hunting ban

Last weekend after the hnting ban came into effect in England and Wales there were over 200 hunts which took place - these hunts resulted in 97 foxes being killed .

This is not on - I can't understand why these people are being allowed to flout the law and the police seem to be more intent on moving on demonstrators who are acting within the confines of the law rather than arresting those that are deliberately flouting the law.

In one instance a group of hunters actually threw a dead fox at the demonstrators in a deliberate attempt to cause upset - even then they were not arrested!!!!!

lol Pam

Were those killed by the hunt (illegal) or shot before the hunt (legal) so that the dogs wouldn't catch their scent and chase them instead of the drag hunt as that would be illegal. The law is pretty daft, not because of what its trying to do but because it doesn't really do it very well.

I think I read more foxes were killed than would of been in a normal hunt because they had to go out shooting them prior to the hunts so the dogs wouldn't chase them and break the law.

Tam

hunting.

The law that came into force last friday is a joke (like the dangerous dogs act) its been rushed through without thought to the concequences, it IS still legal to hunt using dogs (doh) as long as the dogs are only used to flush the fox from hiding (they are not allowed to kill it) so now it will be shot instead,as a lot of foxes managed to outwit the hounds they escaped NOW though none of them will, so more foxes will DIE thanks to this act.

Hunting ban.

While on the subject of banning hunting wonder why they didn,t include rabbits in with foxes,. hares & stags. If anyone has seen a long netter at work then they will know how cruel this is,surely bunnies deserve some protection as well???

I'm probably going to be shouted at for saying this but I can perfectly understand why the Rabbit and Deer population need to be kept under control.

When there populations get too big they ruin woodlands/farmers land etc.

I used to live near the coast and there was an area of land that was swamped with wild Rabbits. The damage they did to the land around them was devastating. They stripped this land so there was nothing but grass mown down to the soil. To prove a point they fenced an area of where no Rabbits could get in and within a season this small bit of land was flourishing.

I agree its wrong to hunt any animal with dogs but I don’t think its wrong to shoot them with a gun to maintain the population. I also believe its wrong to snare and net Rabbits.

It’s our fault we have to this as we have taken up their natural environment by building/industry. We have also taken away their natural predators such as the Wolf so there is no natural way to keep the population down.

It’s much more humane culling these animals by shooting then it would be letting their natural predators prey on them.

I believe its illegal to hunt Stags with dogs?


Louise

Soz Folks - could someone in the know just clarify for me - I thought the Ban "hunting with Dogs" covered all hunting irrespective of animal - does this only apply to Foxes, Stags and Hares then?

I agree totally with you Louise. There are things that we have to do in order to keep a balance and unfortunately this is one of them. There is a difference between killing an animal with a shotgun, relatively quickly, and chasing it around a field until it is too tired to continue and then letting a pack of dogs tear it to shreds.

I think the real debate should be how we go about doing this and not why we do it in the first place.

I disagree very strongly with this.

There is no other creature on this earth that is more destructive than man. If any species needs to be kept under control, then it is surely us!

Yes, rabbits were introduced to this country by man. Nature has been interferred with far too much already, and it's not fair to make the animals suffer for our mistakes.

As for woodland areas being destroyed by rabbits and deer, again, it is nothing in comparison with man's destruction of our environment. So many trees and meadows have been killed off to make space for livestock farming - yet another abuse of animals.

People should stop interferring and let nature to take care of itself. Who are we to decide which species should be 'allowed' to thrive or not? Man, as a species, is so arrogant and can only see things from their own selfish needs/desires.

Jenny

This is a really good point too Jenny. Hearing both sides like this makes it a really difficult one to have an opinion on. I agree that man should leave nature alone but now that we have started fiddling it would not work if we just stopped as we have already tampered with the food chain. if this makes sense :?

Well argued tho, it is almost like man is a cancer on the earth....

I disagree very strongly with this.

There is no other creature on this earth that is more destructive than man. If any species needs to be kept under control, then it is surely us!

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I agree with you Jenny that man is the most destructive being on the planet.

But in reality nobody is going to go around culling human beings!

Yes, rabbits were introduced to this country by man. Nature has been interferred with far too much already, and it's not fair to make the animals suffer for our mistakes.

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I agree.

As for woodland areas being destroyed by rabbits and deer, again, it is nothing in comparison with man's destruction of our environment. So many trees and meadows have been killed off to make space for livestock farming - yet another abuse of animals.

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Do you have electricity/gas, do you drive a car? Do you shop in supermarkets? Would you stop all this to help save the environment?

People should stop interferring and let nature to take care of itself. Who are we to decide which species should be 'allowed' to thrive or not? Man, as a species, is so arrogant and can only see things from their own selfish needs/desires.

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Easier said then done. Go and tell that to the 10 billion or so world population. You’re preaching to the coveted.

Yes man has caused all of these problems but these either wont or cant be undone and we just have to live with that.

Louise

Yes, exactly - we should have to live with it, rather than carry on interferring!!!

Yes, we do have gas, electricity, etc. We do not, however, consume or use any animal products. Also, we grow a large proportion of our food on our own allotment.

The world's population could easily be fed on an animal-free diet, and much of the land currently used for farming could be transformed into woodland. Don't forget that livestock farming uses huge amounts of grain to feed the animals, as well as vast quantities of water. Animal farming is responsible for much of man's damage to the environment.

By the way, I wasn't suggesting that humans should be 'culled'! I do think they should have more respect for other living creatures though, and take more care not to over-populate!

Jenny

Up here in Scotland the Deer Commission had a massive cull of wild deer a a couple of months ago when thousands of deer weer shoty - the Commission has a new chair and he is a total prat who has come up from down south and knows absolutely jack-****.

The gamekeepers who run most of the large estates were horrified at this cull and were strongly opposed to it - but it still went ahead. Although the gamekeepers control the population and have worked the land for years their voices were totally ignored.

I think it is time that those people in organisations getting big fat salaries actually listened to experts rather than slaughtering hundreds of animals at the stroke of a pen.

lol Pam

hunting ban.

OOOHHH thats awful...I hate to hear of deer being culled they are such elusive creatures that I think we should give them protection to keep them safe...YES bunnies are destructive, I only have to look at my garden to see that, it looks like building site covered in burrows (they love to dig)but I think if they have to be culled then do it humanely...

the thing is i dont believe in fox hunting but there is no other way to kill them nicely. put poison down and they die a slow and painful death and other animals can die as well eg badgers. also with the dogs they are trained to kill the fox with a quick and painful bite on the neck but then you cant always say this it is true with the stress of the chase!! i dont no what to believe but the population of foxes have to be sorted out!!
also what happens to all the hunting dogs now its banned you cant find homes forevery single one so massives of them have to be put down
its a weird issue and a issue that is hard to solve but you also have to look at the side of the hunters and dogs as well.
is this issue the same as fishing?
because if you look at it in the same way it is

Yes I take your point..foxes do need to be controlled, the farm where I get my bunny food from also have sheep...this year they have lost over 20 lambs & 2 ewes to foxes so they have called in a marksman & are shooting them, the farmer says he has never seen so many foxes & they are hunting in packs which he has not seen before.