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?

[naomi24]

What's the black spider?

[joggerjayne]

Jug ears.

[tamborine]

POW

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2080977-no10-scanned-letters.html

[naomi24]

Ohhhh .... thanks.

That'll take some time to read.

[wiltsman]

Now they've got an overall majority, perhaps they'll take us even further back into the dark ages and bring back bear baiting!

[wolf63]

My cat eats spiders - can he help?

[tamborine]

POW scribes are OOD, but it seems he is still intends to interfere.

[naomi24]

Haven't read the letters yet, but I think the government will repeal the ban on hunting foxes with dogs.

[Bazile]

If the fox hunting fraternity's reason for fox hunting is because they are managing the countryside ; then that's a load of bull .

Chasing a fox to exhaustion , ( not to mention what happens when it is caught ) with a pack of hounds , is akin to sadism .

[naomi24]

^I agree.

[ladybirder]

I hope they get defeated on this one.

[lindapalmara]

Tony Blair regretted this law afterwards. I was always uncomfortable about the method of killing a fox but having been brought up in the countryside and have seen the devastation of. Hen house which had been visited by a Fox in the night. It's horrendous and they don't seem to kill for food, just for the hell of it. After fox hunting was banned they had to cull foxes by shooting them. Unless it is clean kill, the fox can suffer as much if not more.

[jourdain2]

Not saying for or against, but if anyone has seen even a couple of dogs chase and kill a rabbit, believe me it is over in the blink of an eye and the prey definitely does not suffer. I also throw into the argument the fact that animals do not have a concept of death. (Read that in a learned journal ages ago.)

[sandyRoe]

Why would a hare run from the dogs if it wasn't afraid?

[ladybirder]

Linda, David Attenborough disproved the theory that foxes kill for fun. If they are not disturbed they will keep going back for their kill until they have buried them all.
Chasing a terrified fox to exhaustion and then letting dogs rip it to bits must be one of the worst ways to kill it.

[jim360]

The question is what it's afraid of. Is an animal running based purely on an instinct -- "I must run from this danger" -- or is it running because it can reason that failing to do so would lead to a grisly, if quick, death? I expect that it is more about instinct than the fear we would have if in the same situation.

[woofgang]

that's interesting...when you click on the link to the article allegedly published by the Countryside Alliance, its a dead link, page not found....

[woofgang]

this is all I can find and it dates from 2012
http://www.countryside-alliance.org/ca/campaigns-hunting/prime-minister-is-right-to-question-the-hunting-act?search=ca

so is the Independent indulging in suggesto falsi?

[handyguy]

Back to the dark old days with this government, they would probably bring in disabled people hunting if they could!!

[sp1814]

'Keeping the fox numbers down' by hunting them with hounds is a completely bogus argument.

It's not a service, it's a sport.

If control of the fox population was really the main objective of the hunt, then it's the most inefficient form of animal control known to man.

If foxes needed to be culled, then a far simpler and cost effective method would be introduced (like the controversial badger cull).

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.

Oh and by the way - why is it necessary to smear the blood of the downed fox those children who are attending their first hunt???