Not taken the Toffs long

[FREDFOX]

http://www.telegraph....and-overturn-ban.html

[birdie1971]

Vibrasphere

You seem to be labouring under the delusion that a farmer can kill a fox stone dead with... “... a shot gun to the face...”.

You are wrong. Unless you're literally within a couple of feet of the fox (which is spectacularly unlikely), what happens is that the fox is peppered with shot and said fox limps away and dies a horrible, nasty, painful death.

I fail to see how fatally wounding an animal is any more humane that hunting it.

[birdie1971]

LoftyLottie -

I completely agree with you and everyone else on this thread who detest animal cruelty. I find the idea of killing animals for sport appalling.

But I repeat – IF foxes are deemed to be a problem then how can anyone legitimately claim that shooting them with the only legal firearm available to farmers (ie. the shotgun) or setting traps to ensnare them is more humane than hunting them?

I find all the methods of killing foxes barbaric but taking emotion out of the debate and going on logic – no one method seems more humane than another.

[birdie1971]

Vibrasphere – I would chose the one which caused the least amount of suffering. But I don't know which one that is. Do you?

[birdie1971]

And that's the point I was making. It's all just a lot of guesswork because no one really knows.

Yet if someone asks the question, “Should we ban fox hunting?”, you mostly get responses from people who are acting on emotion rather than logic.

The idea that a fox (or any other animal for that matter) should be killed because it's fun to do so is anathema to me. My wife and I routinely give our local urban fox left overs (chicken carcases, etc) and I have the privilege of owning a beautiful ginger cat. But I am also acutely aware that foxes are a menace to poultry farmers and while I shudder at the thought of personally harming a fox or any other creature, I am a realist and I am therefore aware that everything eats everything else in order to survive.

You (and many others) believe that shooting foxes with shotguns is the most effective method for controlling the fox population. However, as you aptly put it – it's a just a guess.


Should we be creating laws based on guesses...?