# Fox Hunting **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 15, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563 "2004-09-15T16:49:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/21 "2004-09-17T00:32:12Z")
> [@MaddyStrut](#): > > Is being killed by dogs that much worse a death than others? I’m sure it’s not pleasant. But other than euthanasia, are any means of killing animimals quick and pain/fear free? A gun shot would probably be quicker but only if you’re a good shot and get an immediate kill. Does that happen all that frequently? (I don’t know since I’m not a hunter.) Captive bold slaughter seems quick by itself, but the transportation to the slaughter house and moving through the process is probably pretty stressful for some slaughter-bound animals. I have no idea how quick or painless poison is. In the US most hunting is done by stealth. The hunter tries to blend into the environment and slowly stalks the animal. Then, if the hunter is skillful enough to get close to the animal the hunter tries to kill it with one shot. While hunting some birds you do startle them up off the ground befor you blast them, but most hunted animals in the US never know what hit them. Compare that to having a pack of dogs chase an animal for hours till it drops from exhaustion. The only concern I have about the hunting ban is that women in the fox hunting outfit are really sexy. Will those outfits stll be around? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/22 "2004-09-16T22:34:43Z")
Sorry, this is a bit of a drive-by, but someone, I think, mentioned a potential"log-jam" in the courts. This current brouhaha relates to England and Wales - “hunting with hounds” has been banned in Scotland for (I am pretty sure) over a year now, and i have not noticed reports of any log jam. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/23 "2004-09-16T23:47:04Z")
Animals die all the time, people don’t get all upset when they show a lion chase down a gazelle on Wild Discovery, it’s just nature in action. Most everyone in the world eats beef and chicken, and the cows/chickens involved live and die in far more brutal conditions than the foxes. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/24 "2004-09-17T02:14:17Z")
> [@qts](#): > > You’ve obviously not been up all night with a shotgun in lambing season. Excuse my obvious ignorance here, but aren’t there better ways than to sit all night in the cold, half awake? I think this is a situation where some good dogs would be the perfect thing. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/25 "2004-09-17T02:17:43Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > A few days ago a 13 year-old boy was shot dead in Devon during a night-time fox hunt where hunters use guns and “lamping” i.e. “the use of a strong light to transfix prey so it could be shot”. Apparently he was mistaken for a fox … Here in the USA we call it “spotlighting”, and it is usually done when poaching deer. Both spotlighting and poaching are illegal, and if anyone was shot, there would probably be a bunch of criminal charges filed… manslaughter, negligent homicide, etc etc etc. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/26 "2004-09-19T20:26:53Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Excuse my obvious ignorance here, but aren’t there better ways than to sit all night in the cold, half awake? I think this is a situation where some good dogs would be the perfect thing. Dogs can’t fire shotguns. And the shepherd does have dogs. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/27 "2004-09-19T22:16:37Z")
Anyone who claims that hunting foxes is the way to _only_ way to stop them killing your lambs/chickens/ducks etc: have you ever tried **FENCES**? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/28 "2004-09-19T22:32:02Z")
I am fairly ambivalent about the issue, but I acknowledge there’s far more complexity involved than is portrayed by either side. I do think there’s a lot of bollocks talked on both sides of the argument. The pro-hunt lobby portrays it as a town vs. country issue. Whereas most sabs I have known have been country people like myself. The sabs I have known, however, claim that they only care about the welfare of the fox. Yet they don’t mount similar campaigns at abattoirs, where the conditions are also deeply unpleasant to the animals. In my opinion, to the sabs, beneath all their animal rights facade, it’s a class issue. Is hunting a fox with dogs more cruel than hunting a fox with guns? Undoubtedly. The fox is chased for dozens of minutes by a gang of baying hounds, absolutely terrified, before its throat is ripped out. It’s _like_ nature, sure, but it is an entirely human construct. That said, the eventual death of the fox is likely not to be more unpleasant than death by shotgun, which doesn’t guarantee a swift end - almost always a long-range shot with a shotgun, the fox may be wounded and go to ground and bleed to death, or have to be shot several times before it’s killed. If it’s just down to the sporting aspect, what the hell is wrong with drag hunting? Why do the huntsmen require blooding? In my Utopia I would outlaw hunting. However, I really don’t like the way the government is pushing the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/29 "2004-09-20T06:09:17Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > Anyone who claims that hunting foxes is the way to _only_ way to stop them killing your lambs/chickens/ducks etc: have you ever tried **FENCES**? You do understand that a fox is known to be a cunning animal. A particular clever individual might be referred to as a fox. (Ie. Crazy like a fox.) Not that Fox Hunts are a particularly effective way to keep the population down. Marc ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/30 "2004-09-20T08:36:41Z")
As cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/31 "2004-09-20T09:15:23Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > Anyone who claims that hunting foxes is the way to _only_ way to stop them killing your lambs/chickens/ducks etc: have you ever tried **FENCES**? Foxes are quite capable of getting over very high fences, that or they manage to find a way in some other way. The style of Fox Hunting that they want to ban just seems so damn inefficient that to claim it is a method of pest control strikes me as pretty silly. One person with a shotgun or .22 rifle & fox whistle (these imitate the sound of an injured rabbit) would get the job done. **jjimm** I’ve shot a lot of foxes in my time using shotguns, provided you can get them in to about 30-40m and are using the proper load (4’s or BB’s) they are pretty easy to drop. It rarely takes more than one shot. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563/32 "2004-09-20T12:19:35Z")
On the subject of fox hunting and sheep let me quote you part of a letter from today’s _Times_ "…I have lived the greater part of my live in the country and I am a strong opponent of this so called sport . So are most of my friends and acquaintances here , including a local farmer , who says that no one who has seen the damage that a pack of ( hunting ) hounds can do in a field of pregnant ewes could possible be in favour of it. " Believe it or not I have heard supporters of fox hunting say the the fox enjoys the chase . Pull the other one ! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-hunting/264563.md?page=1)