General Chat

Tories to legalise fox hunting if they win 2015 general election
The party will offer a free vote in the next Parliament if the party wins in May, The Telegraph can disclose.

well I for one am dead against fox hunting - barbaric!!!

Just one more good reason not to vote for them. I waited all my life for the ban on hunting, I'm not going to vote for any party that even suggests it should be brought back.

Count me out as well

Never voted Tory and looks like I never will

And just in case there's any doubt about UKIP

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fox-hunting-nigel-farage-shows-2961931

"Greeting huntsmen of the Old Surrey Burstow and West Kent Hunt before a legal Boxing Day chase, Mr Farage’s Countryside Allowance ( think that's meant to be Alliance lol or it could be a Freudian slip?) lapel badges show his sympathy for lifting the 2005 ban on hounds tearing foxes to bits"

Foxes still get killed they are a real pest. I have never been able to understand why people find them cute and cuddly and even less why they are tolerated in urban areas, encouraged even.

Instead of the hunt now they are controlled with traps and poison which unfortunately catch other animals as well, even domestic pets if they are allowed to stray. It is far too expensive and time consuming to control them by shooting.

Meanwhile those who wish to can (and do) go on riding with hounds. I doubt the legislation was designed to do anything much for Freddy Fox but rather kill off riding with hounds as a past time. That has not happened at all.

Except for fewer than ten prosecutions brought under the Act (at vast cost) by the RSPCA all of the other prosecutions have been for activities such as hare coursing which were illegal anyway. The police find the new legislation easier for getting convictions.

So all in all a good thing for hares.

It's unthinkable to me to bring it back..

It says a lot about a person who can set hounds on a defenceless animal.. I would not want that person running the country....i would not give him the time of day.!

A fox defenceless ?
Find one - should not be too hard.
Try and grab it with your hands.
See just how defenceless it is.
(make sure A&E have capacity first).

Please try and understand that the countryside is a place of work for many and it is nothing at all like the fantasies of Alison Uttley, Beatrix Potter, Richard Adams or AA Milne et al. Wallace & Grommit are on the right lines...

As foxes cannot be left to run riot ( they are especially unpopular with poultry and sheep farmers ) what economical method of control would you suggest ? The current drift towards traps and poison is catching various other wild animals notably badgers.

You have to be a pretty good shot to bag a fox they are very quick, intelligent and fearless. It is not really an option.

http://www.mfha.org.uk/information/foxhunting-the-facts/methods-of-fox-control/

A rellie who fought in the skies of 1940 reckons he stayed in mostly one piece as his sqdn leader told him to fly as if a fox - fast and anywhere but where expected.

Why not use traps without poison and then put them down humanely?

I'm against fox hunting too - it's barbaric.
The easiest, and most humane way to get rid of foxes is to shoot them.
I get this from an authority - a lecturer in gamekeeping, who tells his students, if they can't shoot a fox, and have to resort to poison, they can't do their job.

Of course the Foxhound Association would claim it's difficult to shoot a fox. Foxhunting hardly controls the number of foxes - 1 or perhaps 2 bagged per hunt per week during the hunting season?
More are killed on the roads than are killed by fox hunts.

Oh, and despite living close to foxes when I had ducks and young children, not one duck was taken by a fox - though a human took quite a few. I've also never been bitten by a fox - they don't attack humans, but, if put in a position where they're threatened - of course they will attack, so will a cat, dog, rat, or human.

Just a few weeks ago, friend and I were in the New Forest when a fox passed us by - very closely. He just looked, and walked on.
Friend was in a New Forest car park just last week, when 5 foxes appeared (males are about a lot now - it's their mating season). He got out of the car to get something out of the boot, when he saw them. They just looked - they didn't attack him!!!

However, had he been so inclined - he could have shot them very easily.

Why is it that there is an assumption that being anti hunt means one has no knowledge of the country side? ( or farming come to that!) and that one lives in some kind of Disneyesque world where wild animals, such as the fox, live in peace with Mrs Puddleduck et al :-0 :-|

Of course foxes are vicious, they are wild animals, badgers are pretty nasty too, as are hawks, polecats, weasels, and even wise old owl up in the tree is a nasty old bird if one happens to be a small mammal.... that's not the point, WE are supposed to be the civilised species, the superior species, the species that doesn't have to tear other animals limb from limb to get a decent meal.....let alone for "fun".

As for poultry farmers, those that have free range chickens, some loss is always inevitable but most especially if they can't be arsed to construct a decent chicken house...and tbh the people who complain most, and lose most, to foxes are just plain sloppy.

Exactly, Rose. Our ducks had the free range of our garden and the adjoining wood all day, but were locked up behind a 10ft fence at night.
I knew there were foxes in the vicinity - a male fox odour is hardly subtle :-S

" The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable" or similar,

I remember the quote, but can't remember the source.

Fox hunting with hounds is barbaric in any civilized society. I live in a rural area, surrounded by sheep, and I do understand the ways of the countryside.

Tec

Oscar Wilde Tecwyn :-)

Thanks Rose :-)

Maggie it isn't hard to shoot a fox as your gamekeeper friend/acquaintance says...what is hard is to kill a fox with a single shot even with a rifle.

I am not pro fox hunting.

Lesley x

Not if you're good enough!
You need to know where their den is, and stake it out.
In 2 days, me and my friend had the opportunity to kill 2, possibly 3 foxes at close range, had we both been armed and of that ilk, and this was with no planning!

This time of year, the males are lurking around waiting for a mate.
Set up a 'feeding station' now, and they're like moths around a light.
Of course, you'd have to move where you feed them, but still more efficient than chasing them around for hours, causing untold distress.

Having said that, most gamekeepers catch foxes in humane traps, then dispatch them.

I am not a fan either way, but neither do i want any more of my hard earned tax wasted on this.

The current legislation cost millions to force though parliament - something like 700 hours of wasted parliamentary time - and is to all intents and purposes largely ineffective with less than ten percent of prosecutions brought actually relating to hunting with dogs, the very people it was intended to target.

The Hunting Act was poorly thought through, illogical and undemocratic piece of legislation that is not working. Even Blair who was responsible for introducing it later admitted it was a mistake.

To waste even more time and money is pointless when there are far more important issues for parliament to deal with.

Agreed foxes are a pest but hunting is a very stupid way of trying to kill them. There are a lot better methods. Some hunts used to breed them so they had something to hunt, which shows how efficient hunting isn't.

I don't want the country I live in to tolerate people getting pleasure from torturing animals.

Simples.

I think the sabateurs could be extremely nasty if this happens.