Effing foxes

We are supposed to have got a company in to, in so far as possible, professionally fox-proof the complex by blocking off the main access points and putting deterrents down, but either they've not been yet or it's completely ineffective.

You won't believe the shock and horror on my FiL's face when we explained to him about Foxes "rights" in London. Where he lives the FIRST thing you do when you see a fox is shoot it. Dead. Immediately. In his words: they are the biggest spreader of disease and malice in the forest, and he's the local forest governor.

We have a couple of mangy examples locally and I've had to chase the fuckers out of the garden on more than one occasion. I'm also certain you only need to dispatch them humanely if you actually tell anyone about it.....

Nah, you're alright Humph!

Imagine what it sounds like when she is joined by four dog foxes all fighting and vying for her attention. Sounds like Bedlam.

Although we do live in Fulham, which has no shortage of hunting Henriettas and Hugos, I suspect our Labour council might take against the Beaufort in full cry rampaging through the borough. And in fairness, the damage caused by a couple of foxes pales to the destruction that a hunt can wreak in minutes as it galumphs through....not something you want near your house or garden!

Does chocolate kill foxes in the same way it does dogs. A box of Aldi's best accidentally left in the garden when unloading the car.

Doubt it. I think urban foxes could consume just about anything without ill effect. And the problem is not killing them, but deterring them. If you kill one, another will be along the next night to nab the newly vacated territory. You have to stop them wanting to be there.

I don’t like animals being hunted for sport.I worry what sort of person takes pleasure in killing and harming animals .

why would you defend their rights to commit an illegal act btw?

This is a complex area on which there are lots of perfectly valid points of view.

For my part:

(a) We are all entitled to our views but I don't think any of us has the right to take the moral high ground or to impose our ethics on others.

(b) In my experience, people who don't shoot or hunt have a tendency to think that those who do are driven by wild blood lust and thirst for the death and destruction of the furred and feathered. Whereas I find that typically this is simply not true – I would agree with what Trevor said in this respect.

(c) I think that there is a world of difference between killing animals and harming them. One is sadistic and the other is not, for starters. I too, would worry about anyone who takes pleasure in harming animals - it tends to be a mark of a psychopath. As for killing animals, personally I have little compunction about eg shooting a rabbit for dinner, but I catch spiders and flies and tip them outside, rather than squashing them (much to my wife's annoyance) because they are harmless and I see no reason to kill them, regardless of whether I find them horrid or not.

As for your point about supporting an illegal activity, hunting in the sense of riding to hounds is not illegal. You're just not allowed to chase a fox in the process, so most hunts these days should be drag hunts.

www.gov.uk/hunting/mammals

The most obviously ridiculous part of this legislation (which really only got sufficient parliamentary time to be passed because Tony Blair saw it as (a) a useful sop to his left wing and (b) an even more useful distraction from his adventures in Iraq, the non-existent WMDs and the death of Dr Kelly) is that is of course that no matter whether you set out in the morning on a drag hunt, if the hounds get the scent of a real fox along the way, there's pretty much no way to stop them going after it.

I am talking about the illegal fox hunts,I know forms of fox hunting are legal.Nor am I imposing my personal beliefs on anyone,I am just stating I really don’t like it,I just think there are nicer ways of getting your thrills than by hunting down and killing an animal.
I know they can be dangerous,the farm around the corner lost many turkeys to a fox and have no issue with the farmers dealing with that sort of issue.
I just don’t like the idea of it being a sport for people’s entertaiment.I feel the same about boxing .
On the positive side the hunting outfits are rather dapper.

Some, possibly. The sabs around here like to disrupt our local drag hunt for no good reason whatsoever. They are nothing more than thugs dressed in hoodies and ski masks trying to pull people off horses etc.

When fox hunting with hounds was legal and I used to pay an interest in the subject the pro-hunting lobby always insisted it wasn't about the kill, that they were relatively rare, and a far larger proportion of fox deaths were road casualties. It was all about rural tradition and community, keeping saddlers and the whole cottage industry that supported the hunting fraternity alive. Where my mother-in-law lived the Boxing Day hunt was a long tradition, with everyone meeting outside the pub, stirrup cups being drank and a right good get together.

When hunting with hounds was banned all of a sudden the pro-hunting lobby insisted it was all about vermin control and a necessary evil. So which is it?

My friend Artie is a farmer and was Master of a Hunt in Northumberland. He gave it up and won't have anything to do with it anymore. Too many people wanting to prove their entitlement to trespass, cause damage, and keen to be in on the kill, hear its screams, and see the fox torn apart.

I would counter that any thuggish behaviour from hunts is reactive rather than initial aggression. 

Drag hunting is generally bullshit?  Sorry, but that is bollocks. If that were true then the RSPCA’s private prosecutions would have been a lot more successful. I imagine the reason the CPS don’t want anything to do with hunt prosecutions is that there is no real evidence of illegal activity.  I am sure illegal hunting does go on, but that it is the exception rather than the rule. 

I would imagine the the police have better things to do as well. 

I imagine they do encounter them by accident. Hard not to not galumph around the countryside for a couple of hours with a pack of hounds bred over centuries to sniff out foxes and not actually encounter a fox. There are no shortage of them.

There were three great fat bastard foxes yickering (it was an odd noise for which that is the best description I can come up with) in our back drive about 10pm last night until I chased after them chucking gravel. I've actually had to move the car because the ripping of the cover was getting worse - I've no idea why for 10 months, it was fine with no rips, just muddy footprints and now suddenly I'm getting ripping. A heavier fox with bigger claws perhaps. Fortunately our neighbours are away for a couple of weeks so I've been able to park the car away from the wall in the turning area and maybe that'll wean them off the habit for the time being.