[Fergus]

Doesn't matter, they have been DEMOCRATICALLY defeated by a majority of about 118 votes.  And about 2000 people have been rioting plus of them invaded Westminster (good thing they weren't actually a proper threat (if only TB were there and they were terrorists, sigh))

I quote "I'm not a terrorist, I'm a physiotherapist" from one of the would be revolutionaries.

We British are an insane bunch.

[Fineus]

Oooh dear. You just picked my hot topic. I've got first hand experience about this one.

Urban foxes? Fair enough - they can be a menace and I've seen some terror stories involving babies and what have you. These foxes are not controlled by hunting though - and their survival does not hinge on a hunt. Fox hunting refers purely to country foxes.

As for fox hunters? Ban the ****ers.
Trust me. I live on the south coast of England - a bit further inland in Sussex, fox hunting is huge. Packs of dogs and huge horses rode by the rich, greedy and generaly unpleasent... and their equally similar children... tear up the countryside - with the aid of police protection - to hunt down one fox. If a protestor were to get in the way of all this, well lets just say the hunt would not stop to move around him. They'd ride straight at him and if they hit him? So much the better for them.

And how do I know all of this? I've been in an anti-hunt movement in my county. Note that our action was purely preventative... distracting the dogs by calling them, spraying a distracting scent over the path of the fox to throw off the hunt dogs... that kind of thing. No danger or damage to anyone except the pride of the bastards who take to horses in the name of this so called sport.

All in all - the fox doesn't get a good deal in this at all. Don't tell me that this is a fine old tradition or that foxes do damage in the country. In the grand scheme of things the damage foxes do is negligable (especially to chickens in your average bulk-farm). The sport aspect? The tradition? Barbaric and cruel certainly. By all means shoot clay pidgeons... but hunting down a defenseless animal with a pack of dogs and horses with a flotila of jeeps as a support group? If it were a human instead of a fox then the US would've napalmed the horse stables and assasinated the manor house owners long ago.

I'm sure the fox still feels pain. Find a new ****ing sport.

And I'm done...

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by beatspete


I wouldn't say traps or poison are especially fox friendly either.

Anyway, here's a few questions:
Do you live in the country? ... possibly
Do you work on a farm?  ....doubt it
Would you like it if someone tried to ban your favourite tradition?  ..No.

Personally I don't really consider the rights of foxes to be that important in the greater scheme of things.  I don't know what foxes themselves think of me, but thats irrelevant.   The law in scotland currently is that you can chase the fox with dogs but you can't kill it with them. Seems fair enough.

Urban foxes are certainly a menace, I've seen one 3 times lately and I live in a city.

You could say that our worth as a society can be determined by how we treat those who are weaker than us, i.e. how we treat children, animals, etc - i.e. anything which is defenseless.

[Jetmech Jr.]

Thunder, I absolutely, 100% ****ing agree. Let the ****heads find some other hobby that doesn't involve making defenseless animals suffer and die.

[Flipside]

Well, as far as I am aware, these people are not fox hunting.

What they are doing is capturing a fox, and then releasing it into a pre-arranged environment so that it can be used in a bloodsport. Which is technically defined as baiting and has been illegal in the UK for a long time.

Secondly, as for these campaigners who say foxes damage wildlife, I suspect a fox does less damage in it's entire life to the wildlife than a collection of horse-riders, jeeps and blood-crazed dogs that attack not only foxes, but rabbits, stoats, voles, badgers and, on occasion Children, Pets and each other, do in a single hunt.

[diamondgeezer]

I appreciate that foxes are pests which need controlling. I do not entertain the cute and cuddly image some people have of foxes. They're vicious little ****ers. I have no problem with foxes being killed.

What I object to is people torturing animals to death for fun.

To adress an earlier point, numerous cats round my way have been killed by foxes - typically by having their heads bitten off...

[Clave]

Exactly.  I was in a hurry earlier, but you have said what I was thinking.  Hunting foxes as means of vermin control is like using B52s for urban regeneration.

[Fineus]

Originally posted by diamondgeezer
I appreciate that foxes are pests which need controlling. I do not entertain the cute and cuddly image some people have of foxes. They're vicious little ****ers. I have no problem with foxes being killed.

What I object to is people torturing animals to death for fun.

To adress an earlier point, numerous cats round my way have been killed by foxes - typically by having their heads bitten off...

That's certainly what I was trying to say but in a more condensed fashion... they *do* do damage in an urban environment. However that is a world away from hunting them in the wild for sport.

To that end - if they become dangerous in an urban setting then control them via guns, chemicals or any other viable means including sanitary removal of them to the wild. However, none of those things are for fun..

[magatsu1]

I reckon Parliment has more pressing issues....

[Petrarch of the VBB]

They wouldn't be scavenging in urban areas if there was sufficient food for them in the country.

[Carl]

this is another one of those issues that people care about even though it's not a big deal.

[aldo_14]

NB: vote passed

I've nothing against humane culling, just what amouts to torture for fun.  If it was hunting a puppy or a kitten, this wouldn't even be a debate.

[01010]

Originally posted by Petrarch of the VBB
They wouldn't be scavenging in urban areas if there was sufficient food for them in the country.

Not necessarily true, a fox is going to go for easy food simple as that, there's plenty of food in the countryside, it's just way easier to scavenge from a dustbin. Also, DG we have hundreds of foxes around here I've never heard of a cat being attacked by them ever (not denying it does happen) but it's more likely a stray dog thats savaging cats. Foxes tend to be terrified of cats.

[Flipside]

Besides, with all these dustbins and free food lying around, why would a fox even bother to go to the effort of chasing a cat most of the time?

Glad it got passed anyway

[Dark_4ce]

I've always been against fox hunting, and I'm happy its banned finally. Boy would I wish to see those smug rich bastards now, pissing their fortune away at the closest pub. I've also had first hand experience with "those" people when I've visited family in England. As well as some of their kids who went to my school.