Olympics

[nexus]

That about sums it up.

[JohnB]

Yup. We've had the circus, but now there won't be any grain to make the bread!

[peaceful_life]

A desperate denial of cerebral metamorphosis.

You mean that there's some cerebral metamorphosis going on right now and we're all in denial? Or, erm, what?

Yeah.
I dunno who 'all' is, the numbers in constant flux ya see.

[biffvernon]

I enjoyed the party. Nice to see Dr Brian May sporting anti-hunting logos.

[Catweazle]

Nice to see Dr Brian May sporting anti-hunting logos.

Fox-hunting by the Hoorah Henrys is already banned and they are now shot for livestock protection, and Badgers are protected except for a very small experimental cull, also for livestock protection. Both, ultimately, for the good of our own food supply.

If you think there is a shortage of either foxes or badgers you need to go to the South East, foxes are walking the streets amongst the schoolkids on their way to school and badgers stroll along the middle of country roads in the early hours.

[featherstick]

Nice to see Dr Brian May sporting anti-hunting logos.

Fox-hunting by the Hoorah Henrys is already banned and they are now shot for livestock protection, and Badgers are protected except for a very small experimental cull, also for livestock protection. Both, ultimately, for the good of our own food supply.

If you think there is a shortage of either foxes or badgers you need to go to the South East, foxes are walking the streets amongst the schoolkids on their way to school and badgers stroll along the middle of country roads in the early hours.

I've often thought we could get the Marines in to shoot the foxes humanely, and send the Quorn and the Fitzwilliam and the other hunts over to have a crack at the Afghan. It's a win-win-win.

[Little John]

I've seen foxes who've died from gunshot wounds. They wounds they receive are sometimes not instantaneously fatal and so the fox staggers off to a miserable, painful and protracted death under a hedge somewhere.

Reminds me of the animal-rights do-gooders aided and abetted by unelected EU project engineers who pushed for all of the slaughterhouse regulations that now plague that industry. The upshot is that most of the small and local slaughterhouses went out of business because they were unable to implement the new regulations. Only the larger ones could do that due to economy of scale of costs. This now means that animals must travel half way across the country in overcrowded lorries before they meet the slaughterer. By the time they get there, they are massively traumatised. When it was just a few miles down the road, the animal suffered far less I'm sure of it.

Hunting with hounds for foxes is no more likely to cause suffering of foxes than is shooting or gassing and is likely, in my opinion to cause them to suffer less. Hunting also has the additional advantage of only taking out the old, the sick and the stupid. Not so with gassing or shooting.

Please don't anybody make the mistake of assuming that the above means I have no love for the non-human animal world or that I think that humans needs/wants should take precedent over the needs of other non-human animals. Quite the opposite in fact. I just think that there is a lot of urban, anthropomorphic, ignorant bollocks talked about animal "rights"

[emordnilap]

Hunting also has the additional advantage of only taking out the old, the sick and the stupid. Not so with gassing or shooting.

But at least they're easy to spot, the worst of them wearing red.

[Tarrel]

This now means that animals must travel half way across the country in overcrowded lorries before they meet the slaughterer

This was also cited as one reason for the rapid spread of Foot and Mouth disease during the major outbreak a few years ago.

Hunting with hounds for foxes is no more likely to cause suffering of foxes than is shooting or gassing and is likely, in my opinion to cause them to suffer less. Hunting also has the additional advantage of only taking out the old, the sick and the stupid. Not so with gassing or shooting.

Also has the benefit of slowing the whole process down, thus acting as a natural curb on the killing. With some other forms of "field sport" (e.g. pheasant or grouse shooting), the size of the "bag" is just scandalous, with far more birds being taken than could ever be justified for the table.

[biffvernon]

Never mind the destruction of natural habitat. (There's nothing natural about heather moorland.)

Fact is, folk who kill animals for pleasure are the sort of people I think are nasty.

Wildlife management is a completely different topic.

[extractorfan]

Fact is, folk who kill animals for pleasure are the sort of people I think are nasty.

I agree with that, but I'd rather just be allowed to kick them in the balls than pay for policing a ban.

[Catweazle]

Hunting with hounds for foxes is no more likely to cause suffering of foxes than is shooting or gassing and is likely, in my opinion to cause them to suffer less. Hunting also has the additional advantage of only taking out the old, the sick and the stupid. Not so with gassing or shooting.

The Hunts have used that argument too, and I think you're right - sensationalist headlines about foxes being "ripped apart" by hounds mean nothing to the fox - it's long dead before the rest of the pack gets to it.

Remember though, when you read about Hunts doing "fox-control", it doesn't hold much water when they deliberately dig sets for foxes to breed in, ban people from shooting them and even trap them elsewhere and release them on the day.

In my opinion foxes need controlling and shooting is the most humane way to do it. I've shot a few myself, they dropped instantly because they were shot correctly. Frustrated farmers taking pot-shots at distant foxes with their shotguns is a different matter, but it wouldn't happen if the authorities didn't make it so difficult to get a rifle to do the job with.

[biffvernon]

Fortunately the foxes are winning the endless rabbit wars in my garden, to the benefit of the veg patch.

Zillions of pheasants are reared and released into the 'wild' where they destroy wild-flowers and compete with thrushes and other native birds for invertebrates, only to be shot by the nasty people who then dump the unwanted carcasses.

[Tarrel]

Fortunately the foxes are winning the endless rabbit wars in my garden, to the benefit of the veg patch.

Zillions of pheasants are reared and released into the 'wild' where they destroy wild-flowers and compete with thrushes and other native birds for invertebrates, only to be shot by the nasty people who then dump the unwanted carcasses.

Then there's grouse-shooting. Up here many wild-fires are started accidentally as a result of muir-burn, where the heather on the grouse-moors is burned off to stimulate the new, tender growth that the grouse like.

Indigenous raptors such as buzzards, red kites and even golden eagles are targeted by estate owners in order to protect the grouse population, which then breed in vast numbers in order to be shot come the "glorious 12th" (today actually - the actual 12th was yesterday, but being Sunday the grouse were spared).

[Tarrel]

I just had to scroll back up to find out at what point this stopped being an Olympic thread and started being a Hunting thread. Brian May was the catalyst.