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Andrea Leadsom Christian hypocrite

9/7/2016

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Andrea Leadsom, Tory MP for South Northamptonshire, is one of two females tipped to become our next Prime Minister.

Ms Leadsom is a committed Christian who claims she carries out her duties as an MP with God always in mind. 

She says she became a Christian when her son was born, and she feels God is guiding her hand in all she does.

Perhaps she missed Ecclesiastes 3:19 “For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all his vanity.

Isaiah 1:11 “What to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

Ms Leadsom has however, delighted the criminal world of red coat fox hunting by declaring she will lift the fox hunting ban in England and Wales if she is elected, and the cruelty we have all known has been going on against the law for almost eleven years, will once again be legal. (Scotland has its own ban on hunting which is currently being reviewed with a view to strengthening the legislation)

Andrea has declared her reason for wishing to repeal one of UK’s ground-breaking laws as she believes it to be ‘IN THE INTERESTS OF ANIMAL WELFARE’.

She wants to bring in a ‘proper licensing system’ apparently, where those hunts who can afford the membership fees will be licenced to hooray and tallyho all over our green and pleasant land, ripping up foxes and feeding cubs to hounds to their hearts’ content with no fear of prosecution.

“I would absolutely commit to holding a vote to repeal the hunting ban. It has not proven to be in the interests of animal welfare whatsoever,” Ms Leadsom told ITV News in an interview.

One major flaw in Andrea Leadsom’s argumentum ad ignorantiam is that fox hunting is cruel, it is exploitation of our precious wildlife and she, in fact, cannot PROVE otherwise.

When the hunting Act was still a Bill, almost 11 years ago, Lord Donoughue, a pro hunting peer, had a similar idea to Andrea’s, and together with those other blood-hunting zealots from the Countryside Alliance, he cooked up a plan to allow licenced hunting, and as long as hunters were operating within a recognised code, hunting foxes and deer etc. would not be deemed as causing unnecessary suffering.

The ‘code’ was a set of rules drawn up by a panel, (which Lord Donoughue calls ‘the Authority’) comprising mostly of those with a vested interest in seeing the return of legal hunting. Of course those groups all gave themselves grandiose titles with words like ‘conservation’ and ‘animal welfare’ in their titles, so that the casual observer would be forgiven for thinking they had anything but killing for fun in mind.

The rules for hunting were to be drawn up by a panel of hunters and they would decide what would be construed as ‘unnecessary suffering’.

Whatever they had in mind as unnecessary suffering is anyone’s guess, but back in the real world, whoever told Andrea that fox hunting is good animal welfare obviously didn’t inform her that foxes are chased for miles by packs of dogs. Once they are exhausted and can run away no more, they are caught by the dogs, savaged and disembowelled as they fight for their lives.

Teams of hunt thugs go after the ones who manage to escape underground, and the poor terrified creatures are kept at bay by terriers whilst the men dig down from above. Sometimes an animal may hide in a badger sett and the digging activity can take hours.

Once cornered the shivering fox is hauled out and either shot, bludgeoned or thrown to the hounds.

Post mortem reports on four hunted foxes, showed the animals died in agony.

‘Vets from Bristol University examined the corpses of four foxes killed by hunting. Two of the foxes were shot, having gone to ground. Although the first fox hunted in Cotswold Park near Cirencester was killed by a single bullet, the post-mortem examination found evidence of 'trauma before death'.

The second fox hunted on Salisbury Plain had to be shot twice. Having gone to ground a terrier with a radio collar was sent down, and after 25 minutes of digging the fox was found. The first shot went through the animal's shoulder and failed to kill it, so another shot was required.

But the post-mortem of the fox found it had suffered from multiple bite wounds on the face and the top of the head, damage to the right eye, and bite wounds round the throat.

In both cases where the fox was killed above ground by hounds, evidence was found of 'profound trauma'. In NEITHER case was there major damage around the head or neck, as pro-hunt supporters claim.

The post-mortems showed the foxes had been attacked around the rib cage with the heart, lungs and stomach bitten.

One fox probably died from suffocation and in the other, where the heart was severely damaged, it looked like the fox would have been attacked while upside down or on its side.' 

There is NO EXCUSE for this barbarity. Foxes are no real threat to livestock. Most new born lambs, well over 95%, die from poor husbandry, not foxes, and even free range hen losses to foxes are low.

Foxes are nature’s refuse guys, they like to hang around at lambing to eat the afterbirth, and they will certainly scavenge dead or dying lambs. 

They are beneficial to all farmers because they eat the pests that damage crops and spread diseases in the farmyard. The stories of rabid foxes killing dozens of lambs in a night are nothing more than hearsay. Tall stories spread by blood sport fanatics who want any excuse to hunt.

A freedom of information request to DEFRA shows there are no official statistics for the wild claims that foxes kill livestock in huge numbers.

Foxes are not vermin, as Ms Leadsom claims. The term vermin technically applies to insect vectors that spread disease to human beings.

We are not at any risk of catching diseases from foxes. Even their fleas are from our own domestic cats. In the unlikely event that a dog contracts mange from a wild fox, it is an easily treated infestation which can be cleared up in a very short time.

Opposition to fox hunting is at an all-time high, and recent undercover investigations by the HIT team showing Pytchley hunt employees throwing live fox cubs into a kennel full of hounds, has enraged people even further. 83 per cent of the public today say fox hunting should not be made legal again, that is up from 72 per cent when the question was asked in 2008.

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Blocking badger setts
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FOI lamb deaths
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Atherstone FH Fox narrow escape
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After the hunt
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Countryside Alliance march
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Fox dies in sabs arms
Ms Leadsom’s favourite hunt footing. Shocking racist verbals from one of the pros. Hereford hunt rearing fox cubs to train hounds by throwing them alive into a kennel full of hounds.

A sneaky backdoor attempt to make minor changes to the hunting Act (which would have legalised red coat hunting through the backdoor) failed last July because of unprecedented opposition from anti hunt MPs across the board.

Andrea’s own Tory Party has a growing number of MPs who are opposed to this cruel form of entertainment. If she is elected to lead the Party and she does hold a vote on repeal, she may find she has huge opposition from town and country alike.

The UK may be a country in turmoil because of poor Tory leadership, Brexit and the Labour Party coup, but we are still a nation of animal lovers.
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Baiting foxes at Hereford hunt kennels

23/6/2016

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On June 10, 2016 we learnt that Hereford hunt kennels based in Wormelow, was closed pending enquiries into cruelty to foxes.

Horses and hounds were moved elsewhere whilst police investigated and made two arrests.

A 37-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman were subsequently arrested for animal cruelty, although at that time we did not know the nature of the allegations.

Then on June 13 a THIRD person was arrested in connection with the police investigation linked to the hunt in South Herefordshire.

June 23 we were treated to the full horror of what led to these arrests as a video was released showing fox cubs being thrown to the hounds.

Undercover footage by the Hunt Investigation Team (HIT) shows live fox cubs taken into the hunt kennels.

The League against Cruel Sports commented on the footage saying,
 “The footage shows:
-       The huntsman removing a fox cub from a cage in a trailer
 -       A live cub is taken towards the kennels
 -       The huntsman enters the kennel block with the cub
 -       The hounds are heard baying
 -       The huntsman can be heard vocally encouraging the hounds to kill
 -       The huntsman dumps the lifeless fox cub in a bin
 -       A second fox cub is taken into the kennel block.”
Eduardo Gonçalves added
“Once again we see evidence which destroys the deliberate deception of hunting as a means of fox control. Fox hunts hunt foxes because they like hunting foxes, not for any other reason. As we have seen time and time again, they will capture foxes, release them on hunt days just to make sure hunters get their gruesome chase, or as we believe this footage shows, throw them to the hounds as bait. There’s nothing sporting, nothing natural and nothing remotely honourable about this so-called tradition. It’s grimy, it’s cruel, it’s going to be offensive to most right-minded people, and we need the police and courts to punish all those involved.”

The HIT team managed to retrieve the lifeless bodies of two of the three cubs. Preliminary investigations showed one animal had been eviscerated and the other was covered in bite wounds.
The Hunt Investigation Team, which campaigns against fox hunting, secretly filmed two of the foxes alive inside the cage at night.

Later the cameras picked up a man removing them using a noose and taking two of them, one at a time, into the kennels nearby. Seconds later, the hounds inside can be heard barking.
 
A whooping noise, which sounds as though it is being made by a human, can also be heard. The Hunt Investigation Team claims this was to "call the hounds on" to attack the foxes.

On each occasion, the man emerges with a fox's apparently lifeless body and puts it in a bin. Later footage shows the bins being taken away. However, before then, the activists had retrieved two fox cubs' bodies from the bins.

One of the HIT investigation team, who asked to remain anonymous for her safety, said: "When our investigators took those fox cubs out, one of them was disembowelled; one of them had multiple bite wounds. Our feeling is that they were fed live to the hounds. The animals' bodies have been passed to the police.”

Cubbing, or autumn hunting to give it its sanitising term, is nothing new. Young foxes are brutalised to train the next season’s hounds on fox scent and to teach them to be vicious with their prey.
In 2012, a hunt master and a member of his staff were found guilty of illegally hunting fox cubs with hounds.

Johnny Greenall and Glen Morris both pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them after anti-hunt protesters covertly filmed the hunt in October 2011 Huntsmen from the Meynell and South Staffordshire Hunt were filmed surrounding a wood near Hilton. Experienced hounds entered the wood to hunt young foxes with new hounds in training in tow. The video footage showed two foxes trying to escape from the wood, on Suffield Farm in Sutton-On-The-Hill. One fox is scared back into the wood by the surrounding huntsmen clapping their hands.

This grisly form of entertainment is not a rare occurrence. It is happening all over the UK. The pro hunting lobby group, the Countryside Alliance is working hard to persuade us that killing foxes the ‘traditional way’ is a natural form of animal management. They also claim that any enjoyment from the activity is secondary to the useful service they are providing. To even admit that killing animals is pleasurable in any way shows indisputably that people who enjoy this form of entertainment are truly sick.

December 2015, a terrier man associated with the Lamerton hunt, took a tiny live fox cub home in his pocket after its mother had been killed. The same man n convicted in the past for starving fox hounds.

In May 2015 a League Against Cruel Sports investigation led to the discovery and rescue of 16 fox cubs on land linked to the Middleton Foxhounds Hunt. The League investigators believe these fox cubs were kidnapped for cruelty as a ready supply of animals to be chased by the hunt.
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Red coat hunting is as inefficient as it is cruel. Apart from the fact that only 12% of foxes who die in any season are killed by red coat hunting, removing animals from their home ranges only leaves vacant territories for other wandering males to claim as their own. It is not necessary to ‘control’ foxes, they aren’t over populating, and neither are they a great threat to livestock. Even free range poultry farmers lose only a small number of hens to foxes, and with better protection for their stock, losses can be cut even further. 

The vile treatment of young foxes, which aren’t even a year old yet, must stop. Hunting foxes with packs of hounds has been illegal for almost 12 years.  If all hunts are hunting within the law, there is no need to train young hounds on fox scent. Hunters who use wild animals in this way are no different from those who enjoy badger baiting and dog fighting.

Time now to ban ALL trail hunting as it seems hunts across the board seem incapable of obeying the law.

Other related stories http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fox-hunters-slammed-letting-little-6785232 16 fox cubs rescued from a barn
News from POWA (Protect our Wild Animals)
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/robbie-marsland/a-busted-flush-as-scotlan_b_9571238.html Scotland’s hunting Act
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British blood, flood and Boxing Day blues

9/1/2016

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PictureSo we know Cameron's stance
Boxing Day, the pinnacle of the fox hunter’s calendar and the Countryside Alliance (CA), that bastion of all that’s wrong in the countryside, began proclaiming the day as ‘massive’ for hunting with over 300 hunts parading, and thousands of supporters.

The Master of Fox Hounds Association (MFHA) who was a little more modest in its claims, stated 33 hunts had tuned out.

Chocolate box scenes of gentlemen (and women) in scarlet jackets with a sea of hounds surrounding their horses paraded in town squares across merry England. This neo-feudal scene of distasteful support for a cruel sport was trumpeted as a huge success by the hunting fraternity, although they were careful to keep the hunt bully boys, the terrier men, with their spades, nets, quad bikes and dogs in little boxes, well out of sight.

The pro-hunting press was full of pictures of bucolical splendour with rosy cheeked children playing with the hounds whilst the Hunt Masters and general rag tag of hangers on got high on stirrup cups and the buzz of impending slaughter.

The hunt saboteurs were there too of course, and after the ceremonies they followed the hunts to ensure they kept within the law; a small army of heroes who know full well the cruelty and the sadism behind the spectacle. The sabs were out in force to protest, but also to protect the vulnerable animals and where possible to save lives.

Tim Bonner, the recently appointed CEO of the Countryside Alliance, who never misses a chance to abuse those against blood sports, or to complain that the hunting Act is not worth the paper it’s written on, took to Twitter to proclaim that Boxing Day 2015 proved that hunting was more popular than ever. Meanwhile, the Southdown and Eridge hunt in Lewes, Sussex, was one of several hunts treated to an angry display of anti-hunt protesters with banners who kept up the chant ‘Only scum kill for fun’.

Further north, in urban and rural areas people were trying desperately to rescue their possessions from the rising flood waters of swollen rivers which had burst their banks.  Fire crews, police and the RSPCA were out helping to save lives both animal and human. The Countryside Alliance, who profess to support rural communities were nowhere to be seen. Not even a tweet from those self-styled guardians of the countryside on the subject of the devastation and the plight of farmers and their livestock. Where were they all? They were too busy supporting the hunters, and bemoaning the fact that even with all of their influence in Westminster they still hadn’t managed to bring about repeal.

The CA took another body blow when George Monbiot of the Guardian newspaper and Dr Mark Avery, consultant and expert in ornithology and natural history, suggested that the flooding was due to the bad management of the grouse moors above cities and towns. Hebden Bridge, in West Yorkshire, was one of the areas badly affected by floodwaters pouring off  grouse moors where ancient peat bogs had been damaged and acres and acres of old heather burned to produce young heather shoots (the favourite food of grouse chicks) ready for next seasons IN-glorious 12th. Grouse shooters are charged with having a big part to play in causing the flooding by ruining the ground which would have soaked up much of the run-off water. For good measure they were also blamed for poisoning soil and water with their lead ammunition.

So worried are people about the floods and the destruction of moorlands that a ‘Ban the Burn’ group has been set up nationally. Dr Avery, who spoke at one of the meetings in Hebden Bridge, said there can be no compromise; protection of the upland environment cannot co-exist with driven grouse shooting. He has predicted that driven grouse shooting will come to an end within the next 20 years.  He believes the continuance of this sport is unsustainable, illogical and harmful to wildlife and the wider environment.

Many MPs, across all parties, agree with the experts and they are not afraid to say so publicly. The Blue Fox group (Tories against blood sports) have amassed the support of a whopping 50 Tory MPs who are opposed to fox hunting.
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The Sports Minister, Tracy Crouch is particularly vocal against killing for entertainment, and with a growing army of opponents the poor old Countryside Alliance who, in spite of the bluster, are floundering in a shortage of funds and a lack of enthusiasm for their blood thirsty pastimes, can only fight back with smears and insults.  

Tim Bonner took to Twitter again in a flurry of annoyance and accused Ms Crouch of having a sugar daddy in the form of Dr Brian May; Dr May is an important campaigner against fox hunting and the British badger cull.

With so many MPs, and 83% of the public, against cruelty to UK wildlife it is looking increasing likely that even with our pro-blood sports front bench, David Cameron will be unlikely to muster the numbers required for a free vote to repeal the hunting Act.

It’s far from over, however, and it would be a mistake to be too complacent.

We have just over four more years of Tories like Mr Cameron in power, and if we want to ensure the legislation to protect our wild heritage stays in place we must remain ever vigilant.

[The fight is far from over as "Ministers consider new body to prove hunting helps animal welfare to win over anti-hunting MPs"]
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After Christmas Day peace comes Boxing Day kills

1/12/2015

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Boxing Day Hunting

The traditional torturing of harmless wildlife is almost upon us once again.

The Boxing Day hunt is the biggest event in the hunting calendar.

It’s a culmination of the cruelty, and hunts up and down the country will be parading in town squares and pub car parks getting drunk on their stirrup cups. Immaculately turned out horses and riders in their scarlet jackets and tight white pants, the dogs, tails up, milling around, looking every bit the chocolate box scene.

The images will be in all the pro-hunt press, with captions describing how noble is the tradition of hunting, in a bid to convince those of us against the sport that it is a humane and popular part of wildlife management. Of course this is all staged, like a hall of mirrors, nothing is real or as it seems.
Behind the pomp and the spectacle lies a sinister truth which the hunters and the Tory government prefer to keep secret. These deceitful people have tried every sleight of hand to overturn the hunting ban and to date every trick has failed. It has failed because hunting is a cruel and vicious blood sport which has no place in modern Britain.
Hunted foxes die in agony. This has been shown to be true in veterinary reports commissioned by the Home Office during evidence gathering before the hunting Bill became law. Post mortems carried out on foxes that were chased pre ban showed that the animals suffered horrendous injuries, including evisceration, before they died. They were literally torn apart as they fought for their lives. The hunters argue it is quick and humane, but imagine if setting a pack of dogs on a beloved pet was the norm instead of gentle euthanasia when the time came for the animal to die?

The foxes that the hunters kill are never more than a couple of years old because they don’t live more than a couple of years in the wild. So the hunters claim that they hunt to weed out the old and the sick is absolute nonsense, and it is particularly unsavoury in the first instance to think about setting a pack of hounds on an old or sick animal. Often pregnant or lactating vixens are killed; in fact any fox which can give the riders a good run will be chased and if caught, killed for the pure pleasure of killing.  

Hunting never was about fox control; in fact as a control method it is pretty useless.
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Pre-ban hunts killed about 5% of all of the foxes that die in a season, and almost half of those animals are killed during cubbing when hunts encourage new fox hounds to be savage with their quarry. There are actually many less foxes in Britain than there are hedgehogs. At a static quarter of a million animals, they are not overbreeding and they are no real threat to poultry or lambs. DEFRA (Department of Environment & Rural affairs) says foxes are no more than grade 2 pests, not even pesty enough to be grade 1.

It’s not only foxes who suffer in the war for Britain’s wildlife. Anyone who stands against the cruelty is labelled an extremist or even worse a terrorist. They are mocked and humiliated on social media and even sometimes threatened. The hunt saboteurs, who will be out in force on Boxing Day, are often beaten and bullied by the hunt stewards (terrier men and women) and sometimes the riders themselves like to join in too. To avoid reprisals many saboteurs cover their faces,  a practice emulated by the hunt minders who cover up so they cannot be recognised when committing acts of violence or damaging cars or stealing cameras etc. from the saboteurs, many of whom are young females.

The terrier men, or hunt heavies, who accompany the hunts and who act as their personal police force, won’t be around at the Boxing Day spectacle. To allow them to parade on their quads would spoil the image the hunters are trying to portray. Their job is to intimidate saboteurs and block pathways in order to prevent them gaining evidence of illegal hunting. The terrier men also block up badger setts so that the poor fox has nowhere to hide. If the unfortunate animals ARE able to go to ground, the terrier men dig them out and either shoot them, bludgeon them or they are thrown to the dogs.

Eighty per cent of the population, including people in rural areas, are against the horror and the cruelty of hunting, yet in spite of this the hunting ban is in great danger of repeal because most of MPs on the Tory front bench are hunting enthusiasts themselves. David Cameron has promised repeal before the end of this parliament, yet how can we let this barbaric practice become legal once again? The legislation we have today was 10 years in the making and when the Bill was eventually brought before the MPs for discussion, it took over 700 hours of Parliamentary time and so powerful and determined were the hunters that in the end the Labour Government had to use the Parliament Act to force the legislation through into Law. 

So what can we do?

The first thing and the most important is to join the League Against Cruel Sports and join or support the hunt saboteurs. It is also vital that everyone against this vile form of entertainment writes to their MP and explains why we must keep the ban on hunting.

Tradition is no excuse for this savage cruelty; we must fight hard because the hunters never give up.  
Lamerton Hunt - Illegal Hunting? https://youtu.be/m98BSocqkfI via @YouTube
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David Cameron and his Dirty Politics

10/7/2015

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PictureCameron is a hunting fan
p-Ed: We were promised a free vote on repealing the hunting Act in the Tory manifesto. Now that’s all changed because Mr Cameron has realised that a free vote won’t necessarily go the way he wants it to go.

So to hell with democracy, and to hell with the 80% of the general population who have made it clear in poll after poll that we don’t want UK wildlife ripped apart for the entertainment of a few bloodthirsty toffs.

It’s not just urban folk who have said NO to bringing back hunting, an overwhelming number of decent country people have also said they don’t want Cameron’s dirty recreation.

Cameron’s cunning plan to repeal the hunting Act in all but name was quietly announced yesterday when everyone else’s mind was on the budget.  He will use a little known piece of legislation called a Statutory Instrument, to tweak the Law to bring it into line with the Scottish hunting Act.

This sneaky move is a piece of genius as far as the hunters are concerned.

After all who can argue, hunting was banned in Scotland a year before the English ban and people in their thousands have been asking the SNP to back the English ban if we’d had the promised free vote. The Scots can hardly vote against their own law becoming the rule in England and Wales can they?

The problem lies in the number of dogs allowed to flush foxes. In England and Wales only two dogs can be used and the fox must be shot as soon as is practically possible. He/she must not be chased after flushing. The two dog rule was a concession to Welsh hill farmers who said they needed to use dogs to control foxes in rough terrain. (This was in spite of several studies which proved that foxes are not a huge problem for livestock including free range hens. Better husbandry and lambing in doors and control of dangerous dogs would have saved more livestock than killing foxes)

In Scotland’s hilly areas a full pack of dogs can be used, but again the fox must not be chased.

Hunters both north and south of the border regularly flout the Law, and it’s hunting as usual more often than not, but at least in England and Wales, there is a chance of bringing these bloodthirsty law breakers to court. If English and Welsh law is brought into line with Scotland, hunters won’t need to pretend they are trail hunting, they will simply flush foxes with a full pack and they will let their dogs tear those poor animals apart with little or no fear of prosecution. Other than the saboteurs, who risk being charged with criminal trespass if they enter private land, there will be no one to police the hunter’s nefarious activities. 

Sneaky at best, this dirty politicking is to enable a minority of Cameron’s rich friends who have the ear of his government, to bring back a barbaric form of recreation which should have been put to bed ten years ago when the hunting Bill became Law. This perverted minority has done everything in its power to circumvent the law, aided and abetted by the pro hunting press and the Countryside Alliance.  It would seem the CPS has been instructed to go easy on hunt crime and the RSPCA has been threatened and bullied into leaving the hunting abuse of animals well alone. When hunts have been caught illegally killing foxes there are specialist lawyers and sympathetic judges to get them off with a slap on the wrist. This is in spite of provisions in the law for confiscating their tools of trade and prosecuting the whole hunt as a corporate body.  

In 2004 the Hunting Act took over 700 hours of Parliamentary time, Cameron’s Statutory Instrument will take no longer than 90 minutes. His plastic policy will bring back old style hunting in the autumn and we can look forward to knowing that once again those small red cousins of our own dogs will be persecuted and abused to pander to the so called sport of the country set who should be in facing prison and a ban on being around animals for life for their cruelty. 
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More by this writer:

Keep the hunting ban, only civilised way forward
Traditions and tribulations of a fox hunter
The Donoughue con
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A rattle of claymores and an English capitulation

7/7/2015

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Op-Ed: Who would have thought that after such a build-up, David Cameron would back down over his Statutory Instrument (SI) which, although it was a small change in the legislation, would have led to gargantuan changes in the English law on hunting with dogs? A backdoor repeal in fact.

The Countryside Alliance, formerly the British Field Sports (blood sports) Association, is understandably disappointed because they saw the SI as a way of bringing back old style hunting with a full pack of dogs. It would not have been a full repeal, but it would have been so significant a change in the English law that those who like killing UK wildlife for the fun of it could have resumed that activity with little fear of prosecution.

As the law stands at the moment, the mounted hunts in England have nothing whatsoever to do with fox ‘control’. They are allowed to trail hunt or drag hunt, and nothing else. The law is constructed that way to prevent animals being chased and pulled apart by dogs, although a loophole of two dogs to flush to guns was included at the Act’s inception to placate the farmers and gamekeepers who said they needed to be able to kill foxes to protect their livestock.

​(This is in spite of the studies which have shown that foxes are not a huge threat to farm animals, including lambs and free range poultry)

There is a different arrangement in the Scottish Act, where a full pack of dogs with mounted huntsmen can flush a troublesome fox from cover to waiting guns. The fox is not to be chased under Scottish law and the animal can only be flushed if the farmer or land owner gives specific permission for an animal to be killed who is perceived to be a danger to his livestock.

Mr Cameron was intending to bring English law into line with Scottish law and the idea was enthusiastically embraced by the Countryside Alliance, in spite of previous supplications that there should be full repeal because shooting foxes was hideously cruel in their view, they saw immediately how aligning themselves with Scottish hunters would be a great advantage, and they threw their cruelty argument about shooting those animals straight out of the window.

Like the fox in the bag, Cameron thought he had his quarry well and truly secured. Unfortunately for the hunting set he was arrogant enough to discount the strength of public opinion against hunting, and he set aside the 15th of July for the 90 minutes allowed for discussion in the firm belief that chasing foxes once more was on the cards. His SI would have been a stroke of pure genius, and it didn’t give those of us against hunt cruelty much time to mobilise. It was also snuck in on the day of the budget too. Nevertheless, people all over Britain, town and country alike, began to contact MPs on social media and by telephone and email. A concerted effort was made to beg the SNP to use their compassionate vote, and it paid off.

Angus Roberson, who has always been against the cruelty of hunting, and Nicola Sturgeon announced that the SNP would break with tradition and vote NO along with Labour and the forty or so compassionate Conservative MPs who see hunting as a moral issue not a political bun fight.

Ms Sturgeon told the BBC that she had received an unprecedented amount of communication from people in Scotland, and also English and Welsh anti-hunting supporters too, urging her to speak up for wildlife on both sides of the border

Once the SNP had declared their intentions, David Cameron knew that his free vote would not go the way he wanted, so he cancelled the debate. The Scottish branch of the Countryside Alliance immediately turned the issue into one of Scotland versus England and the long knives were out for the SNP. Mr James Barrington (Welfare Officer for the Countryside Alliance) said, Quote: It is important to understand that there had been discussions between the government and the SNP prior to the introduction of the amendments, and that they would not have been brought forward had the SNP signalled that it was going to enter the debate. End of Quote.

I think the public understands very well that David Cameron intends only to allow a vote when he knows he can win. He doesn’t seem to mind that this is undemocratic and unconstitutional and hardly constitutes a free vote in the true meaning of the word.

The Countryside Alliance has changed tack again and its propaganda machine is now trying to convince the rest of us that failure to embrace the Scottish law will signal the death knell for many UK species, and foxes will suffer in ways unimaginable. In fact it is quite possible the sky may fall down. Perhaps they have forgotten that hunting traditional style has been banned or the last ten years and nothing untoward has happened as a consequence of that.

What of the SNP in all of this? They have given Mr Cameron the bloody nose he deserves and they have promised a review of their own hunting laws after the League against Cruel Sports showed video evidence of Scottish hunts killing foxes against the rules.

We all know it’s always been business as usual here in England and most hunts flout the ban, but at least with the hunting Act intact, if evidence can be provided there is some hope of a successful prosecution following on. The hunters know this, as do the saboteurs and monitors who risk their lives to gather evidence of illegal hunting and, with the cubbing season about to start in the next couple of weeks that evidence gathering would have been practically impossible if Cameron had altered the Act to allow a full pack of dogs to operate. There is also the law of aggravated trespass which was specifically brought in by this government to curtail the activities of the saboteurs. It is a criminal offense, which carries a huge fine and a possible spell in prison, if a saboteur enters private land even to obtain evidence of illegal hunting.

What now? Cameron’s climb down has given those against hunt cruelty breathing space, but it’s not over. A free vote was promised in the Tory manifesto, and this is one promise Cameron intends to keep. He and his bloodthirsty parliamentary big guns are determined to give his friends what they want. He is willing and eager it seems, to ignore three quarters of the population and he is even prepared to damage the reputation of the Conservative party as a whole.

The war against animal cruelty goes on, and those of us who give a damn must keep fighting until we have enough MPs onside to remove once and for all this horrible threat that hangs over out precious wild animals.

Who would have thought that after such a build-up, David Cameron would back down over his Statutory Instrument (SI) which, although it was a small change in the legislation, would have led to gargantuan changes in the English law on hunting with dogs? A backdoor repeal in fact.

The Countryside Alliance, formerly the British Field Sports (blood sports) Association, is understandably disappointed because they saw the SI a way of bringing back old style hunting with a full pack of dogs. It would not have been a full repeal, but it would have been so significant a change in the English law that those who like killing UK wildlife for the fun of it could have resumed that activity with little fear of prosecution.

As the law stands at the moment, the mounted hunts in England have nothing whatsoever to do with fox ‘control’. They are allowed to trail hunt or drag hunt, and nothing else. The law is constructed that way to prevent animals being chased and pulled apart by dogs, although a loophole of two dogs to flush to guns was included at the Act’s inception to placate the farmers and gamekeepers who said they needed to be able to kill foxes to protect their livestock. (This is in spite of the studies which have shown that foxes are not a huge threat to farm animals, including lambs and free range poultry)

There is a different arrangement in the Scottish Act, where a full pack of dogs with mounted huntsmen can flush a troublesome fox from cover to waiting guns. The fox is not to be chased under Scottish law and the animal can only be flushed if the farmer or land owner gives specific permission for an animal to be killed who is perceived to be a danger to his livestock.

Mr Cameron was intending to bring English law into line with Scottish law and the idea was enthusiastically embraced by the Countryside Alliance, in spite of previous supplications that there should be full repeal because shooting foxes was hideously cruel in their view, they saw immediately how aligning themselves with Scottish hunters would be a great advantage, and they threw their cruelty argument about shooting those animals straight out of the window.

Like the fox in the bag, Cameron thought he had his quarry well and truly secured. Unfortunately for the hunting set he was arrogant enough to discount the strength of public opinion against hunting, and he set aside the 15th of July for the 90 minutes allowed for discussion in the firm belief that chasing foxes once more was on the cards. His SI would have been a stroke of pure genius, and it didn’t give those of us against hunt cruelty much time to mobilise. It was also snuck in on the day of the budget too. Nevertheless, people all over Britain, town and country alike, began to contact MPs on social media and by telephone and email. A concerted effort was made to beg the SNP to use their compassionate vote, and it paid off.

Angus Roberson, who has always been against the cruelty of hunting, and Nicola Sturgeon announced that the SNP would break with tradition and vote NO along with Labour and the forty or so compassionate Conservative MPs who see hunting as a moral issue not a political bun fight.

Ms Sturgeon told the BBC that she had received an unprecedented amount of communication from people in Scotland, and also English and Welsh anti-hunting supporters too, urging her to speak up for wildlife on both sides of the border

Once the SNP had declared their intentions, David Cameron knew that his free vote would not go the way he wanted, so he cancelled the debate. The Scottish branch of the Countryside Alliance immediately turned the issue into one of Scotland versus England and the long knives were out for the SNP. Mr James Barrington (Welfare Officer for the Countryside Alliance) said, Quote: It is important to understand that there had been discussions between the government and the SNP prior to the introduction of the amendments, and that they would not have been brought forward had the SNP signalled that it was going to enter the debate. End of Quote.

I think the public understands very well that David Cameron intends only to allow a vote when he knows he can win. He doesn’t seem to mind that this is undemocratic and unconstitutional and hardly constitutes a free vote in the true meaning of the word.

The Countryside Alliance has changed tack again and its propaganda machine is now trying to convince the rest of us that failure to embrace the Scottish law will signal the death knell for many UK species, and foxes will suffer in ways unimaginable. In fact it is quite possible the sky may fall down. Perhaps they have forgotten that hunting traditional style has been banned or the last ten years and nothing untoward has happened as a consequence of that.

What of the SNP in all of this? They have given Mr Cameron the bloody nose he deserves and they have promised a review of their own hunting laws after the League against Cruel Sports showed video evidence of Scottish hunts killing foxes against the rules.

We all know it’s always been business as usual here in England and most hunts flout the ban, but at least with the hunting Act intact, if evidence can be provided there is some hope of a successful prosecution following on. The hunters know this, as do the saboteurs and monitors who risk their lives to gather evidence of illegal hunting and, with the cubbing season about to start in the next couple of weeks that evidence gathering would have been practically impossible if Cameron had altered the Act to allow a full pack of dogs to operate. There is also the law of aggravated trespass which was specifically brought in by this government to curtail the activities of the saboteurs. It is a criminal offense, which carries a huge fine and a possible spell in prison, if a saboteur enters private land even to obtain evidence of illegal hunting.

What now? Cameron’s climb down has given those against hunt cruelty breathing space, but it’s not over. A free vote was promised in the Tory manifesto, and this is one promise Cameron intends to keep. He and his bloodthirsty parliamentary big guns are determined to give his friends what they want. He is willing and eager it seems, to ignore three quarters of the population and he is even prepared to damage the reputation of the Conservative party as a whole.

The war against animal cruelty goes on, and those of us who give a damn must keep fighting until we have enough MPs onside to remove once and for all this horrible threat that hangs over our precious wild animals.
4 Comments

Traditions and tribulations of a fox hunter

4/7/2015

2 Comments

 
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I saw two snippets of news online yesterday; both were cameos, which could have easily been missed in today’s troubled world. One was an interview on BBC This Week with Michael Portillo and Dr Brian May, and the other was a story in the Telegraph and on the BBC about a Rambo style fox who held eight adults to ransom in a country sports centre.

The first report from the BBC goes like this,

‘A "vicious" fox trapped eight people inside a sports club for three hours as it stalked them from the car park. The animal appeared as people were preparing to leave Alconbury Sports and Social Club, Cambridgeshire. Panic reigned, with a woman being bitten, a man falling off his bicycle as he was chased and a pest controller being pursued back to his car. Club chairman Bruce Staines, who was chased around the car park, said he had "never seen anything like it". Mr Staines admitted he "tweaked his groin" trying to get away from the marauding animal and back to the safety of the club. "None of us could get out. When we tried to use a side door, the fox heard and came haring round there."

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The Telegraph story was pretty similar adding that the man who fell off his bicycle lost his glasses and the club members had to barricade themselves in the building as the fox stalked them outside. The woman who was bitten tried to distract the fox with food so the others could escape apparently.

A pest controller was called but when he tried to approach the animal it "went for him" and chased him back to his car. The animal was eventually caught and destroyed but there is no comment on how or when that happened. The only pictures supplied were a generic picture of a fox totally unrelated to the story, and another picture allegedly of the offending fox taken through the window of the sports centre. Apparently the terrified crew inside the building watched the animal casing the joint on the CCTV but no footage has been supplied as yet.

The May / Portillo interview was equally bizarre, with Dr May explaining carefully why hunting should stay banned and Mr Portillo replying that hunting and bull fighting were both great traditions and as such should be allowed to continue as before. He even went on to claim that his practising Catholicism impelled him to hold that view. Animal souls, Mr Portillo said, were not as important as human souls.

Of course we know that those in favour of blood sports twist what has gone before to suit their arguments too, but I have never heard the Catholic Church cited as a reason for enjoying eviscerating those small red cousins of our dogs. The excuses the hunting fraternity come up with for continuing fox hunting are quite similar to the excuses put forward by the slave owners when the Abolitionist movement first came into being, and indeed tradition, when deployed in this manner could be a cover for almost any disgusting and oppressive fetish held by those in power.

Defenders of slavery argued that slavery had existed throughout history and was the natural state of mankind. The Greeks had slaves, the Romans had slaves so why can’t we have slaves etc.. Hunters frequently assail us with similar reasoning, stating that because Richard Martin (a founding member of the RSPCA) was a fox hunter, it makes it okay for us to be fox hunters too.

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Traditionally apparently two wrongs always make a right.

I wonder how Mr Portillo feels about defenders of slavery righteously quoting that in the Old Testament, Abraham had slaves. They even cited the 10 commandments saying, ‘Thou shalt not covert thy neighbour’s manservant, nor his maidservant.” So of course that must mean having servants, i.e. slaves was okay. The New Testament was also hauled up to bear witness that Paul returned a runaway slave and Jesus never uttered a word about slavery.

Just like animals today, slave owners said black people, (not just slaves) had no legal rights. They were property, and being property meant rights were not bestowed upon them. They could be used and abused as their masters saw fit. The slavers fought the Abolitionists in the courts and the Judges ruled in their favour. The slave owners were adamant that they had God on their side.

 I’m getting a strange feeling of Déjà vu here. 

Welfare is another claim made by the Countryside Alliance to persuade the rest of us that they are killing animals not just for fun, but mainly for their own good.  Hunters are apparently saving the hunted from growing old and dying from natural causes.

 Defenders of slavery argued that slavery was a good thing for the enslaved. John C. Calhoun said, “Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually.” That is almost something James Barrington could have included in his pro hunting blogs as he often infers that hunters are doing foxes a massive favour by killing them.

The slave owners also said that they would protect and assist the slaves when they were sick and aged, unlike those who, once fired from their work, were left to fend helplessly for themselves. Now here I think the slave owners had one up on hunters morally, because hunters never claim to protect the old sick animals. In fact chasing and killing old sick animals is doing the species as a whole a great service according to the Countryside Alliance. (I’m minded here that Dr Shipman had the same idea about the elderly under his care in the NHS) It’s not mentioned of course that there won’t be many old foxes because although they can live as long as our dogs in captivity, a wild fox is lucky to see his second birthday.

 Next we come to the labels. James Thornwell, a minister, wrote in 1860, “One party to this conflict are not merely Abolitionists they are Atheists, Socialists, Communists, Red Republicans, Jacobins. The slave owners are the friends of order, religion and regulated freedom.”

Similar insults ring in my head about those of us against hunting cruelties today.

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We are supposedly not just against blood sports, we are also jobless, scroungers who don’t wash and who spend our time thinking up terrorist plots to thwart the innocent hunters who after all are only abusing animals for their own good. We are called ignorant townies, which is meant to convey great insult. Only those who live in the countryside should have any say in what is allowed to live and what must die. 

Throughout history, when a society forms around any institution, as the South did around slavery, it will formulate a set of arguments to support it. That those arguments don’t hold water didn’t seem to matter to the slave owners at all, and similarly the hunters don’t care that their reasons for the continuation of their barbaric and outdated tradition don’t hold water among the more empathic of their contemporaries.

Hunters talk about horrific cruelty to animals not associated with hunting, and in those cases proudly carry the RSPCA banner, then in the same breath they want that organisation cast down for prosecuting hunting abuse. A bizarre situation where it’s impossible to know if the hunters have managed to brain wash themselves, or if they are hoping that by repeated repetition of a lie, the rest of us will come to believe it to be the truth. 

If hunting is a tradition that must be upheld, then it’s only fair that that great old RSPCA tradition of prosecuting those who kill for fun must be upheld too.

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