Whilst I would not hunt (as in foxes, on horseback, behind a pack of hounds), that is my personal choice and I have absolutely no right to impose it on others. This ban is entirely ridiculous:

* I may legally hunt a fox with 2 hounds, but not with 3.
* I may legally hunt rabbits with dogs, but I may not hunt hares with dogs.
* I may shoot, snare or poison foxes, but I may not hunt them with a pack of hounds.

Let's face it, the urban majority see the fox as a "cute" animal on account, probably, of its big brown eyes. Why are they not so concerned about killing other vermin such as rats? Why are they prepared to ban a country pursuit that they patently obviously do not understand, and which results in a relatively quick death for the quarry (99% of the time the lead hound kills it; otherwise it's the second one) but are prepared to have animals kept in atrocious conditions so that they can eat cheap meat? (I know how the stuff is reared, so I will not buy supermarket meat! Tonight I will eat pheasant that I personally killed.)

This ban is a culmination of two things. Firstly it is spite against what is incorrectly seen as an exclusive pursuit of the wealthy; this is why hunting is banned but angling is not. Secondly, a large section of the urban majority is determined to turn the countryside into a sanitised pseudo-Victorian rural idyll to be used as an urban playground. Shame on them!


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Stephen