fox hunting

@thin ice wrote:

@pete wrote:

Then lets legalise dog fighting cause guess what it’s natural for pitbulls to fight. Any foxes are killed because they are foxes and not because they are problem foxes, whatever method is used the fox is killed because it is there and it has to lose it’s life because it just might eat something we dont want it to eat

aint pit bulls illegal

Pit Bulls are no more “naturally” canine aggressive than any other dog, but aggressive lines were “unaturally” bred into them for fighting, non canine aggressive pits were not used for further breeding for fighting dogs, and so the fighting lines have a more natural tendency towards canine aggression yes than the normal canine, but it is encouraged in the fighting wings to make the dog aggressive and not have them in a natural environment where they would socialise with each other and just having the normal heirachy fights and aggression. They were originally used for bull baiting grasping and holding down bulls and large game not dog fighting.

@nemesis wrote:

To be fair, I don`t think hunters can claim it`s about controlling foxes really, not when you think of cubbing, and stag hunting. I love all animals and I consider myself to be an animal lover withut being overly sentimental… I would rather raise free range animals for meat, give them a good quality of life, and a humane death.

I`m still unsure of my feelings on fox hunting, the sound of a hunting horn stirs my soul somehow, but to chase foxes to exhaustion, cubbing, and breeding foxes for this sport seems to contradict the reasoning of control.

Hunting is not about control, it`s about the thrill of the chase, and why do they cut the brush off the fox and often “blood” new hunters?

I worked with horses when I was younger, and have seen three horses on one hunt have to be put down due to injuries sustained while hunting. If you want the thrill of hunting without the cruelty, there is drag hunting.

i have no idea where the idea about breeding foxes to hunt comes from and is complete story telling, certainly in the main, whether at some time a particular hunt has done this i dont know, but it isnt standard practice at all, as for cubbing it is meant to be to kill the grown but younger weaker foxes and for teaching the young pup hounds into the pack, but i have to admit, its not a practise i like, btw cubbing is done in around sept oct time and it is cubs born in the spring which are grown but not fully mature not young cubs in dens as is assumed, but still not a practise i personally dont like. Foxes are rarely run to exhaustion as i explained in a previous reply, most kills are quick as it is generally the ones that are oo old or ill to run well and so get caught, the young ones unless caught unawares have the hounds panting in exhaustion not the other way round, believe me. Blooding was a custom that first time hunters/ usually children would have happen at their first successful hunt and though i know it still happened in places, had pretty much stopped many many years ago. Very few hunts continued with that practise, why they chose to stop it i dont know probably because of the distaste it caused many anti and pro hunters maybe,i dont know. i never once saw any one blooded. except in films.
As for 3 horses being put down, nemesis that is awful and extremely uncommon i hunted for about 4 years, sometimes up to 3 times a week in season and never once saw a horse have to be put down, although injuries did happen sometimes, but thats no different to a race horse or cross country rider or indeed any equestrian sport, injuries do happen.
I started hunting as a child and went for the ride not the blood lust as did alot of the other riders and i agree drag/ scent hunting would be just as good for this without a doubt i have no arguement there whatsoever, and the amount a hunt did for the countryside as a whole and the service they offered to farmers not only through pest control removing the problem foxes which yes is fact, they would hunt where the farmers had requested the help from the hunt, that is fact, as well as maintaining hedgerows, removing dead carcasses free of charge for farmers among many other things. And the fact of the matter is the fox population has decreased and the disease has risen in them and domestic animals and farmers are having more issues already and i for one thought it would take longer than it has to do that. Ask your local vet alone how many more cases of sarcoptic mange have come through their doors especially in the last 2 years i think you’ll find it suprising. Bu i do agree with you nemesis if their was a better way im all for that too, have scent hunting, and manage the foxes in an as effective way, ie killing few getting rid of the disease and problem ones, not just randomly shooting any one u come across, i’d certainly jump on the same side of the fence. As i do love animals and think foxes are beautiful creatures.

I have to say, having looked at all of this thread, and given it a lot of thought, Pete….

I totally agree

Another deviation from nature in the name of perverted pleasure ffs…what is it with these humans :x