pack have to send last minute emails out to trusted members in order to notify its members of where it will be hunting next in order to deter sabs! They chase runners!!

TBH Hunt sabateurs should be forcibly disbanded.

Despite the fact they're not the ones breaking the law, just trying to enforce it.

They are not the police Rudolf. They have no business following innocent people around 'incase' they break the law as in the example given by another poster above.

What they do is no different from me walking up to you in the street and taking your phone/tablet pc because you 'could' be breaking the law.

They are also giant hypocrites and i have yet to meet one who can give me a reasonable explanation of how targetting the horses and children on the hunt makes them any better than the people doing the hunting.

As i said, i have no problem with Antis. But be honest. Dont dress things up as something they're not. Hunt sabateurs do not prevent cruelty, They actively participate in cruelty.

oh the sabs i met at uni were such wankbadgers - all on their high horses (pardon the expression) but unable to enter a reasonable discussion of eg drag hunting - the one i have in mind obviously just hated people who rode horses full stop, and went off to work for ICI when he graduated.
oh and they would use the union minibus to travel nearly 300 miles to 'sab' the Vale of Aylesbury rather than face a load of Welsh farmers on horseback.
bunch of pussies.

How I wish these oh so supposedly concerned about animal rights internet champions would turn their attention to real issues of animal cruelty, such as live transportation of animals to the continent for meat. Or even think about how far and under what conditions the animals they and their families eat are travelling within the UK before waiting in line to be killed (often in Halal suitable fashion).

Would it be too esoteric of me to point out that they quite likely live in relatively new build housing estates which condemned to death thousands of animals by destroying their habitat? Or that their drive to work (if indeed they do work) probably results in more deaths of animal via roadkill than the average number of foxes killed per hunt attendee in the course of five years?

I think the anti-hunting debate is more to do with controlling people than saving animals. Little I read convinces me otherwise.

You cannot speak for all hunt sabs, don't tar them all with the same brush.

Of course they can make it their business to follow a hunt. They have every right too.

As for dressing things up, stop trying to dress up a blood sport.

How I wish these oh so supposedly concerned about animal rights internet champions would turn their attention to real issues of animal cruelty, such as live transportation of animals to the continent for meat.

Perhaps visit the compassion in World farming website.

Im not trying to dress up a blood sport. It is what it is. It's not pretty. It's not nice. It's not a good thing. Is it necessary? Debatable.

Please tell me, how would you feel if i came to your home now and followed you around in case you are breaking the law? Would that not be harrassment? Which is exactly what the hunt sabs do.

Protest hunting all you like. Report a crime to the police. Try to stop an actual crime if you feel the need. Don't harrass innocent members of the public though.

I didn't say all hunt sabs do it. A lot of it goes on though and therefore anyone who is involved with the HSA is actively supporting targetting children and horses for the adults crimes. If they didn't support that they would leave and create or join an organisation which does not support such things.

You cannot speak for all hunt sabs, don't tar them all with the same brush.
Yes, because there isn't any hunter, same brush tarring going o on this thread!
And how is harassing bloodhounds remotely useful?

Perhaps the more pertinent British tradition being discussed is the traditional British lack of tolerance and desire to scapegoat people who show signs of individualism, justified by some ideological premise.