Our Foxes

In the context of wildlife pictures the foxes are beutifull and a credit to your camera skills woo.

Ref hunting, Fox hunting indirectly contributes to a very large number of rural jobs not to mention the invaluble job of removal of dead stock. Those who condem it usually have not the faintest idea of rural life or the nesecitys of pest control.

The firearms licensing prochedure is now limited and drawn out and on certain areas of land the use of a firearm (rifle) is not alowed therfore possibly more inhumane methods like hunting are a nesescity.

For sheep farmers who operate on extremly tight margins fox attacks on ewes and lambs can potentially be ruinouse.

 

I respect your views progard.. but i dont think it neccesary to chase the fox with a pack of dogs untill its exhausted.. then tare it to shreds, not humane at all..Dee.

 

Other than hunting the only two methods of control are lamping with a shot gun or rifle and snareing.

A shot gun is not the most acurate of things at the best of times and for fox control requires use of heavy shot and at fairly close range, often the terrain does not allow this. I have seen a fair few road kill foxes with festering pellet wounds, milky blind eyes and scars all caused by shot gun pellets.

As for snares the less said the better.

Due to the ever tightening firearms laws and cuts in police spending it can take months to aquire and renew a firearms (rifle licence). Frequently in areas with a large number of footpaths or on flat land without natural backstops the use of a rifle is not permitted.

The only other method of fox control is therfore hunting. I dont and have never taken part in fox hunting but working in a rural area and having in the past worked on farms I can atleast comment with knowledge.

The vast majority of hunt workers and suporters I have met are normal plesant people.

To be honest the cruelty isues of hunting are no greater than those involved in meat production and farming in general. I do love to see foxes but wouldnt hessitate to control them if I was involved in poultry keeping, sheepfarming or keepering.

 

Well round here we don't seem to have any hunting, and there aint much shooting. The foxes dont seem to cause any problems. The idea that fox hunting is needed as a means of control is ludicrous. The numbers killed by hunting were miniscule compared to those killed on the road. Foxes control their own numbers in the same way that other predators, such as peregrines, control their population, they maintain a territory and fight for it. If they don't gain a territory they starve to death. all hunting does is destabilize the status quo so that several foxes move in and try to gain control of the territory that has been left vacant by the killed fo9x. I live in a rural area and most of the Farmers I know think it is stupid. In fact one sheep farmer made a point of banning the local hunt and that made a real mess of their hunts.
Fox hunting was all about killing for the fun of it. If they are saying anything else then they are just lying. why go to all that trouble ...and expense just to control foxes? It just does not sound respectable if you say "I enjoy killing things" so it got dressed up as a part of doing a "public service". Apart from the cruelty aspect of it which is obscene, its the dishonesty of it I also find repellent. P.S I think a lot of farmers would find the suggestion that they are as cruel to their livestock as fox hunters are to foxes as quite insulting. A lot seem to care about their animals and get concerned about unnecessary suffering.

 

Geof,

Im not implying that livestock farming is cruel, I dont feel it is nor fox hunting.

In many mountainous areas fox hunting is a very usefull method of control.

I agree regards a natuarl balance but unfortunately the 'balanced' population will still kill lambs, chickens and game birds and therfore need to be controled were these activiys take place.

 

I think we have been here before, re foxhunting.
As a pure towny that would really have liked to be a person from the country, (lets face it you only appeciate something if you've never had it) my veiw on foxhunting is a bit unclear.
Firstly the hunters state that they only rarely catch a fox and its the "sport" that they enjoy, "the chase".
Then they go on to say that they provide a valuable service to the countyside, ridding it of this very nasty beast.
They cant have it both ways.

The other aspect is, why do farmers feel they have the right to totally destroy every preditor in OUR countryside, yes "OUR"countryside, its not just theirs, it belongs to Britain.
Next they are talking of a massive wipe out of badgers, due to the spread of bovine TB, I belive.

How do farmers in other countries manage?
Where its not possible to control the wildlife like it is on our small island.

 

To try to get back to the tenor of this thread .. I think the photographs are super

 

Well pulled back Whis4ey,made interesting reading but politics is for the pub.

Pics are super Woo,keep'em coming.

 

Sorry woo, got carried away mate.