NEWTEKWORLDNEWS
Menu

Big game hunting, the end of an era

30/4/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
A recent report claims that in the last forty years the number of wild animals on planet earth has halved. It seems humans are spreading like viruses across the globe slaughtering everything in their path.

Whole populations of non-humans have been wiped out and their habitats destroyed for food, fun and to make way for money making enterprise.

The eyes of the world have recently turned on trophy hunting after the cruel and unnecessary death of Cecil the lion killed by an American dentist for sport. Millions of decent people are outraged at the senseless slaughter of African wildlife yet there are still those who still attempt to defend this vile practice by claiming it’s an act of conservation. Even members of the British royal family go trophy hunting.

Those who could set such a great example prefer instead to just pretend to care about wildlife, whilst indulging themselves in their bloodthirsty hobbies of shooting and hunting.

Claims that canned hunting helps the local poor by paying millions of dollars into the economy is rubbish. Most of the money paid by the super-rich to indulge a bloodlust goes straight into the pockets of the middlemen, large companies and corrupt government officials. A dead lion is worth much more than a live one to many officials on the take. Two hundred million dollars a year and Africa has nothing to show for it apart from dwindling animal numbers and much animal suffering. It’s a frightening thought that greed and a desire to shoot at living targets may see some of earth’s iconic species disappear for ever in our own lifetime.

Another pathetic argument put about by hunters the world over, no matter what the species they want to kill, is that hunting helps wild populations. Unfortunately, this argument doesn’t hold water. No one wants a mangy looking old lion head on his wall. Hunters take animals in their prime for their trophies, leaving the weak or the sick to take care of the pride. The gene pool of an alpha animal is destroyed and the pride is left open to attack by wandering males who may kill a whole generation of cubs. Similarly, the oldest and most experienced elephants are killed because they have the biggest tusks, leaving the younger less experienced to look after the herd with little protection or guidance.

Governments collude by setting up ‘legal’ quotas and the hunters try to invoke moral arguments because they say it’s within the law. But not everything that is legal is wholesome, and any law, whether good or bad, depends on the humanity and the moral compass of the law makers at the time. Estimates of the lion population is the wild are between 20 to 35 thousand animals, not counting poaching and other deaths, hunters are legally allowed to kill around 600 hundred a year. That is an unsustainable annual population loss of approximately 3 percent.

People who simply like killing will always find an alternative excuse. Tell them the wild populations are in danger of vanishing forever and they come up with canned hunting. A sport even more disgusting than killing in the wild. Bred in captivity, hand reared to trust humans, exploited by tourists as fluffy cubs, then sold on to hunting concerns when then are fully grown, to be shot like sitting ducks on a pond. Some argue that breeding lions in this way can be used to repopulate the wild, but these animals are ill equipped to deal with life in the bush. Most are inbred with a poor gene pool and releasing animals this way into established territories can lead to fighting and unstable prides.

Local people with livestock and crops to protect often kill those animals who aren’t afraid of man and who will wander into human areas in search of food or simply because they are used to being around people.

Change comes slowly, and there are always those who will exploit all living things to make money. Fortunately, some African countries are coming to realise that shooting big game with a camera may turn out to be more lucrative. In Botswana, the government banned almost all trophy hunting at the beginning of 2014. Compared to the 1.8 percent of revenue from killing animals, Africa is coming to realise that 98 percent of those who come to visit, come to see the wildlife. Eco tourism provides jobs for guides and spin off industries like holiday accommodation etc.. Those who come with cameras stay for longer and many come back with friends. In the first year of Botswana’s ban, eco-tourism brought in $344 million dollars.

Change is slow, but it is happening. Let us hope that the day of the backward hunter, who likes to use living flesh as target practice, is coming to an end before we lose any more of our world’s precious animals.

[For now people such as this "Africa Safari Hunting Consultants" still make money out of big game hunting]

Related reading:

Canned Hunting, Cowards Killing Captives
Lion trophy hunting Can the Can

Picture
Picture
1 Comment

Keep the hunting ban, only civilised way forward

22/5/2015

4 Comments

 
PictureDig out
An article in the METRO by James Barrington of the Countryside Alliance (a pro-blood sports hunting/shooting organisation) caught my eye this week. I was surprised to see that Mr Barrington started his article by quoting some well-known people who are against hunting, and who are vociferous in exposing the cruelty that pastime inflicts on defenceless wild animals.   

“Hunting is a barbarous activity carried out by people who couldn’t care less about the welfare of wild animals – if you believe the likes of Ricky Gervais and Brian May.” (quote: James Barrington)

Mr Barrington then goes on to invite ‘genuine scrutiny’ of that viewpoint, which he claims proves to be false. So let us take him at his word and scrutinise the sport of mounted fox hunting with hounds.

The savaging of a hunted fox by the hounds, or the ‘business end’ of the activity as Mr Barrington describes it, happens after a long chase.


Hounds are specially bred for stamina rather that speed, and sometimes the chase can last for hours until the exhausted fox can run no more and is forced to attempt to fight thirty or forty dogs. The fox is quickly rolled onto his back by the much bigger heavier hounds, exposing his soft under belly, and he is disembowelled as he tries to fight for his life.  Dogs kill by biting and tearing, there is no swift nip on the neck, as hunters used to claim, before video and post mortem evidence proved that to be a lie. Hunted foxes caught above ground are quite literally bitten to death. Huge chunks of flesh are torn from the fox’s body, leaving gaping wounds and exposing organs and other structures underneath. To claim that hunting is non-wounding, or the fox escapes unscathed, is just another attempt to gloss over and sanitise a cruel and savage sport. The time from capture to death is irrelevant; it is obscene on every level to inflict this kind of mental and physical suffering on any sentient creature for any length of time however short or long that time may be.

In 2002, post-mortems carried out as evidence for the Home Office report into the animal welfare aspects of hunting hares and foxes, showed that 5 of the 12 hares killed were pregnant, and all had their necks broken by humans after bites by greyhounds had failed to kill them. The corpses of four foxes killed by hunting were also examined by vets at the University of Bristol. Two of the foxes had been shot, having gone to ground, but the post mortem on the first fox (hunted in Cotswold Park) showed it had been savaged before death. The second fox (hunted on Salisbury Plain) was dug out, having gone to ground after being chased, and had to be shot twice. This poor animal was forced to fight with a terrier underground, and after half an hour of digging, was hauled out and shot first through the shoulder, which failed to kill him so a second shot was required.

The post-mortems on the other two foxes who were killed above ground, showed that one had suffered multiple bite wounds on the face and the top of the head. There was serious damage to the right eye, and bite wounds around the throat. The animal’s rib cage had been torn open and its lungs and stomach bitten. Professor David Morton, Head of Biomedical Ethics at Birmingham University, said the evidence pointed to the fox having been attacked whilst it was upside down or on its side. The other fox was also savaged, but it was thought he had died from suffocation which would not have been instant.  None of the animals died instantly which clearly shows they would have suffered greatly.

A different cruel fate awaits those foxes who manage to go to ground. This is taken from the Campaign for the Abolition of Terrier Work website,

“Apart from the pain from the injuries from fighting underground, sometimes a dog entered may encounter a wild animal with its back to it, and therefore that dog will rip at the backside of the wild creature. This cruelty can last for several hours, and there are accounts of foxes having parts of their back passage and abdomen ripped out while in this position. There are also numerous references to foxes having their faces ripped off by the dog underground.”

Sometimes the fox is killed underground after protracted fighting with a terrier man’s dog, and there are often severe injuries to the terrier too. The men are meanwhile digging down from above. If the fox has taken refuge in a badger sett, digging him out may take many hours. Often a shot is fired into the hole to make sure the cowering, terrified animal inside is too afraid to try to bolt. Any escape holes are netted or blocked.

Once the fox is located, he is dragged out, and if he is lucky, he is shot dead.

Picture
Picture
Re-coated huntsman watches dig out
Picture
Picture
Picture
Terrier men on quad
Picture
Picture
All that's left, scrap of skin
Sometimes he will be thrown to the dogs alive, and the men may take videos which are later posted up on social media sites like Face Book or Instagram. The terrier men are also the hunt bully boys who are not above committing GBH on others who attempt to disrupt hunting by diverting the hounds away from their fleeing quarry.   

(Today it is illegal to use a hard mouthed, or fighting terrier, underground, and rather than risk taking an injured animal to a vet, the terrier men often stitch their dogs’ wounds themselves without anaesthetic or analgesia.)

The story of Copper the fox, named because he was saved by a policeman’s helmet, illustrates perfectly the misleading statement that foxes may escape unscathed. Copper had been chased down a hole, over which was placed a policeman’s helmet to prevent him being dragged out and killed.

The standoff lasted sometime, but eventually when the hunt gave up and moved off, Copper was rescued, and taken to a wildlife centre to recover. Such was his mental trauma from being chased that he suffered multi organ failure, including bleeding from both kidneys.

The other claim that fox hounds generally catch the old, weak, and diseased or injured fox is pure nonsense.


There is no fun chasing an old or sick animal who is quickly caught. Hounds will chase and kill anything, including pregnant vixens and even our pets, when their blood is up.  It is also quite despicable to even think about setting a pack of dogs after a creature who is too old or too sick to run away. And why would it be necessary in the first place? Foxes only live for a couple of years in the wild and an animal that is sick can be easily caught and either treated or humanely euthanised by a vet.   

Hunters also like to compare their dog-packs to packs of wolves. They pretend that the whole grisly business is nothing more than hounds emulating nature. Nature does not select specifically for a long chase, neither are wolves followed by people on horses, nor do they line the trail with supporters who cheer them on and keep an eye on the quarry for them, whilst preventing it from going to ground or escaping by hiding. Wolves most certainly do not keep terriers in little boxes on the back of quad bikes, nor do they go out equipped with nets, radio collars and spades. Nature determines the health and size of the fox population in the UK.

There are approximately a quarter of a million foxes in Britain, including urban foxes, and that number has remained static since records began. Like all predators, foxes control their own numbers according to food supply and habitat, they are not over populating and they never were. It’s worth asking why, if the hunting set is so concerned with the rest of us being overrun by foxes, that they go to so much trouble to build artificial earths to encourage foxes in areas where they are scarce, or where they can be safely killed out of sight of prying eyes. Pre ban foxes were imported from abroad when their numbers were so low that there were not enough to provide a day’s sport.  

Hunting can NEVER be acceptable morally or practically. Hunters don’t kill enough to be termed controllers and foxes don’t need to be controlled. Attempting to justify hunting by claiming that other methods of killing foxes cause worse suffering is simply ignoring the fact that foxes don’t need to be killed in the first place.

It is not entirely certain that the Tories will have the numbers to repeal the hunting Act and the Donoughue proposal is being touted as an alternative. This is nothing more than a Trojan horse which will reinstate hunting exactly as it was pre ban with no possible hope of prosecutions for cruelty.

It’s all smoke and mirrors, all designed to make us believe that hunting is necessary and humane animal welfare. Dr May had it right when he said  the only truth the hunters tell about hunting is that they enjoy it.

4 Comments

British democracy, don't make me laugh

11/5/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Democracy? What democracy? Tories ride rough shod over us all.

The worst possible scenario for UK wild animals has played out for real. With the Tories back in power we will see the repeal of the hunting Act, a roll out of the disastrous badger cull and our grey squirrel population decimated simply for being the wrong colour.

The Conservatives formed a majority government last Thursday, and in spite of the many pressing problems the UK faces because of their policies over the last five years, one of the first things they did was to assure the hunters that fox hunting would be coming back. Jeremy Hunt confirmed that they would overturn Labour’s hunting ban. Cameron had this to say pre-election, “It is my firm belief that people should have the freedom to hunt, so I share the frustration that many people feel about the Hunting Act”.

He may share the frustration of a tiny minority for not being allowed to rip an animal apart for fun, but his frustration is nothing to the frustration of three quarters of the country who don’t want to see our wildlife chased, traumatised and slaughtered by packs of dogs egged on by a vicious collection of two legged jackals in red jackets.

The idea of repealing the ban put in place by a Labour government ten years ago so that people like Cameron can hunt and kill helpless creatures is untenable, and the fact that our government refuses to listen to the majority voice of the people is despicable.

Hunting is barbaric, antiquated cruelty to defenceless animals. The repeal vote is undemocratic and disrespectful. In effect Cameron is putting his own bloodthirsty hobbies and those of his friends before the majority of the decent people in the UK. Over three quarters of us want the ban to stay but that holds no sway with our Prime Minister.

Picture
The free vote will happen soon, and it will happen when MPs against hunting are away from Westminster. The protests have already begun, and a petition started four days ago has already garnered over 150,000 signatures and rising. Will it make any difference? I doubt it. The disastrous badger cull petition had 300,000 signatures and Cameron ignored every single one who signed.

Picture
Every single poll to date, be it a scientific poll like the ones commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports or IFAW, or the newspaper polls that invite people to answer yes or no questions, have come back with a resounding NO we don’t want repeal of the hunting Act. It all falls on deaf ears. The hunters of course are cock a hoop, they thought their nasty pastime was about to be snatched away permanently with a Labour win, and indeed if that had been the case, protection for many other animals, not just foxes would have been on the table.

The skulduggery and sneaky tricks started long before the general election, with pro hunting Vote OK people canvassing but not declaring an interest in hunting whilst visiting potential Tory voters in their homes. Vote OK claimed after the last election in 2010 that their dedication and commitment to bringing back hunting gained the Tories 20 extra seats in marginal areas.

Lord Mancroft back in 2008 wrote in a hunting journal four years after the ban,

"The reason that we shall win the battle to preserve hunting and our way of life for future generations is simple. We will outlast our enemies. We will keep our hounds and horses, keep our wonderful staff, keep our communities together, keep our farmers' and landowners' support, and we shall put together the necessary resources, both financial and otherwise, to achieve all of this, and we shall continue to do this until this Labour Government falls."

And indeed this is what they have done by killing fox cubs in secret to train their dogs and carrying on illegal hunting with the protection of the police and the Courts. It is a disgraceful state of affairs and one which has opened many an eye to the corruption and collusion in UK politics.

Picture
Hunters don’t claim hunting is sport these days. They call it humane animal management. This was not the case pre ban, however. In 1998 on TV’s Face the Public, Chris Ogilvy, Master of the Coniston Foxhounds was happy to admit when asked, that hunting is not fox control, its sport, carried out for pure enjoyment. Difficult to see what enjoyment one can derive from pulling apart a helpless animal for the fun of it.

(Watch the 3 videos posted at the end of this article. A Minority Pastime Parts 1, 2, 3.)

Since the election four days ago, the whole dynamics of the United Kingdom has changed. Five more years of this uncaring, compassionless government will see the land run red with the blood of tormented animals. England’s green and pleasant land will not seem so pleasant, nor will it be a safe place to visit if you object to the killing of its wildlife for sport. The hunters, and their thugs the terrier men, will rule in rural areas and once the ban is lifted they will take it as a red light to maim and insult the saboteurs who will be the only protection our poor animals will be able to rely on.

What can we do? We certainly won’t roll over and give up. There is a very slim chance that with public pressure and overwhelming objection to hunting becoming legal once again, we may be able to salvage some kind of deal from the wreckage.  

Please sign this important petition and join the marches and Internet protests that are sure to follow on.

People are still in shock at the re-election of the worst Tory government in living memory; they need a little time to regroup. One thing is for sure, if the nasty party is not for turning and repeal of the hunting Act goes ahead, we will not get another chance to revisit any anti-hunting legislation for maybe 30 or 40 years. The psychopaths will indeed rule the asylum

http://www.league.org.uk/huntingact
https://www.change.org/p/david-cameron-mp-keep-the-ban-on-fox-hunting-2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaQ3yl8R-cM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWC8P-H-pL8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjWMg81-moM


0 Comments
    Picture

    Animal matters

    Country lover, amateur naturalist and fox lover fighting to preserve the ban on hunting

    Archives

    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    Categories

    All
    Abandoned Chimps
    Andrea Leadsom
    Animal Cruelty
    Animal Cruely
    Animal Welfare
    Anti Hunting
    Atherstone Hunt
    Badger Cull
    Big Game Hunting
    Boxing Day Hunt
    Boxing Day Hunts
    British Bees
    British Democracy
    British Flooding
    British Hunting
    British Politics
    British Royals And Hunting
    Canned Hunting
    Christian Hypocrite
    Countryside Alliance
    Cruel Greyhound Racing
    DEFRA
    Dog Meat Trade
    Donoughue Con
    EFRA
    EU Pesticide Ban
    Fox Hunting
    Fox Hunting Dirty Underbelly
    General Election 2015
    Greyhound Racing
    Hating On Hares
    Hereford Hunt Kennels
    Hunting Act
    Hunting Ban
    Hunting Ban Ignored
    Hunting Ban Parliamentary Vote
    Hunting Britain
    Hunting Circles Violence And Hypocrisy
    Hunting Class War
    Hunting Hares
    Hunting Hypocrisy
    Hunt Monitors
    Hunt Sabs
    Hunts Sabs
    Keep Hunting Ban
    Keep The Ban
    Lamerton Hunt
    Liberian Islands
    North West Hunt Abuse
    NYBC
    Puppy Mills
    Puppy Trafficking
    Rspca
    RSPCA Royal Patronage
    Snp Scupper Vote
    Support RSPCA
    Vendetta Against RSPCA
    Vivisection Chimps
    Yulin Dog Eating

Click to set custom HTML
Support NEWTEK - Like what we do here at NEWTEK? If so, you should consider supporting us…
Running a news based website is fun, time consuming and can be costly. If you would like to help the site keep afloat please use the donate button
​
Sections:
News:
Welcome
Front page
Specials:

One Woman So Many Blogs


The Jeremy Corbyn Effect
​
NEWTEKWORLDNEWS:
About Us
Contact Us
Terms of Service
Cookie policy
Picture
  • Welcome
  • Latest
  • Animal Welfare
  • Barbara McPherson
  • Robert Weller
  • Dava Castillo
  • Odd News
  • Environment, science and health matters
  • On this day in History
  • About Us
  • Terms of Service
  • Our Cookie Policy
  • Welcome
  • Latest
  • Animal Welfare
  • Barbara McPherson
  • Robert Weller
  • Dava Castillo
  • Odd News
  • Environment, science and health matters
  • On this day in History
  • About Us
  • Terms of Service
  • Our Cookie Policy