| Product: |
Foxhunting - is this sport? |
| Date: |
13/12/00 (77 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: A nice alternative suggested below.....as for the advantages of foxhunting...don't make me laugh!
Disadvantages: How long have you got? erm....um....errrr.....re ad the other 200 opinions!
“So there I was, just mindin’ me own business near me 'ouse, when I ears this godawful baying noise. I looks up, and there is a pack of dogs bearing down on me! Well, I’m not gonna hang around in such a situation, so I runs...and runs...I runs ‘till it ‘urts. And all the time these dogs is getting’ closer an’ closer, followed by these fellas on ‘orses. Well, when I can run no more, they catch up with me, and tear me to shreds in an agonising manner .....Never quite recovered from it, did I?”
I’m not going to get into the pros and cons of foxhunting (although the latter are in the majority), as I believe the topic has been covered quite adequately already by others.
Suffice to say I believe it to be a barbaric practice, which serves little purpose other than to allow stuck-up buffoons the chance to show themselves off in public and slate their thirst in inhumane bloodsports. It has little effect upon the general fox population, and any advantages (e.g. pest control) could be performed in an easier, more generally acceptable manner.
As a sport it is laughable. You don’t need to chase a fox to ride a horse through fields, and slaughtering animals has generally become an unacceptable pastime. Would the pro foxhunt people be happy to hold Badger baiting sessions in their back gardens? How about Cock fights in the kitchen? Pitched battles between bears and pit bulls in the boudoir? I see little difference.
But I digress…sorry…I said I wasn’t going to get into the pros and cons. Instead I wish to tell you about an alternative to foxhunting I had the pleasure to witness a few years ago...
It was a crisp Sunday morning, yadda yadda, and the hunters gathered, eagerly anticipating the spectacle ahead. As they moved into the fields, the cry went up…the dogs had picked up the scent! The chase began...
But they were not chas
ing a fox! They were chasing a man dressed as a fox – unfortunately not a fellow toff, smothered in fox scent and dumped in a field to run for his life, but a man dressed as a fox on an all-terrain quad! Tied on a rope behind the quad was a stuffed toy fox which smelt of the real thing, thus providing a trail for the hounds and hunters to follow. The quad mounted ‘fox’ zipped over the countryside with a pack of baying hounds and braying hunters in tow.
As far as I can tell, this event kept everybody happy. The hunters were able to gad about town like horseback peacocks, then hurtle around the fields exclaiming ‘tally-ho’ (or whatever); the hounds had a good run in the fresh country air. The anti-hunt gang saw no fox being slaughtered; and perhaps most importantly Mr Fox himself managed to go about his business and survive the whole ordeal without even having to break into a sweat.
And the amazing image of a man dressed as a fox zipping about on a quad will remain with me for the rest of my days :)
Now, can anybody tell me why, as a sport, this would not be preferable to the Fox hunts that are the current practice?
Summary:
|
Last comments:
 |
- 27/01/01 I will agree that in areas fox populations need to be controlled. Right now I am not going into the best way to do this, simply because it is 3.10am (suffice to say I don't think it is the existing method).
A big part of the problem is the blatant pomp, ceremony and revelling in the bloodshes that occurs. Like it or not, we are talking about one of the last remaining bloodsports. This op is in the sports category. As a sport, fox hunting is barbaric. I would like to see most of the riders 'flitting into woodland' or 'under ditches' - and if they can do it, swop the quad for a bloke on a horse dressed as a fox (the bloke dressed up, not the horse).
I am sure that many farmers would be equally happy with recreational riding after a quad as a full hunt (which could result in bad feelings towards the farmer from the general populace). Do the farmers not get payment?
My point here is, as a SPORT quad hunting is far more favourable. |
 |
- 27/01/01 OK - I'm not pro hunting, but I'm not blind to the pros of the hunt, so in answer to your question:
" Now, can anybody tell me why, as a sport, this would not be preferable to the Fox hunts that are the current practice?"
In certain areas of the country foxes need to be controlled - that's a fact that I can back up with statistics, first and second-hand experience and the intuition that living in a high fox-population area has given me. A chap driving around on a quad bike doesn't really do anything to the fox population. Farmers would be forced to use alternative methods, and as far as I can see they're all a lot less humane.
Secondly, from the weaker sporting aspect ( which I MYSELF am not supporting ) a quad bike is a lot less fun to chase on horseback - not because it can't get torn to shreds but because it can't flit into woodland, under ditches, and is very limited.
Thirdly, farmers allow hunting on their land to control the fox population - it's very unlikely that it's going to be as easy to convince them to support what would then be a purely recreational activity on their own land.
Of course, in certain areas of the country the fox population is fairly low, or at least not detrimental to the farming industry - in these cases yes, quad-hunting so-to-speak would be preferable.
|
|
|
- 21/12/00 I want some pro-foxhunting person to say something! |
View all
5
comments
|
Deutschland 
España 
Italia 
France - 
