Fox hunting

Brian,

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What's the answer ? Anybody ?

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It's been more than 15 years since I finished a degree in ecology. One of the obligatory courses was on wildlife management, the science and art of manipulating ecosystems so that a healthy ecosystem is maintained, or that a desired ecosystem is created. The short of it is that there are professional biologists who do this for a living and they are the ones who should be consulted if, indeed, there is a fox overpopulation problem.

But I’m confident that none would advocate a traditional foxhunt. There many more sophisticated and humane ways of getting fox numbers in check -- if it even is a problem -- than chasing foxes from horseback and tearing them to shreds with packs of dogs. That method is almost as stupid and bungling as trying to control polar bear numbers through global warming so that Arctic ice melts and the bears have no habitat from which they can catch their prey. (We're doing that by burning up fossil fuels, by the way, but the effect on polar bears is unintentional.)

Joe

Nice malt, Tom. Ledaig is a lovely dram !!!

FWIW - Just chewing my way through a rather nice Glenfiddich 30yo. What a different beast from the "normal" 12yo !

Having had a very good day at work I opened a bottle of wine (d'Arenberg's "Laughing Magpie" Shiraz/Viognier) and since that has all gone I am currently enjoying a Scotch called "Dailuaine". Which I know nothing about (it was a gift) but is very nice.

Matthew

I envy the last few posts, which I have read whilst drinking a can of Stella!
Cheers
Martin

Stella is definitely non-U.

Chaps

Scotland has always amazed me.

It is full of miserable, dour sods who moan about England and how we are exploiting them. They want independance, even though it would reduce them to being the lower social economic group of Europe.

Yet they make the best whiskey in the world and then export it instead of drinking it themselves.

I read somewhere that they drink only a quarter of what the English do on a man for man basis.

No wonder they are so bloody miserable.

If Tom is reading this.......you have doubled your whinging rate since you moved up there. Perhaps you should move to Cornwall.

Regards

Happy whiskey drinking southern Mick

[This message was edited by Mick Parry on Thu 16 September 2004 at 23:30.]

I have amended accordingly.

I notice that from your lifestyle you are aspiring to becoming one of the merchant trading middle classes.

This is restoring my faith in human nature.

Just get a Pashley and you are there.

Regards

Mick

I thank you for your edit and have deleted my post accordingly.

Sadly I suspect, some superficial appearances to the contary, my lifestyle will continue to be a disapointment to you.

Matthew

And so, the saga continues...

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Scotland has always amazed me.

It is full of miserable, dour sods who moan about England and how we are exploiting them. They want independance, even though it would reduce them to being the lower social economic group of Europe.

Yet they make the best whiskey in the world and then export it instead of drinking it themselves.

I read somewhere that they drink only a quarter of what the English do on a man for man basis.

No wonder they are so bloody miserable.

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I've been lurking her for quite some time and that is the funniest post I have read.

Thanks Mick, hope you won't mind if I print it and share it with my mates.

Jim

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Stella is definitely non-U.

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Definitely if it is brewed in Luton by Interbrew. Maybe less so, but not much less so if it was brought in from Belgium where they have much better beers on offer.

I'm drinking a beer tonight called Sainte Etienne brewed in Belgium @ 5% abv, imported and sold by Aldi. It costs £2.49 for 4 500ml cans. I think it tastes better than the Luton Stella.

As for aspiring to a particular class I really couldn't give a shit. The only undesirable social class is the Chav Class.

Luton Stella is definitely Chavbeer.

Talking of Chavs, Burberry was once considered to be the attire of the Upper Classes. Now it is very non-U to the point that in desperation, Burberry have withdrawn their baseball caps. Alas, methinks the irrevocable damage is done to their image...

The guy who decided that Burberry would make caps as well as scarves, coats and handbags must be kicking himself even if he didn't get the boot.



Regards,

Steve.

Chaps

It's WHISKY if the drink is produced in Scotland.

It's WHISKEY from Ireland, USA, etc.

Just a small point to ponder whilst you attempt to disappear up your own importance.

I really wish there was an agreed way of spelling whiskey or whisky.

I have seen it spelt different ways more times than I care to remember.

However, I usually spell it without the e.

Regards

Mick

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Originally posted by Mick Parry:
I really wish there was an agreed way of spelling whiskey or whisky.

I have seen it spelt different ways more times than I care to remember.

However, I usually spell it without the e.

Regards

Mick

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You've shown your true colours at last Michael.

Graham George Of Peatybogs

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Originally posted by long-time-dead:
Chaps

It's WHISKY if the drink is produced in Scotland.

It's WHISKEY from Ireland, USA, etc.

Just a small point to ponder whilst you attempt to disappear up your own importance.

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He's no known in Swindon's Gluepot Public House as "Mensa Michael" for nuffink Pal !

Cheers,

Graham George Of Stirringtheshite²

Mick

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posted Thu 16 September 04 19:32
A lesson to be learnt

Chaps

Hunting is finished, no whys or wherefors, it is history. The democratic process must be respected

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I wish I shared your certainty Mick

and

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They have since mounted a totally useless and ineffective campagne and deserved to lose. They were as much use as the dipsticks who wasted their time whinging in Tralfargar square about the Iraq invasion.

I hope this illustrates how pointless bleating gets you nowhere. It may make you feel good but that is all. At the end of the day you lose. No one respects bums who lose.

A few thousand people will now lose their jobs etc and they are the real losers and no one really cares.

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I share your sentiments and broadly agree with you, though perhaps I would have chosen a different way of expressing it . You have, IMHO, hit the nail on the head here and displayed (encouraging)inciciveness

Laurie S

Laurie S

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Originally posted by Berlin Fritz:

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Originally posted by long-time-dead:
Chaps

It's WHISKY if the drink is produced in Scotland.

It's WHISKEY from Ireland, USA, etc.

Just a small point to ponder whilst you attempt to disappear up your own importance.

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He's no known in Swindon's Gluepot Public House as "Mensa Michael" for nuffink Pal !

Cheers,

Graham George Of Stirringtheshite²

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Of course in the Pubic Bar it's common ole Mensa Mickey innit.

From a personal point of view, humans are complete hypocrites.

It's perfectly ok for us to keep animals confined to areas that they may not actually want to be in, ensure they are either pregnant, or when they produce young , these are stolen from there mothers, and we then steal from said mothers the milk that would have fed their young, but thats perfectly ok because it puts milk on our cornflakes each morning, or colours & flavours our coffee & tea.
Every day MILLIONS of fish get chased by sonar and nets, get hauled up from huge depths, (some die by the time they are at the surface because there bladders have exploded due to pressure difference) If not dead already they are dumped into holds where they die of suffocation... all so that they can end up as fish fingers or between sheets of paper as fish & chips. But this is ok because we are going to eat them.
Every day millions of cattle, sheep, chickens are taken by truck to meet a death that the vast majority of people would find absolutely appalling, but it's ok because we are going to buy the end product all very neatly packaged from a nice neat supermarket shelf. Very, very few people actually want to know whether there sunday roast suffered in any way whatsoever before it got to there plate.

I am not advocating that all should enjoy hunting, but from a personal point, I still see humans as trying to de-sensitize hunting, make it legal by calling it farming , fishing fleets whatever...

& yes, I realise that foxes are not hunted for there food value, but mainly as a sport, but as ever, people become locked into their personal points of view. I personally think it is all hypocritcal though, to have hunting banned in one moment, then go and eat fish and chips for dinner, and wash it down with tea / coffee that has been flavoured with milk that has come from a mother who has had her young taken from her.......

Like I said, a personal view, and I expect few to agree with it.

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Like I said, a personal view, and I expect few to agree with it.

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I would agree with your general antipathy to hypocrisy, which I glean from your postings, though would also respectfully point out that it is worth remembering that two wrongs do not make a right

laurie S

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Pest control isn't pretty but is neccessary. However it is not a sport carried out for fun.

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Quite true, but noone confuse themselves that this is an animal rights issue. It you want to stop Toffs having a good time, then that's up to your own prejudice, but don't think the cute little foxes are all going to be running around the countryside as a result.

I assume any Gamekeepers/farmers will be forced to have an interview yearly just to ensure they are really miserable and not enjoying their jobs of pest control.

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I would agree with your general antipathy to hypocrisy, which I glean from your postings, though would also respectfully point out that it is worth remembering that two wrongs do not make a right

laurie S

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Laurie. I agree, two wrongs do not make a right......
So which is the wrongest? Why ban the one yet continue with the other... as I said, hypocritical...... It's a human trait going back as far as the hunter / gatherer stuff.

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Whisky is a much better subject that all classes can participate in.

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Maybe with all the 'loutish binge drinking' causing trouble on our streets, the government will band alcohol next!

Well, I sort of agree with George Monbiot on this, it's much more about class more than animal welfare.

Personally, I think fox hunting is pointless and unedifying in the extreme. Apart from a herd of braying rugger buggers, there are few more depressing sights than a bunch of inbreds dressed in red blowing horns galloping across the English countryside in pursuit of a small dog-like animal.

But if people are retarded enough to participate in this activity (or to support it), then that's their problem, I haven't got too much of an issue with that.

What I find perplexing is that the pro-hunt lobby, and in particular the people who were in Parliament Sq earlier this week, are so passionate about "freedom" and "justice".

What this curious bunch of social climbers, old ladies, inbreds, deranged right-wingers, whingeing farmers, cap-doffing lower order types and upper-class cretins knows about "justice" and "freedom" is completely beyond me. None of them seem to have got worked up about justice before. I don't remember any of them marching for the miners in 1984 and 1992. I don't remember any of them campaigning for the cancellation of third world debt. Would they get as worked up about real threats to freedom, such as the introduction of compulsory ID cards? I think not.

When one sees them, talking darkly of "civil war" and having to shoot thousands of hounds (why for fuck's sake?), one realises what a fanatical and deeply unpleasant bunch many of them are.

Most people in this country are against fox hunting (although the vast majority of them won't have the passion of a sab) and would rather it didn't go on. The Labour party made no secret of its desire to ban fox hunting in 1997 and 2001. The Commons has consistently voted in favour of a ban (large majorities, too). Why can't these oafs accept this

While I would agree that the government has more pressing issues than banning fox hunting, I find it odd that a small group of people has no better freedoms to preserve, no finer notions of justice to fight for, than the ability to chase foxes with dogs. What strange priorities some people have got!

And as for being duffed up by the police, well, as The Mirror said the other day, now they know how the fox feels.

Wankers, the lot of 'em.

Kevin (From Elvis In Memphis)

PS What about a pitched battle between the animal rights extremists and the Cuntryside Alliance? With luck they might wipe each other out.

The Countryside Alliance has achieved something important though -- their odiousness ultimately led to fat, small-cocked knobhead Rod Liddle leaving the Grauniad.

Every cloud and all that.

Matthew

Kevin-W,

Excellent post.

Matthew,

Ah, so Mr Liddle was, how shall we put this, not one of your favourite people then? What did he do/has he done that so riled you?

Just curious..

Regards,

JonR