Husband is insistent on joining trail hunt tomorrow

[FairViewRosie25]

Not happy. I know they trail hunt but they still take dogs and have their fair share of the sabs.

Many of the people on this thread have said they do not buy meat.

Clearly not

This government is planning to ban cages for farmed birds, specifically egg-laying hens.

You are completely and conveniently missing the point that your number of 61 only relates to monitored hunts. As has been explained to you several times now

143 monitored hunts / year with 30.5 kills ( you say ) out of 12000-15000 total hunts / year
equals 3000 - 3200 foxes killed by the hunt every year
not including all the other animals they kill

It is quite possible to understand things that are not part of your culture. Some might say that standing back from something gives a clearer view.

It is also true that many country people do not support hunting. It is a nuisance - blocked roads, locals crowded out of pubs by the hunt and their followers, damage to hedges, horses and hounds loose on busy roads. Also the antisocial element of hunt supporters bullying and harrassing those that criticise and campaign against them. E.g. fires set at Chris Packham's home or the stringing up of lambs as a 'warning' at a farm near me. All that is aside from any cruelty aspect.

I've lived a in the rural west country for sixty years, grew up on a farm and started my working life in dairy farming. I'm anti blood sports and have been an active contributor to Compassion in World Farming since I was at school.

It is not reverse snobbery that makes people anti hunting. If you are a country person you know full well that not all who hunt are toffs - far from it. That's just something hunt supporters say to avoid confronting the reality of what they are doing and why people hate it.

It is the blood thirsty cruelty and the making of fun/sport from it that makes people want hunting banned..

Bear baiting, hare coursing, dog and cock fighting have all been English countryside traditions. Like them, hunting needs to go if we are to call ourselves a civilised society.

I have answered your questions. Maybe read my post again.

The 'why are they prioritising this' or 'distraction' stance is just not true and is either ill informed or a distraction in itself.

The trail hunting ban is a part of a new Animal Welfare Strategy that includes banning caged birds, puppy farming, puppy smuggling etc.

It also fails to acknowledge other priorities which are being worked on from workers rights to energy policy to supporting small business to ----well I could go on. If you want to know what Labour are working on in your area you can see it here...

whathaskeirdone.co.uk/

Also @CruCru, if you knew anything at all about hunting you would know that those coats are not red, they're pink.

I'm not sure why you are comparing cats and humans when you should be comparing cats and dogs. On a hunt that does catch a fox (most trail hunts don't) the hounds are just following their natural instincts - the scent, much like the cat catching birds. The fact the dogs are followed by humans is almost incidental, much like an cat owner allowing their cat in the garden knowing it will kill for fun.

If we ban trail hunts because they might accidentally kill a fox, we should ban all cars as thousands more foxes are killed by traffic every year.

Then surely the focus should be on enforcing the existing legislation rather than widening it to the currently legal activity of trail hunting?

@Patridgeinanoaktree those "happy little pheasant's are bred in captivity and then released into the wild without the slighted idea of how to look after themselves. They're predated, some starve and they are killed in huge numbers on the roads. Around the sporting estates and game farms near me on Exmoor the roads are carpeted with dead pheasants.

Then 'the shoot' where the guns all stand in a valley and hundreds of birds are ushered in to be slaughtered - it's like shooting fat, slow, stupid fish in a small barrel. One gun after the other.

Quad bikes fly around the lanes strung with dozens if not hundreds of dead birds. Too many ever to be eaten they are often just buried on the estate.

It's not an idyll of free little birds leading healthy lives. It's factory farming for fun, profit and the occasional pie. Make no mistake, it's big business and it's cruel.

Too many hunts are ignoring the law !
We don’t have enough police
Hunt monitors are restricted in their access

If a law doesn't work we need to change it

I wouldn’t be married to someone who would ever consider it and who wasn’t actively anti hunting. But that’s just me.

how long have you been together? This can’t be new information about him…. This sort of cultural stuff is usually deeply entrenched.

Indeed.

which makes me wonder if this thread isn’t a political sock puppet to monitor opinions to the law change

Another comment I might make was that if Hunts used a 'Long Dog' - Lurcher or similar then the fox would be dead or escaped in a matter of minutes. Instead they use hounds bred for stamina so the fox has to endure a very long chase.

I did se a report of a post mortem on a Stag killed by a hunt and it wasnt pretty in terms of the damage that the chase had inflicted on it

I’d search cubbing if I were you

The foxhounds are trained to detect a fox scent in their first season by chasing and killing fox cubs. All set up by the hunt.

I agree with your comment on roads though. We should be reducing our speed limits
On one stretch of the A303 in one journey I counted 22 deer killed on the side of the road.
Nevertheless, these animals aren’t killed for fun, they are road accidents. An entirely separate issue

This is just rubbish.

The whole point of the hunt is that the following by humans is the point of the thing, not an incidental side effect.

The huntsmen dress up, they have a little drink, they blow horns. It's sport. The hounds wouldn't be there were it not for the human's fun.

Also, those are not the hound's natural instincts, they are bred and trained for it. Have you not seen the film of the terrier men throwing live baby foxes to the hounds to get their dander up?

@StandingSideBySide sorry, cross post there.

No problem…
The more the merrier to stop all the lies

I have attended trail hunts for many years were no foxes were hunted or killed and I don't see why all trail hunters should be demonised in this way.

According to the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA), there have been only about 30 successful prosecutions of individuals from organised hunts under the Act since the ban twenty years ago. Other sources give slightly different figures (e.g., the Countryside Alliance claims only 21 convictions involved registered hunts between 2005 and 2013, while other analysis suggests a few more).

Most convictions under the ban relate to small groups or individuals illegally hunting (poaching), not registered trail hunts so a lot of the figures being given out are very misleading.

The law does not need changing, it needs enforcing.

This isn’t the only thread on trail hunting on mumsnet either
So you could be right there

public opinion is in favour of the ban

This is the biggest croc of shite I’ve ever heard!!

“The fact that the dogs are followed by humans is incidental” ?!

And re the hounds following their instincts only … a previous pro hunting poster stated that the hounds used in trail hunting are not able to follow a fox trail. Is this not true then? I did ask the posted to clarify but they ignored me.

74% of voters on this thread are not on favour of trail hunting.

Bravo 💐

... and the cat wouldn't be catching birds if it wasn't bred purely for human pleasure.

Cubbing is illegal - I have no issue with that at all. I just don't want legal trail hunting banned.