Are the signs calling for the reversion of the ban on hunting of foxes with hounds, or the reversion of hunting any animals with hounds?

Kingfisher

I believe they are asking for a reversion of the ban on hunting with foxes as that is what the controversy focuses on, but they don't specify on the poster.

Well, I would like to know why the persons putting up the posters feel the law to be 'unjust'.

Kingfisher

The whole horrible thing is the dogs they use are bred to have to speed but lots of stamina, where a fox has speed but not as much stamina. Therefore the poor fox is trying to escape for ages until they run out of steam and gets caught by the not at all tired dogs. This has been done on purpose so the riders get a nice days riding rather than a quick chase.

If they must kill foxes, why not use dogs with speed that would quickly catch and kill - the whole process and be more humane than using poison or trapping or shooting (possibly maiming not killing so the fox dies a slow death.

My Gradnparents used to live in the countryside and they often told the story of when a fox came sprinting into their garden accidentally while running away from a hunt. They let shut their gate and didn't let it out until the hunt had long passed, they were very proud of themselves!

I think the majority feeling towards fox hunting is that it is largely uneccassary.

Unnecessary, and destructive to a large degree. Perhaps nowadays it is different, but I imagine that back in the day, having horses trample through one's fields was not appreciated at all by the cottager or farmer.

Kingfisher

This post was last modified: 20-08-2007 05:28 PM by Kingfisher.

Well done to your grandparents Richard. That is such a nice story I know I would not appreciate having a load of hounds and poncy horseriders galloping through my garden!

I think I would try and do the same thing if a hunted fox came into the garden, I don't think I would want to get too close to it though just in case it didn't realise I was trying to help!

When is the election, by the way? It's too bad that jim thornton never came back, as I would like to hear his views on this subject.

Kingfisher

I don't think anyone should take pleasure from watching something die. Killing for food is one thing. Killing for pleasure is quite another. Foxes, like most animals tend to limit their numbers anyway, when food is plentiful they breed fairly well, (though that still doesn't guarantee cub survival). When it's not, they don't. Periodically, diseases like Mange go through the populations, and act as a control. This may be upsetting for some, but there it is, it happens.

If hunters are solely interested in the excercise of their animals and the thrill and skill of the ride that pursuit involves, drag hunting is a more than adequate replacement. The British Army do this, after all.

The law is still full of holes, saying that animals can still be flushed towards guns and so on. If people wish to kill an animal in this way, then the killing is obviously what's most important to them. If hunting from horses with hounds killed few foxes anyway, why is it suddenly necessary for people to cull larger numbers by such a method?

Time to add my two'penneth I suppose . I don't really know where I stand...(not on the fence by the way) I have ridden horses for 30 years but riding behind the hunt was never an option for me. More to the point should foxes be hunted by packs of dogs? I didn't believe at the time that a minority of people not involved should push the Government into passing a law which interfered with countryside living that they knew nothing about. I feared that firstly lets pick on a minority group be it dog owners, huntsmen, parents or smokers could be in the offing.( Not that I believe that they should go on regardless of others.)
I ask this question did the Government take on all views? Let's face it the law was passed but was it because those who shout loudest get their own way?
My friend ,' H' lost quite a few lambs to foxes , as I did rabbits, I can forgive the fox as my rabbit were only as safe as the next attack. 'H' had a smallholding with only few sheep luckily it was not his living but he lost a good percentage of chickens & lambs & it is not that he wasn't careful because he was. Magnify that to farmers whose livelyhood is lots of sheep , they cannot go on like that.
Whether it is a cruel way or the way of nature is up for debate.
I hated to see stories of hounds running rampant after exhausted stags that once having got into someones garden the hounds followed onto private land without permission & savaged deer. That is not on!! If a stag or fox for that matter landed in my garden I would fight the hounds off as that is my perogative. The huntsmen by the way cannot control all those dogs at once as they are pack animals. ( I have been in dogs over 20 years so I have a good grasp on control)That should not be allowed.
So I think my standpoint is hunting with dogs in the countryside with the landowners permission who are having trouble with foxes should be allowed to hunt with reduced numbers of dogs under licence by the authority be it DEFRA or whatever. Stag hunting should be only be allowed to cull numbers in an humane way by trained marksmen.

This post was last modified: 31-08-2007 05:33 PM by tibbar.

I guess another thing that comes into the equation, is that society, whether you like it or not is dynamic. It changes - over some things slowly, over others quickly. At one time in this country it was considered the height of good sport to watch bull baiting, bear baiting, cock fighting and dog fighting. Such is no longer the case.

Times change.

Absolutely. There simply is no need to hunt foxes with packs of dogs and as a control it is totally unsuccessful. What we're really looking at is a group of people who consider themselves to be elite and want to ride their horses wherever they like in pursuit of an animal which really does very little harm, in fact quite the contrary in that it helps, with other predators, to keep down vermin which would overrun us if not predated - look at the vole plagues in Scotland for an example.

Far from being a scourge of the sheep farmer, the fox feeds mainly on small mammals, earthworms and beetles. That's not to say they won't take a lamb, they are opportunist feeders, but when you see the number of dead lambs lying around in the lambing season in our area, then there's very little need for them to take a live lamb and I suggest that many fox "kills" are, in fact more scavenging than predation.

Yes to the above, and it has eerie parallels with the way people used to claim that Bald and Golden Eagles in the United States were 'lamb killers', and therefore had to be destroyed, when in fact, the birds were simply scavenging.

Kingfisher