I do not hunt. Don’t care to or even own a gun, but I have no problem with hunters. They pay licence and other fees which benefit the very play ground they use, and keep the population of deers at more manageable levels since all other natural enemies have disappeared. OF course, some vegans will object.
When I heard about the British royal family members participating on a fox hunt, and the British people’s reaction, it made me wonder. Are the Brits just anti-hunting pacifists, or is a fox-hunt symbolic of upper-crust society they love to loathe.
Being from Texas, I see a fox hunt as something I would not care to do, but no big deal. I do eat meat, so someone has to kill them. But I feel there is more to the British animosity than just treatment of animals.
I’m in NY I know a lot of folks who like to hunt deer… Here are some differences between deer hunting and fox hunting:
If you don’t hunt deer, there’ll be too many of them and they’ll starve. Foxes are anywhere near overpopulation. Deer are basically oversizes rats - they do nothing useful, except destroying plants. Foxes do something positive for the ecology.
You shoot the deer. A smart deer has a good chance of getting away. A fox, once spotted, does not get away (so much for Brits’ “sportsmanship”) and is forced to run until it drops with a heart attack.
We eat the deer. No one eats foxes. (Although folks who eat haggis might eat foxes too, dunno.)
I’m not sure if fox hunting should be outlawed (like cock fighting, bull baiting, and other traditional British forms of entertainment) but it’s certainly fair to let the Windsors know they’re disgusting.
I’m from Tahoe…Eastern California, for those you don’t know… and in the mountains. I see no fox here, and few deer… although, there are many deer all around. I have seen bear all around, but I do not shoot them! Why shoot them!? I do have guns, an SKS, a Glock 9, and a SigSauer…but, I do not shoot these beautiful creatures… Why do other people?
I’m no animal rights activist and I have no quarrel with deer or fowl hunting but I have to admit that I find fox hunting about as loathsome as bullfighting. I think even Ted Nugent would have a problem with fox hunting.
If you ain’t gonna eat it, don’t kill it. Speaking of bullfighting, am I the only one who pumps his fist and exclaims “YESSSS!” when he hears of a matador getting gored to death in the ring??
I think most of the objections your Briton-on-the-street has with fox hunting is based on contempt for the predators rather than concern for the prey. Fox hunting is one of the most obstentious displays of upper-class priviledge that survives in Britain. Keep in mind that in Europe, unlike America, hunting is traditionally considered an upper-class sport.
I’m in Berkeley, CA. This is urban territory, but I wouldn’t swear by the urbanity of a lot of Berkeleyans. I live in the transitional area where the flats become the hills. No dear here but far too many in the neighboring urban residential hills – you can say – because nobody is allowed to shoot them there. Back a while, they had too many on Angel Island in SF Bay and brought in hunters to drastically reduce their number there.
I eat meat and am not into animal rights. When I was young I had an uncle who hunted occasionally. That period is the last time I’ve ever had venison.
Guns have never appealed to me and I’ve never owned one. During basic training in the US Army, I fired one a few times at a rifle range. I think essentially all guns not used by police or the military should remain only at shooting ranges. In the woods and wildernesses, I only like to hike and camp.
Yes, I think fox hunting, as its always been presented to me at a distance, as a tribe of equestrians and a large pack of dogs chasing one fox to exhaustion, is most ridiculous in respect to consideration as a sport, right in there with bullfighting, cockfighting and dogfighting. But killing animals for sport, in general, is not exactly my idea of an appealing sport anyhow.
I have never talked to any English or Scottish people about fox hunting, so I don’t know their range of emphases on the perpetrators and the victims, but I would guess its usually a combination of the two.
dlv:
I can’t figure someone who makes such a statement without informing us as to what such a positive thing might be. Preventing overpopulation in chicken houses? The only foxes I’ve seen around here are not native gray fox, but rather, imported red foxes.
Squee:
So, who do you shoot with all those guns? I usually stay away from those rednecks up at Tahoe. . .and hike into the back country (but not during hunting season).
Nanobyte… C’mon, gimme some credit! I target shoot, responsibly!! the last thing I killed was a Blue Jay, and when I did(at age 10), the guy who saw me kill it told me I had to eat my kill…he was a hunter, and believed that nothing that isn’t killed should not be left. But the way he said it scared me, so actually, YES I do shoot what I aim at, but only if it is my dinner!
But, I guess that isn’t always true, cause I don’t eat tin cans, cause that is my only target nowadays. OK?
I don’t believe in God, but I’m afraid of him…
I believe in God, but the only thing I’m afraid of is Keyser Sose!
I have one more exception… Nanobyte, I am not a ‘redneck’… I don’t know what your definition is, but I am NOT one!!! I shoot for sport, and that is rare, and in the mean time I do ecology for the State… this is on top of my ‘regular’ job… cut me some slack… =) I shoot once every 2 months, I’d do more, but I’m busy… I have a job, a girlfriend, and a ton of other shit… So, ease up on the “Tahoe redneck” stereotype…
I don’t believe in God, but I’m afraid of him…
I believe in God, but the only thing I’m afraid of is Keyser Sose!