This screaming headline was emblazoned across the top on the FRONT PAGE of the pro hunting Daily Telegraph on Monday October 14. You could almost hear the redcoats salivating as the article begins: ‘A pack of hounds will be free to help kill foxes in England and Wales under a relaxation of the Hunting Act being considered by Ministers.’ Predictably this was followed by the usual vilification of foxes, but this time with a slightly different twist. Instead of a fox ate my husband while he was watching TV story, it came as a brazen attempt to appeal to the anthropomorphic side of the general public, and we were treated to this, ‘Farmers say attacks on lambs have been on the increase, signalling that limited pest control measures allowed under the Act are not working. Hill farmers, who suffered devastating losses last spring as a result of the late snow, say a change in the law is desperately needed to fend off a growing threat to their livelihood. In addition to the thousands of new-born lambs which became stranded and froze to death amid the late snow, some farmers lost up to 50 to foxes, which were themselves short of food because of the deep drifts.’ Quite unashamedly, and with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, the Telegraph asserts that attacks on lambs have increased because foxes are starving. This is total propaganda from a group of dinosaurs who will use any dirty trick they can think up to be able to hunt foxes without fear of prosecution. Fox experts will tell us that most lamb deaths are due to poor husbandry rather than foxes. Less than 5% of lamb deaths are attributable to foxes, which leaves 95% of the blame at the farmer’s door. It is arguable that lambs eaten by foxes may have been already dead rather than killed. Foxes are great scavengers and they are also great diggers. It would be very easy for a fox to dig a dead lamb out of a snow drift. They catch mice, and other prey like this in winter time, with no problems. Foxes, both rural and urban don’t starve and they are not to blame for farmers losing lambs in any significant numbers. (Perhaps in view of the bad forecast last winter, farmers could have made better provision to move their pregnant sheep to safer areas before lambing began.) Having milked the starving foxes and slaughtered lambs angle as much as possible, the Telegraph moves on to the ‘humanness argument’. Hunters have decided snaring foxes and shooting them is now inhumane. It doesn’t seem to matter that they have been using this method of killing innocent animals since long before the hunting Bill became an Act. Apparently, today the only ethical and kind thing would be to hunt them down with a pack of hounds, dig them out and shoot them. If no one is looking then I suppose a few could be dug out and thrown to the dogs too. Kate Hoey, the black sheep of the Labour Party had this to say, “Unless you are someone who does not believe that a fox should ever be killed I cannot understand why in terms of welfare this is not something that could be supported by a broad range of opinion.” That is a totally meaningless and banal comment. Welfare in its vaguest terms can never be about tearing an animal apart for sport, but Ms Hoey doesn’t seem to have quite grasped that concept yet. Ms Hoey is also of the opinion that there is cross party support for a repeal of the ban, but Shadow Environment Secretary Maria Eagle said "Tory Ministers are kidding themselves if they think there is a cross-party consensus on hunting. If the Tories insist on trying to change the law, they will find that they simply don't have the votes in Parliament." Derek Morgan, chairman of the Farmers’ Union of Welsh hill farmers, had his oar in too, “The hunting ban was aimed at what Labour saw as posh people on horses, but the people who have suffered most are working class hill farmers whose incomes are already well below the UK average. “ This is one of the more stupid arguments against repealing the Act. Two independent scientific polls carried out on behalf of the League Against Cruel Sports showed that three quarters of the population of the UK are against the cruelty that is fox hunting. This number rose significantly against hare and stag hunting with dogs. When are these people going to stop trying to make it into some kind of class war? Are they seriously accusing the forty odd million of us against their vile sport of protesting because we hate Toffs? Another equally stupid comment from Mr Morgan was, “If Government increased the number of hounds we are allowed to use it would significantly reduce the number of lambs we lose.” Again given that most lamb deaths are down to farmers, and foxes eat mainly rabbits, mice, carrion insects and fruit, and hunters with full packs of dogs are responsible for catching and killing only 6% of all foxes killed in the UK, how is bringing back hunting by this sly backdoor method going to make the slightest bit of difference to the number of lambs that die in a year? These people are truly something else. The ban has been in place now for eight years and they still haven’t managed to quite grasp that they will just have to find a new less bloodthirsty hobby. A spokesperson for the League Against Cruel Sports summed it up quite accurately when she sad, “The Hunting Act is a successful piece of legislation and it works – ultimately we do not want to see it weakened.” Another nail in the coffin of the hunting set may be this piece of evidence unearthed by VIVA, who suggest that hunting may actually spread bTB to cattle and other wildlife. Perhaps it’s time for a cull Resources: http://www.viva.org.uk/what-we-do/badgers/cattle-tb-%E2%80%93-hunting-reason http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=2479 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yUwM5mHBD8 http://www.league.org.uk/news/1135/Guilty--Four-hunt-staff-admit-illegal-hunting-after-trapped-fox-flushed-to-waiting-hounds
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