Hunting on Boxing Day

[GreyMary23]

I've seen numerous reports about Boxing Day hunts going ahead yesterday. What the fuck? I despise hunting anyway - like most decent/sane people - but to allow it to go ahead when so many are spending Christmas alone due to covid is utterly unbelievable. Before anyone says it's because it's outdoors, so is children's sport yet my dc haven't been able to attend rugby or football training in weeks.

How on Earth was this allowed to happen?

Smearing blood on participating children's faces seems popular

I think that tradition (?blooding) died out in the 1920s! Agree it was disgusting.

I’ve met a few huntsmen and field masters and all were very polite, apologised for getting in the way, had full control of hounds. They don’t ‘whip’ hounds they just train them to respond to the cracking sound of the whip, plus the horn and certain voice commands.

Unfortunately bus-loads of sabs often turn up with decoy horns and whips, imitate the voice calls and accidentally draw hounds onto the roads or even (on occasion) towards a real fox! Then they film it and post it on YouTube.
Or they jump in front of horses (spooking them and getting kicked or knocked over), try to pull riders off, shout ‘leave it’ at hounds who are on a pre-laid scent! They then cut those bits of the video and just show the bits where the riders yell at them or hounds riot or the huntsman loses his temper.

I’m sure some sabs are well meaning animal lovers, but a lot are drunken hooligans seeking aggro. They know the hunt will be protected by security so they go straight for the terrier men or stewards, looking for a fight.

Then they claim the police are biased for arresting them or making them leave private land!

I would question how it is that in some hunts the riders are seemingly unable to control their dogs when they pick up the scent of a real fox and start chasing it? Surely they should be in sufficient control of the hounds so that they can be called off with a single command?

Foxhounds are bred to chase foxes so if a pack gets onto a real fox the hunt staff may not be able to stop them. Especially if they’re busy dealing with sabs or antis instead of controlling their hounds.
Or they may decide not to call them off.
If hounds are rioting you’ll normally hear the huntsman and whips rating them, blowing for them and cracking whips.

A good huntsman and his whippers in CAN control hounds and stop them rioting (going after a fox or deer). But they have to work together to control the pack. That’s why the field master and mounted field hang back and keep away from huntsman and hounds!

@HikeForward - one of my worries when I’m walking my dog is that I encounter a hunt and the dogs attack my dog. Is that likely?

Real evidence and reporting to the police?

I can say I have done just that... the masked woman in my garden threatening me, knew exactly where I lived, my name etc. Threatened all sorts of physical violence.

I reported her to the policeman stood about 20ft behind her, asked the kid on a horse who was filming for her video. It had pretty good sound, caught all the threats and her repeated poking me in the chest.

Want to know what happened? Fuck all!

It was, apparently, just a heated exchange!

Yet I was the one who lived with wedges in my doors and half an eye on a long piece of 2x4 timber for many months after.

Or is that too anecdotal?

It's far too facile to try and hold that either sab or hunt is always in the wrong or right. At least be honest enough to acknowledge that they can all be violent and act illegally. And then be adult enough to do it without all the overly sensitive language.

[quote Florelei]@HikeForward - one of my worries when I’m walking my dog is that I encounter a hunt and the dogs attack my dog. Is that likely?[/quote]
No. The dogs are just big, not very domesticated dogs. They wouldn't attack another dog. They are quite big though!

@HikeForward - one of my worries when I’m walking my dog is that I encounter a hunt and the dogs attack my dog. Is that likely?

No need to worry, they won’t attack your dog. Foxhound pups are usually ‘puppy walked’ in houses with other dogs and children, so they’re socialised with different dogs and people from a young age. They’re also used to mingling with hunt terriers and hunt supporters’ dogs at meets.

Foxhounds can’t see very well, they go almost entirely on scent. So unless your dog smells like a fox he/she will be fine!

Saying that I’d still put my dog on a lead if the hunt is nearby, just in case he decides to join the pack or gets mixed up with the horses!

@HikeForward - one of my worries when I’m walking my dog is that I encounter a hunt and the dogs attack my dog. Is that likely?

Additionally, most foxhounds are very well trained and will ignore you and your dog. If they’re lost or separated from their pack they might approach you (in a friendly way as they’re used to being petted and played with by the public!)

Just shout ‘get back to it’ or ‘leave it, back to it’ in the unlikely event they’re bothering you or your dog. They respond to voice commands so that should send them scarpering!

Well, they claim to be a farmer. I could claim to be a farmer. Anyone can be anything on the Internet.

Yes, anyone can write any old shit on the Internet. That includes you. It’s poor etiquette to accuse other posters of lying while expecting to have everyone accept your version of events. Play the ball, not the woman. If you suspect trolling, report to MNHQ.

Thanks @HikeForward - that’s really useful information.

@GreenlandTheMovie - I can assure you I am most definitely a farmer. The fact I've been up all night lambing is proof of that, but short of me posting my picture holding up a freshly born lamb, I doubt you'd believe me, and more to the point I don't actually care whether you believe me or not.

If you think I'm a troll, report my posts and MNHQ will tell you I'm a long standing poster with several name changes. But again, I don't really give a shit what you think.

@batfurger - I absolutely have had the MFH of the local hunt in my lounge telling me how he "controls" foxes. Similarly, the terrier man of the local hunt is the farmer next door to us and we use him to control our foxes with a lamp and rifle.

Like a lot of people, we keep our mouths shut and our opinions to ourselves so we don't court trouble. We have to live within the rural environment and as much as we don't agree with what goes on, we also don't get involved. The wildlife crimes officer for the local police is next to useless, and so we are passive aggressive by banning the hunt from our ground and blocking their access across the valley from one side to the other.

That may make me a hypocrite or a coward, but ultimately it also means I can live alongside the people who do hunt.

It doesn't stop me thinking the local hunt are wankers on horseback.

The vast majority of Boxing Day meets didn’t go ahead whatever tier they were in. Hopefully things will be back to normal next year

@HikeForward

Smearing blood on participating children's faces seems popular

I think that tradition (?blooding) died out in the 1920s! Agree it was disgusting.

I’ve met a few huntsmen and field masters and all were very polite, apologised for getting in the way, had full control of hounds. They don’t ‘whip’ hounds they just train them to respond to the cracking sound of the whip, plus the horn and certain voice commands.

Unfortunately bus-loads of sabs often turn up with decoy horns and whips, imitate the voice calls and accidentally draw hounds onto the roads or even (on occasion) towards a real fox! Then they film it and post it on YouTube.
Or they jump in front of horses (spooking them and getting kicked or knocked over), try to pull riders off, shout ‘leave it’ at hounds who are on a pre-laid scent! They then cut those bits of the video and just show the bits where the riders yell at them or hounds riot or the huntsman loses his temper.

I’m sure some sabs are well meaning animal lovers, but a lot are drunken hooligans seeking aggro. They know the hunt will be protected by security so they go straight for the terrier men or stewards, looking for a fight.

Then they claim the police are biased for arresting them or making them leave private land!

What a load of utter tosh 🤣🤣🤣

@Guineapig99

They hunt foxes because they think that the law is bollocks re hunting That foxes are predators, that city people have no clue about the countryside, and because it’s tradition. Farmers and country folk often think it’s hypocrisy that city people are happy to have them breed animals for slaughter while whining on about a handful of predators.

So the whole trail hunting is bollocks then?

Hunts are either trail hunting with no kills unless accidental or they're hunting for Preston control purposes. Which is it?

Because pest control does not need 30+ riders and a load of support watching a pack of hounds chasing and tearing apart a fox.

I remember once reading that being torn apart by a pack of hounds was humane compared to being shot...

The lack of humanity still astounds me.

@DHdweller

The vast majority of Boxing Day meets didn’t go ahead whatever tier they were in. Hopefully things will be back to normal next year

I doubt it. Hunting is having a 2020 year - leaked webinars, Covid breaches, the Kimblewick Hunt's "accident". Hunting is scoring own goals and it's a joy to see.

‘People from all walks of life’

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

May I assume you have never seen the carnage left after vicarious killing in a chicken coop or what happened to the rabbits the night the hutch was not securely latched.

Face it, though, that has never been the reason for fox-hunting. If hunters only wanted to protect chickens and rabbits there are way more efficient means of culling foxes than loads of people getting dressed up and climbing on horses to follow hounds.

foodles, when a dog catches any animal, it will generally go for the neck. Foxhounds are much bigger than foxes, so should one catch a fox, death is usually very quick. Foxes never escaped injured from packs of hounds: they either escaped unharmed, or they were killed.

Shooting, on the other hand, has a high wounding rate. Even a good marksman can injure rather than kill, for all sorts of reasons, and it isn't always possible to take a second shot. Dying over several days when gutshot or with a shattered leg is a horrible way to go.

There is no perfect way of controlling the fox population, but (like deer) they have no predators left in Britain except guns and vehicles, and numbers need to be kept in check somehow. Otherwise you end up with massive overpopulation and sickly animals.

@GreyMary23
(and anyone else that's interested)

Please do educate yourself about hunting before spouting on public FB page - a poor local lady was hyper critical of hunting saying it was all about a cover up for secretly hunting foxes and referencing various TV programmes, and saying she'd heard it was happening locally and should never be allowed.

Poor lady got torn to shreds, as in our area it is SO very built up since the mid 1970s, with motorways and dual carriageways criss-crossing what was farmland for hunting, and is now almost in its entirety housing estates with a couple of remaining farms.

Consequently, since then (way before The Ban) there was NO foxhunting, there were however two drag hunts (one been going 150 years, the other 50 years) Neither have done anything other than drag hunting since the start of these two hunts - the hounds are taught to follow a scented trail dragged around a pre-determined route, over fences hedges ditches and other obstacles etc, by a runner or quad bike.

The poor poster got absolutely slated as she kept insisting these 2 hunts were simply a cover-up for hunting foxes. Yet she'd never been on a drag hunt, not even just to watch. Aside from the fact you'd never manage to chase a fox round here without crossing a motorway/busy dual carriageway/housing estate etc, there simply isn't much land left not built upon. And the hounds wouldn't have a clue what a fox scent was since they're trained on the aniseed I think they use, scent of the drag

So please do learn the terms for your own safety online (foxhunting - now illegal, trail hunting - which is what foxhunting hunts now do, and drag hunting - the hounds have never been trained or bred from ones that follow fox scent so wouldn't bother to track a fox)

One could say that the hunt is as bad as the gang that hunts down the more vulnerable or indebted teenage boy and attacks with knives.

If the sabs really and truly care about life I would venture to suggest their efforts would be better put to use elsewhere.

@foodlesnoodles I wouldn’t bin your balaclava or shut down your go fund me page for vehicle repairs just yet

@Guineapig99

They hunt foxes because they think that the law is bollocks re hunting That foxes are predators, that city people have no clue about the countryside, and because it’s tradition. Farmers and country folk often think it’s hypocrisy that city people are happy to have them breed animals for slaughter while whining on about a handful of predators.

I have no sentimentality about foxes, I think they are vermin and they need to be controlled like other vermin.

What I object to strongly is people using that as an excuse for hunting them for sport. Chasing a scared fox for miles before letting hounds rip it apart, all for the sake of a day out with your mates, is despicable on any level.

Some time ago I worked in a law firm that occasionally included hunt saboteurs amongst its clients. When the law changed, the poachers effectively turned gamekeepers and started policing hunts to ensure they were sticking to the law. The reactions of the hunt fraternity were hilarious - they were absolutely outraged that suddenly everything had been turned on its head and they could be held accountable for their actions. They used a very expensive lawyer who proclaimed himself to be an expert in that area, and tried to get injunctions to stop themselves from being policed. Their lawyer nobly lost every hunt case he was involved in, at least when they were up against my colleagues, so they ended up having to pay the former sabs' costs as well, which they utterly hated. The firm was quite sad when the penny dropped and they left the sabs alone, it had been quite a nice little earner.

If the sabs really and truly care about life I would venture to suggest their efforts would be better put to use elsewhere

TBF I've no doubt some of them genuinely do. Unfortunately, however, the attraction to many seems to lie in giving "the toffs" a bloody nose ... the same attitude we see on here with the revealing comments about "rich twats" and so on

One of the benefits of hunting with dogs vs hunting with guns is it actually improves the health of the general fox population. Mostly sick, weak, old or otherwise poor quality foxes are captured by dogs. The fast, strong and healthy animals get away. Shooting however, particularly with rifles and night vision, is indiscriminate; good animals who should therefore pass their genes on to the next generation are being taken out. Just another way of looking at things!

Well the lovely sabs today have driven deliberately at a horse. Not to mention trespassing on private land nowhere near a footpath