Fox Hunting one year on

[bookworm_020]

If they still want to hunt foxes and be cheered on doing so, come to Australia!! some of your breatheran thought it would be nice to hunt them, so they let some loose (as well as 6 rabbits). They weren't the best of shots, so some of them got away. The result is both rabbits and foxes are now doing great damage to the native animal population.

That's it!! I come and release some Australian possums in England, you'll love them, just ask the New Zealanders!!!

[jumpy]

Well, what can I say? The Fox Hunting ban was less a 'lets save the fwufy wufy animals' and more of a class dig at the perceived privilage of the many who indulge in such a 'sport'. The idea that only 'posh people' go foxhunting is utter bull****; here in the midlands all social classes are involved either riding, running with the hounds or merely spectating following by car or on foot.
I used to go with my parents and grandparents most weekends during hunting season when I was a lad, so I've see most of it up close and personal. I'm older now and have decided that that kind of hunting is not for me; as days out go it was usually cold wet and miserable, especially if you're trying to follow on foot
But having said that, I don't think I have the right to deny anyone else participating if they so wish.
Hunting is a tricky issue, further muddied by townies who know nothing of real country life other than the fluffy side seen in 'All Creatures Great & Small' or portrayed by Animal Rights loonies and politicians with more invective than sense.
How cruel it is to chase a poor defenseless animal half to death and then rip it to bits with a pack of rabidly savage hounds who would just as soon eat babies as a fox.
WRONG
How cruel is it to give the natural selection survival of the fittest and smartest a chance to live another day, once a week for a few months of the year?
Hello? Have you been paying attention in class? The natrual world about us is a savage and cruel place and as a species so are we.
Compare that to the other means of fox population control, indiscriminate killers all:
Gassing (mmm asphyxia and not just of foxes either)
Trapping (see also the snare- nasty awful, slow way to die, for many animals)
Poisoning (takes a few days as your insides are slowly liquefied, like my cat who ate some poisoned bait- how was he to know it was only for foxes?)
Shooting (every man jack and his son, blazing away at anything that moves with scant thought for the idea of a humane kill or caution lest he decimate totally the wild fox numbers)

In my experience of fox hunting 9 out of 10 times the fox gets away unscathed and on the times it does get cought by the pack, there is usually a pack leader who gets there first and bites the fox on the back of the neck, severing the spninal column. Death is pretty much instantaneous. It's only the aftermath when the rest of the pack rushes in that you see (as propaganda in animal rights films) the carcass being fought over.
My feeling is that looking at the 'alternatively humane' methods outlined in bold above, the ban on hunting with dogs in the UK had nothing whatsoever to do with prevention of cruelty to animals through (ill named) blood-sports.

I guess the lesson here is that you can't be seen to enjoy yourself in such an enterprise, no no no.
At the end of the day, dogs wil chase foxes and foxes will run. It's a simple as that, if you'll forgive the pun: it's a dog eat dog world... or should that be fox? It's instinctual for them to do so and like so many other things we humans have understood and bent to our own ends hunting with dogs is just another extension of our use of the natural world around us.

My mum still goes 'drag-hunting' during the season, so some aspects of the sport have not really changed at all, but she still encounters anti's who despite having succeeded in their aim to ban the hunting of foxes with dogs, still shout obscenities and threaten person and property with damage: "we know where you live you evil ********** bitch, we're going to get you and yours!" etc etc Standing there with their petty video cameras trying to prove that some hunts are breaking the law, then going home to either cash their giros or back to 'mummy & daddy' in kent. It's all getting a bit old hat now; whatever happened to having victory with grace? Meanwhile the fate of many packs of hounds is at risk. They can't be had as pets, (at least not by ordinary folk as they are too lively and need a sh1t load of exercise) and places like the RSPCA are not interested in them, so baring some charitable folk, some of these magnificent animals will have to be destroyed for no good reason other than expediency.

What's next for the antis to give their lives, devoid of meaning without an axe to grind, purpose? Fishing? Shooting? Don't doubt it, if you enjoy either of those two, sometime in the next 5-10 years some lefty do gooder liberal with try and stop you doing it or hamstring you in pursuit of it.
But I digress. I am not in favor of this meddlesome ban, not from the outset, but majority rule is mob rule and everyone is entitled their opinion, except for blair who seems to think along the lines of 'when I want your opinion, I'll give it to you'.