Should Fox hunting be allowed again ?

[Conniff]

There is to be a debate about the return or amendment to the fox hunting ban, the most despicable rich mans sport ever.

[snowdragon]

No, it is cruel and barbaric

[SabreSheep]

I would like to propose an amendment to the law to bring back fox hunting

 

subsection a: A fox shall be described as a politician dressed in fox like fur

[obiter dictum]

With everything else going on such as food banks etc, how did the Government get free parliamentary time to vote on this Barbaric sport. The Tories really are on a different planet to the rest of us mere mortals

[citizenB]

No, it is cruel and barbaric

 

Seconded.

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

I thought it was being debated to allow it in areas where they are being a pest, rather than for sport.

 

Fox's are a huge pest to farmers and land owners and cause untold damage. They are almost impossible to hunt with a rifle and they need to be flushed out and then would be far too fast to shoot accurately at that point so they use a dog. The dig has been trained to go for the neck to kill the fox as quickly as possible.

 

Personally, however controversial it may sound, I'm in favour AS LONG as its for pest control and not just for rich mans sport(which I do not condone).

 

And no, I font hunt them and never have, but I have friends who are farmers. One lost an entire stock of birds to fox's. That nearly cost him his farm.

[obiter dictum]

You are more likely to come across a fox in our towns and cities now rather than the countryside

 

Anyone who takes pleasure seeing a living creature torn apart by another living creature for sport or some sort of fetish are a can short of a six pack

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

Really, I live in the country and see far more than I do in the towns and cities.

But is BECAUSE they are over populated that they are having to stray into towns and cities to find food sources.

 

And yes, I fully agree, if you enjoy hunting foxes, then there is a screw loose somewhere.

[Conniff]

I thought it was being debated to allow it in areas where they are being a pest, rather than for sport.

 

Fox's are a huge pest to farmers and land owners and cause untold damage. They are almost impossible to hunt with a rifle and they need to be flushed out and then would be far too fast to shoot accurately at that point so they use a dog. The dig has been trained to go for the neck to kill the fox as quickly as possible.

 

Personally, however controversial it may sound, I'm in favour AS LONG as its for pest control and not just for rich mans sport(which I do not condone).

 

And no, I font hunt them and never have, but I have friends who are farmers. One lost an entire stock of birds to fox's. That nearly cost him his farm.

 

I might be able to accept this barbaric way of control, (ripping apart a live animal), if there was a sound reason ie lambs or chickens being killed. In cases like that there should be a number to ring and a van full of dogs, (if hunting them down is the only way), taken to that farm and the problem fox eradicated.

 

Fox hunting has not been for the control of wayward foxes but as a sport for the rich. It's not just foxes, if they come across a deer or other animal, they will rip that apart. There are multiple reports of pets being ripped apart in peoples gardens.

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

You can't have a van full of dogs as the owner cant keep up for the MILES it takes to chase down a fox.

[Conniff]

A van full of dogs to move them to the farm where the problem fox is, not chase the fox with a van lol

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

I meant when he releases the dogs!! How is he supposed to keep watch on them. The fox will outrun a dog and run for miles, but the dog will keep hunting until it wears out the fox. The dog owner would have to be on foot to follow the dogs and would not be able to keep up. Unless you advocate just letting loose a pack of dogs and the guy can sit in his van and wait for them to return of their own accord with a couple of small children in there catch?

 

There is a reason you see the dog owners riding horses.

[Conniff]

They bring their horses as well. A paid for service like rat catchers.

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

Um, yes, that's the current format conniff. A single farm doesn't have 40 dogs and horses and a group of people to follow. They are hired in, meet at a farm and then go and work for the farmer or landowner.

A hunt company will breed the dogs and the horses and hire the staff and a hunt master, and then hire them out. Like rat catchers.

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

So you want to ban it completely and then start the whole thing again as "your idea" but under a "new" guise. Isn't that the sort of plan the infuriates is about government? Someone not knowing how the actual system works and then trying to reinvent it.

[BazzaS]

Chav hunting as an alternative .... people are less likely to get emotionally invested on behalf of chavs compared with foxes!

 

 

Yes, folks : it is a spoof.

It has also been described

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/6944534.stm

"I strongly disapprove of this video. The film, although clearly intended as satire, is immature and deeply offensive.

 

I thought that satire was often offensive, as part of its intended satirical effect.

 

The question is whether it is intended to satirise:

chavs,

people who look down on chavs,

or intended as a comment on the Government's attitude to non-toffs!

[unclebulgaria67]

A few points.

 

Fox hunting has not gone away. It still happens, as they go riding with the pack of dogs and if the dogs get scent of a fox, they will chase, sometimes killing it before the huntsman arrive. That is a grey area, because the hunt never set out to hunt and kill a fox. The dogs simply did what was a breed instinct, not on a human instruction.

 

There are less foxes in the countryside and more in urban areas. There would be more of an argument to move the Chipping Norton hunt to Hackney, where Lord and Lady Farquhar Snooty-Smith can be given a council flat at the top of a high rise.

 

There is no evidence that countryside foxes are out of control in population numbers, since the hunting ban.

 

The hunts are now much popular than they have ever been, so the hunting ban has been good for the hunts.

 

To summarise. Removing or amending the hunting act will make no difference. This is a battle between the freeman of the countryside and those who think dogs ripping a live fox apart is not something that people should be organising.

[Conniff]

.... the hunt never set out to hunt and kill a fox.

 

Priceless.

[silverfox1961]

I also live in the countryside and have done for the past four years. In all that time I have never seen a live fox. (have heard them though) Occasionally I see them as roadkill.

 

Foxes in the country are more wary than urban foxes so tend to be hidden most of the time but this does not stop the 'huntsmen'

 

Before I moved to the country, I was fishing at a lake when I saw a quad bike with two boxes, each containing a fox that had been trapped purely to be released that day for the hunt that was going on. This was after the 'ban' had come into being.

 

If these so called huntsmen were so concerned about the rise of the fox population, they could do many other things including trapping with humane traps (although that is a bit hit and miss) or use professional snipers.

 

They hunt purely for the fun of it NOT fox control. Hunting with dogs should be banned outright!

 

I hear the pro hunt peeps saying, 'What about the dogs?' I'm afraid they will have to be put down as they would never be able to become family pets as they have been specifically trained to kill since puppies and are kept separate from people in specially designed sheds.

[Conniff]

They recycle the dogs by breeding them and then putting them down when 7 years old, so all they have to do is stop breeding them and put them all down or just let them live their natural life cycle.

 

They honestly think the rest of us are stupid.

[ccholland]

I live in a very rural area a couple of miles away from a Hunt kennel - they walk the dogs / pack every morning around the lanes with people either on bicycles or horses to keep them under control. I have dogs as does my neighbours and we have to be very mindful of the times they come past so as to make sure our animals are not outside - I have had a couple of close calls when they have decided to come by a little earlier than usual.

 

 

During hunt 'season' they can be seen for a whole day around the area going through farmers fields, peoples gardens etc - we don't get notified of when the hunt is on a particular day although you can tend to tell as one of the local farmers brings his stock in from the fields a day or so before. Some mornings the noise of wailing dogs coming from the kennels if the wind is in the right direction is really quite eerie - must be horrendous when they catch and kill a fox - which they must do even though you have people saying they don't - they only follow a laid scent! Yeah right as I have never seen anyone 'laying a scent' round here and I am out walking the dogs most days!

 

 

I have seen foxes in the lanes and crossing the fields quite regularly round here - I even saw one on one occasion who appeared to have a broken leg limping down the lane - before I could get to him he'd gone.

 

 

I do not agree with hunting foxes as I do not agree with hurting any living creature just for sport / fun (if you could even call it that!).

[unclebulgaria67]

They recycle the dogs by breeding them and then putting them down when 7 years old, so all they have to do is stop breeding them and put them all down or just let them live their natural life cycle.

 

They honestly think the rest of us are stupid.

 

Worse in Spain. The hunters there shoot the dogs who are not good at hunting at about 1 year old or they just take them somewhere remote to abandon them.

 

As for fox hounds, i am sure they could be retrained to sniff out for explosives. They could be used for security purposes where needed.

[ccholland]

Overall treatment of dogs in general in Spain (apart from genuinely caring people) is atrocious!

[snowdragon]

https://uk.screen.yahoo.com/funny-animals/rare-black-fox-captured-camera-104015840.html