Thursday, November 10, 2011

Fox Hunting in England



That was where hunting foxes and hares with packs of hounds worked so well. Because it was such a thoroughly inefficient way of killing the wildlife, it worked as a highly effective culling system – generally catching only the very old, the sick and the infirm.
If I'm not mistaken this is the same argument they make in The States for deer hunting. It's always for the good of the animals.

In Britain, they're right up there with the best of them when it comes to justifying.

And contrary to what the Antis would like you to think, hunting is not the preserve of toffs, but a totally levelling occupation, with packs of hounds kept by hill farmers and Welsh miners, all with that shared love of the chase.
I'm not sure if I understand the word "toff," but in the picture above I dont' see any coal miners or hill farmers, do you?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

7 comments:

  1. "Toff"-a member of the upper classes.

    Sorry, even though I support hunting, it is indeed the preserve of the upper classes (toffs). It costs too much money to hunt for anyone else.

    Any of the lower classes present are usually the workers on the hunt.

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  2. "And contrary to what the Antis would like you to think, hunting is not the preserve of toffs, but a totally levelling occupation, with packs of hounds kept by hill farmers and Welsh miners, all with that shared love of the chase."

    I may be misinformed but I've been told that maintaining a pack of foxhounds, a hunter or six and the necessary personnel to take care of them is a cost that is WHOLE FUCK OF A LOT MORE than any coalminer or small holdings farmer makes. Now, Coal company owners and agribiz CEO's, that's a different story.

    As for culling the old, sick and weak--I've never had a deer hunter tell me that he got an old, malnourished buck with one antler missing a couple of suppurating wounds and a debilitating leg injury--or any combination of those conditions.

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  3. Demo, "LLewellyn Pugh" owns a coal mine--that makes him a Welsh miner.

    Oh, you mean someone who actually digs the coal in the mine.

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  4. "LLewellyn" just doesn't sound all THAT welsh, he has a real vowel in his name!!

    Y'know them guyz that Tony Ducks Scalia goes huntin' with, they're just a buncha bayou "coonass" billionaires. Their manservants help them put their pants on one leg at a time.

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  5. I'm probably the only commenter here who has actually ridden to the hounds (US) in a fox hunt.

    The reason that farmers or miners could keep a 'pack of hounds' is that they each kept a dog or two, as a multipurpose animal - ratter, pet, etc. - that could also hunt. More often the smaller of the two sizes of beagle (13" or 15"), and not the English or American version of the foxhound (which are relatively rare). The American foxhound in contrast to the smaller, lighter, and much slower beagle, runs 22 to 25 inches, with the English variety of the breed running 23 to 27 inches. The differences are that the foxhounds were kept to run with horses; the beagle can work with horses, in some of the rougher terrain where the horses don't go all out, and they are better at going in to some kinds of brush after a live fox than the larger foxhounds are. But mostly the beagles, (in sporting terms used for beagling) are for hunting while walking. In MN, for example, the DNR uses a pack of beagles when they need to track and find bear that are causing trouble, and occasionally other prey that they need to shoot because of problems.

    You're comparing apples to pears here; both hunting, not the same. And the modern fox hunts use an artificial scent trail for the dogs, not live fox.

    The larger cost of horseback hunting is the horses; by comparison the cost of the dogs is far smaller.

    In the U.S. at least, deer hunting reduces total numbers where the deer otherwise would be at risk for starvation, and where the quantity of deer are posing a hazard to crops, use of roads, etc. We just had a six point buck trapped and shot by law enforcement in a stairwell in a St. Paul college building last week, that was a danger to studentsk, as an example.

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  6. dog gone:

    I live in an area that has LOTS of deer. The best looking ones are shot for trophies and venison. The ugly, weak, sickly ones are left to nature, coydogs and the like.

    I have no problem with hunters, but I don't have a lot of respect for many that I talk to. For a lot of them it's all about killing someting and then getting back to the bar to brag about it.

    I do know some great hunters who are genuine sportsmen who relish the outdoors and would be out there, with or without a gun--but, hey, most people like good venison.

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  7. democommie, I wasn't clear before. The deer-hunting rationale I always hear is to cull the herd so they don't suffer from starvation. But, as you rightly pointed out, the true motivation kill something while drinking beer and bragging about it afterwards.

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