Fox Hunting

[Uhu]

Tally Ho!

Ooohhh yes far less barbaric to stroll around the country side with loaded riles shooting anything that slightly causes a rustle in the bushes!!

What about the fact that gun ownership and use might go up andlead to the problems they have with this issue in the states!!

Oh and adding to Twinkies point. Foxes, like all animals, self-regulate their population according to the food available. however, foxes have proven they are the most environmentally adaptable animal in Britain anyway. There population numbers are rising to a point where they are coming into the inner cities (I frequently saw foxes in the road in Chiswick and Shepherds Bush where I used to live) and living off our rubbish. The problem will arise when, and I very much believe, when rabies hits the British Isles. What happens when our domestic cats and dogs come into cantact with rabid foxes. And don't say they won't. This year when out labrador bitch was in season we had a fox on sentry duty outside our door for 3 weeks!!

Also town foxes are becoming braver. Not long ago there was a newspaper article about a baby who was savaged by a fox that came into the house. It only ran off when her father appeared and he said it looked like it was trying to drag her away.
A few months ago we had a beautiful fox in our city garden and all trooped outside to admire it-including the dog! It sat on the wall watching the dog running around and listening to us talking and was quite unafraid. How long before the numbers get out of hand and they are classed as dangerous animals?

They are dangerous animals a cornered fox is very very dangerous and as they are getting more and more used to seeing humans and being in our environment they will be more of a danger.

And your adding fuel to my point Twinkie!
Unfortunately too many people don't realise that the countryside alliance is very much interested in conservation. I am sure I will be berated for this point too.
Sadly the issue has got so heated now that either side has gone beyond the point of listening to each other and "the blood is up" so to speak.

Personally, I believe killing thousands upon thousand of cattle, sheep and goats during the fott and mouth crisis was far far worse. Evidence since has proven that it was completely unnecessary.

I do not agree in hunting at all. I think that if it was domestic pets (who can 'attack' and rip open rubbish sacks) being hunted there would be an outcry. In infact can you imagine if my dog starting hunting down and ripping apart stray cats. I am totally against hunting for sport and think that it is barbaric.
But that is just my opinion and I respect that it is not everybodys.

Stupidgirl I used to think like you, but not now.

Your prediction that foxes self regulates does not stand up, please look at the Aussie fox problem if you dont believe me..

Given that they dont self regulate, what to do?

As I said last night the options are limited, shooting, poison, hunting or introducing tigers into the wild.

Would you feel the same about the marksman(or woman) or rentokill employee as you do about the huntsman?

I would suggest not, but you may feel a bit peeved if the marksman or rentokill employee had a group of followers watching?

Which brings me on to the real issue, hunt followers follow on horseback because its excellent fun! Sorry but it is. They dont follow to watch the kill, control the fox population or any other reason than its the only way they can ride accross open countryside flat out jumping anything that gets in the way!

And here it is, a lot of people object, quite rightly, imo, to animal control and great fun being linked.

But the fact still remains that hunting with dogs IS the best way to control the increasing numbers of foxes in the countryside.

If you dont agree, fine, but please tell me how YOU propose to control foxes.

stupidgirl I would hunt because

a)foxes are vermin ( ask my seven chickens - oh dear, you can't , they're all dead. Killed by a fox)
b)tearing round the countryside on horseback is great fun

What about banning Pest Control Officers because they kill rats?

Stupidgirl if foxes looked like giant hairy spiders would you care as much?

just seen "meat eating is barbaric"
I think that precludes rational discussion

joanneg - can you send your dog round to rip apart the cats that shit in DDs play area in the garden - I wouldn't mind at all - in fact I hate any animal and class it as vermin if it shits in my yard for DD to tread in!!

If the fox population would significantly increase without hunting with dogs, why did we not get overrun when hunting was stopped during the Foot and Mouth crisis?
And why can't horsey types go drag hunting if they want a bit of fun?
I live in the country and I'll be bloody glad to see the back of a load of braying inbreds blocking up the roads in their ridiculous 4 wheel drives twice a week.

Re the animal testing issue and animal activists there was a very interesting article in the Times a week or so ago. One of the anti animal testing protesters at Huntingdon life sciences has developed breast cancer. She has chosen to be treated and her rational is that by living she will do more to help animals. Hypocrite!

She is happy to be treated but denies the same level of treatment to those who are suffereing from untreatable conditions.

Ks, its a question of alternatives; tiger poisen or gun??
Badhair, fox pop stayed same as far as I know, no hunting but much less food, ie the control is needed where farming is active...not when the stock has been popped on a bbq

I think it's efficient in that the fox ends up either alive or dead, not taking a week to die with a bullet in it.

Also, if hunting foxes with dogs is more effective / efficient than shooting them, why do farmers shoot rabbits rather than getting the hounds on them? Can't think of any reason other than that rabbits don't put up as good a chase as foxes, so why plead a humane end to one animal but not to another.
I really don't think that in this day and age there is a good enough excuse for fox hunting to be allowed to continue. There was no doubt an outcry when bear-baiting was banned, but people got over it, and the pro-hunting mob will get over this too.

Pixel, its not very efficient when the hunt kills a mother fox and the cubs starve slowly and painfully to death. They howl for days and you can't always find them if they remain underground.

Why do people get so hung up on the fact that horses are involved? It is the hounds that do the hunting the horses just follow. If the hunters were riding quad bikes would it change peoples' opinions?

sorry crossed posts. Isn't that why they have a hunting season? I always assumed that it was so the cubs could be reared before hunting began. Not sure though. If hunting with dogs is banned will this mean that anyone who fancies taking a potshot will be able to kill foxes whenever they want to with cubs being orpaned as you described?

As for the rabbits, my guess is that they are just easier to find. The field my pony is in is certainly so over-run that people in the surrounding houses could possibly shoot them from their bedroom windows! Surely part of the hounds' job is to find the foxes in the first place?

1. my dad is a farmer, doesnt appreciate the land being carved up by horses and saboteurs alike.

2. Jobs are created through hunting. 3. Fox hounds are bred for hunting if no good they are shot, sooner or later. No good for domesticated life. 4.Dead cattle can be picked up by hunt people to feed the hounds free of charge, not have to pay someone to take dead animals away. The law I believe is you cannot bury cattle on the land. 5. Foxes are a nuisance and need to be controlled somehow. I don't go for the sporting theme of the hunt. It's an awkward one alright.

Pixel, if the hounds have to go looking for the foxes, then there aren't enough of them to present a problem. And I only know about starving cubs as I have to listen to them every couple of years or so and they make a spinechilling racket.
Have to say that our local hunt has a small army of quadbiking followers and they're worse than the ones on horseback.