Fox Hunting & Cameron

[tamborine]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-says-he-wants-to-repeal-the-fox-hunting-ban-10091571.html

while foxes are over populating urban areas & farmland, I cant see a pack of hounds followed by 20+ mounted horses chasing one fox, to be an effective cull. Has the black spider been bending our PMs ear?

[mikey4444]

Just found this on the BBC News website....it seems that the battle is on !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-32723202

[whiskeryron]

// I would accept (although not support) the argument that this is a traditional country pursuit, but I'm 100% unconvinced that the hunters do this for any altruistic reasons. // I am100% convinced that they do it because they know best & don't let anyone else say otherwise. i know that if one keeps or rears chickens & other livestock that one has to make sure they are safe from marauding foxes so OK make sure they are safe by all means other than taking it out on the foxes to whom it is the most natural thing in the world to kill chickens, & answer me this who was first on the scene foxes or farmers ?

[tamborine]

The question was about 'black spider' bending PMs ear? Should Charlie interfere ?

Forget it, Ive lost interest ;(

[andy-hughes]

shoota - //To be able to feed your family from the fruits of your endeavours is a special experience. //

Mmmm - roasted fox for Sunday lunch ... can't wait!!

[Retrochic]

Andy-Hughes -firstly well said on all aspects of Fox Hunting.

Shoota -You seem to live in an archaic rural world that exists no more in the UK. oh and FWIW your ewe with half-eaten lamb story -the fact the sheep allowed the Fox to eat its half-born lamb suggests the lamb had been stuck for a very long time and was probably already dead and the Ewe exhausted. If you have ever seen a natural delivery it takes around 30 seconds and a fox would not go near unless something was wrong.

I'm your 'Typical' Country person, born up in Canada but with family ,'Landed minor gentry' in the UK where I was educated and spent a lot of time. I was made to hunt as a child and its absolutely 100% NOTHING to do with wildlife management. Its Social and Pleasure and to a certain extent training of horses for other country pursuits such as Eventing and Point to Point.
Many landowners today do not welcome the Hunt, even now the Hunt are 'pretending'. In the past they felt obliged to allow them across their land to 'keep in' with the local big wigs but now the countryside and land ownership has become more fragmented with affluent people moving into properties with land, the Hunt is becoming more and more UNWELCOME in the Rural Community.
Fox Hunting is cruel on so many levels for both foxes, Hounds (that rarely see past 7 before they are euthanized) and horses that are flogged over wire fences,stonewalls and are often lamed beyond repair and end up being fed to the Hounds.
Lets get it straight -I was and still am an 'Anti' and pro-active in following Hunts, taking videos and other things that have got me arrested in the past. I am not even the slightest shade of 'Pink' Politically, and my fellow 'Anti's' are an eclectic mixture of all Political persuasions.
Cameron may try a free vote but I doubt Fox Hunting with dogs will get decriminalized. He underestimates the shift in Rural thinking.

[Khandro]

I live in a rural area in Germany, where fox-hunting is banned and in 10 years I have made possibly two sightings, and have never seen one dead on the road.
When I come over to England and drive around mostly in Gloucestershire I see them every day it seems.
The reason? Because they are bred specially for the 'unspeakable' to kill for 'sport'.

[Retrochic]

Khandro -before the ban we took photos of Foxes being released in areas where the Hunt wanted to Hunt but there were no indigenous foxes - we have no evidence of breeding but that could have been done in secret but have film of 'capture then release'

[andy-hughes]

Retrochic - thank you for your kind words.

And thank you for providing some valuable perspective to this debate from experience.

I do feel that the fox-hunting lobby like to rely on the fact that non-country people 'don't understand' their lifestyle and rural affairs.

In terms of hunting an animal to death - you don't need to be a farmer to understand that the entire scenario is barbaric and indefensible.

[Khandro]

Retro; I have seen near Cirencester before a hunt, a fox released from captivity in a barn, he ran for cover in a log-pile and was dug out again in order to be hunted - it's the most disgusting activity, killing an animal for sport is completely unsupportable.
I haven't read through all this thread, but I say, a pox on all supporters of fox-hunting!

[Retrochic]

Andy we live in an area surrounded by three Hunts, one very well-known and supported by high profile 'Gentry'. A couple of months ago I was in the village Co-Op and the 'Real' country people were complaining about the Hunt that was out in the village that day -farmers wives, farmers, people born in the village,complaining about the Range Rovers blocking the roads, horses galloping willy nilly across fields of pregnant Ewes because the riders were not country folk and had no idea of the Country code. The fact they were not supposed to be following a Fox but a laid Trail was the source of great hilarity considering the Hunt ended up a one way track in the woods that ended with a high barbed wire fence and cliff down to the river and had to all perform dressage like movements to double back on themselves. Anyone who thinks the majority of people living in the Country support hunting with dogs is either naive or looking for justification for this barbaric and out-dated 'sport'.

[mikey4444]

I too have heard of local landowners encouraging foxes on to their land, by managing and improving the "covers".

They can then pretend that foxes are a horrid problem and therefore they have a case to hunt them !

[woofgang]

when hunting first got banned I worked in a rural hospital. The majority of the staff were country folk born and bred some from the "upper" classes and quite a few were riders. None of them hunted and all of them were for the ban for varying reasons mostly to do with cruelty including the way that the horses and hounds were treated. I think even then there wasn't the general support that was percieved in the media. I know people who went on the "listen to us" march and their concerns were about the loss of affordable housing and other rural issues that affect the majority of country people whereas fox hunting does not.

[chaptazbru2]

I was proud to be a hunt saboteur in my younger days and saw first hand the brutality of the hunters both to the foxes and the 'antis'. One vile young woman on a horse deliberately backed it into a young sabber who fell badly into a ditch because of it ! We also saw wounded hounds who had hurt themselves hurtling through hedgerows and falling down banks etc, the hunters didn't give a toss about them !

[janbee]

I have just checked the petition site and there are now 282367 signatures. Great. More needed though. Please sign the petition.

[chaptazbru2]

Where is it janbee ?

[Retrochic]

https://www.change.org/p/david-cameron-keep-the-ban-on-fox-hunting

[chaptazbru2]

Thanks Retro.

[mikey4444]

Thanks Retro...sign as well !