Jolyon Maugham should be prosecuted for killing a fox

[halocompanach]

Jolyon Maugham QC stating on twitter that he has clubbed to death a fox rather than calling for help to free it from netting in his garden.

To those talking about henhouses - should I refrain from squishing aphids on the grounds that they are vegetarian, don't kill other animals, and only take the food that they need?

If an animal is in pain and won't survive, how would you kill it?

My only frame of reference for the impromptu act of putting animals out of pain is when Gina Davis kills the deer in The Long Kiss Goodnight so ... grab both it's ears and a quick twist to the left ???

@FairyLightsAreMyCrack you’ve just made all my internet browsing today worth it - thank you

Anyone who’s seen the carnage a fox causes in a chicken run would applaud him. Foxes are vermin.

Yes thanks LoveNote, I now live in a small village having lived in the countryside for almost thirty years, never clubbed a fox to death. Jolyon lives in central London

I thought he lived in the country?

@Alsohuman but the fox didn't kill any of his chickens, it didn't even get in.

Foxes are predators, killing and eating other anjmals is what they do. The onus is on the owner to make sure their animals are correctly protected from foxes.

@Ellisandra I aim to please

I can't think why anyone would put this on Twitter though.This was bound to get a reaction.

Precisely why it was tweeted. Some people like a bit of twitter drama and it’s easy to slip into going looking for it. JM spends far more time on the twitter than would be good for anyone’s mental health.

Well the rspca is taking an interest, so I assume what he did isn't automatically legal. I suspect prosecution would depend on whether he caused unnecessary suffering

I suspect the RSPCA will consider how high profile someone is, and and whether they can make their own political capital out of it.

Goodness knows why he put it on Twitter. Stupid idiot.

I also love the hypocrisy of having a go at someone for killing one fox with a baseball bat, when the establishment would dearly love to make hunting with dogs legal again.

also love the hypocrisy of having a go at someone for killing one fox with a baseball bat, when the establishment would dearly love to make hunting with dogs legal again

Precisely.

where has this 'clubbed to death' bit come from? that was just the op sensationalising it for a reaction

Utterly disgusting behaviour. And then bragging about it on Facebook?

I’ve often wondered why anyone in the U.K. even needs to possess a baseball bat. No-one ever plays baseball, they’re only ever purchased for violence.

He should absolutely be prosecuted and made an example of.

@Alsohuman wrong. Foxes are not vermin. In fact they are protected in law, specifically against being clubbed.

foxproject.org.uk/fox-facts/

There is nothing to suggest this fox was even injured, let alone that humane (which this wasn't) destruction was required.

@LoveNote, he's hardly going to have tickled it to death with a baseball bat now, is he?

The least traumatic ways to euthanise small animals in the absence of a vet are

1. A shot to the brain.
2. A swift snap of the neck.

I've had to do both in my time. And despatch fish. None of them involved feeling big, clever or bragging on the internet about it.

fairylights it’s relevant because JM is a prominent trans rights spokesman (albeit self appointed). He told women unhappy about naked men in women’s changing rooms to tut loudly and move away. He hasn’t missed any opportunity to berate women for wanting to maintain the biological definition of women and for not wanting to be exposed to men in places where they are vulnerable - changing rooms, medical wards, intimate examinations. Women have repeatedly used the fox and the henhouse analogy to help him understand what predatory men will do. He won’t see it. twat.

Foxes are not vermin

I think they are.

Dictionary definition:

Vermin (colloquially varmint or varmit) are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases or destroy crops or livestock. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included vary from area to area and person to person.

where has this 'clubbed to death' bit come from? that was just the op sensationalising it for a reaction

That's not sensationalising, it's just what people call it when an animal gets hit with a bat until it's dead. If there's another term for repeatedly bashing an animals head with a baseball bat feel free to use it.

I think they are.

Doesn't make you right. Unless of course you are head of DEFRA:

It is not, and never has been categorised as such by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the only body empowered to impose the term on a wild species.

DEFRA can call them what it likes. The dictionary disagrees with them.

Vermin (colloquially varmint or varmit) are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases or destroy crops or livestock

In that case the fox he killed was not, in this instance, vermin as it didn't destroy any lifestock.

clubbing:

verb
gerund or present participle: clubbing
beat (a person or animal) with a club or similar implement.
"the islanders clubbed whales to death"

I think quickly putting a wild animal who presumably had bad injuries out of its misery is the most compassionate thing.
I ran over a pheasant the other week that decided to dive in front of my car. Should I have scooped it up off the road and driven to the vets or ran it back over? I ran it back over. No brainier.

I also love the hypocrisy of having a go at someone for killing one fox with a baseball bat, when the establishment would dearly love to make hunting with dogs legal again.

This makes no sense. Those of us 'having a go' aren't likely to be in favour of removing the ban on hunting with dogs. Nor are we likely to be members of the establishment.

Now, if I were Lord Such and Such with a large estate who wanted to hunt my hounds across it, it would be hypocritical to criticise Maugham for this act of cruelty.

Missing the point OP, as I’m sure you’re completely well aware.