Teacher sacked for kicking a horse

[Benj]

One vixen would hunt voles in my chicken field without looking twice at the chickens!

With statements like that, you should get a job at the BBC.

I'm not your enemy. I'm a normal hard working man who has never spoken out against anything in his life, at the end of his tether because of the constant abuse and intimidation. I've come to the equivalent of your local to find answers because there is a wall of silence from everyone in authority over this issue, and all you can do is put me into the convenient box you've created for people like me.

 

[borderterribles]

So much unsubstantiated carp being repeated here .

 

[icanshootwell]

I'm not your enemy. I'm a normal hard working man who has never spoken out against anything in his life, at the end of his tether because of the constant abuse and intimidation. I've come to the equivalent of your local to find answers because there is a wall of silence from everyone in authority over this issue, and all you can do is put me into the convenient box you've created for people like me.

I just can,t believe you would say something like that, i have chickens and lambs, and i can tell you they are not safe from Mr fox. It,s a constant worry here, i,ve had foxes enter the lambing shed to steal lambs through the pens, forget to shut the chickens in on a night and you will lose the lot.

 

[Benj]

I just can,t believe you would say something like that, i have chickens and lambs, and i can tell you they are not safe from Mr fox. It,s a constant worry here, i,ve had foxes enter the lambing shed to steal lambs through the pens, forget to shut the chickens in on a night and you will lose the lot.

I agree with you - i'm not arguing that foxes don't predate livestock, of course they do. And i'm not against you hunting them. But I can't change the fact that I love wildlife, and when a dog pack comes through my valley to clear out my foxes because someone else doesn't like them there, I'm not going to keep quiet about it.

 

[roscoe erf]

had you pegged

 

[Lofty1984]

I agree with you - i'm not arguing that foxes don't predate livestock, of course they do. And i'm not against you hunting them. But I can't change the fact that I love wildlife, and when a dog pack comes through my valley to clear out my foxes because someone else doesn't like them there, I'm not going to keep quiet about it.

I don’t like allot of things that other people do but that doesn’t mean I have to right to shout and moan about it. if you don’t want the dogs on your ground fence it so they can’t get in as for what goes on outside your fence ultimately it’s got f all to do with you and shouting about it will make it worse.

 

[Nearly]

I agree with you - i'm not arguing that foxes don't predate livestock, of course they do. And i'm not against you hunting them. But I can't change the fact that I love wildlife, and when a dog pack comes through my valley to clear out my foxes because someone else doesn't like them there, I'm not going to keep quiet about it.

All you're doing in providing a home for the foxes is saving them the trouble of rearing them themselves or going out into the countryside to find them while on a drag hunt.
They can't control the hounds and tell them where to stop.
Just one theory.

 

[Lofty1984]

Another point the area of beauty and wildlife are there because of control of vermin

 

[roscoe erf]

Another point the area of beauty and wildlife are there because of control of vermin

yes but they are not vermin they a cuddly wuddly little puppies who wonder about eating snails and farting pixie dust

 

[Lofty1984]

I wonder how long it will be before a thread is started “ help foxes have eaten my chickens”

 

[roscoe erf]

I wonder how long it will be before a thread is started “ help foxes have eaten my chickens”

never let a fox in the henhouse

 

[ajd132]

I don’t like allot of things that other people do but that doesn’t mean I have to right to shout and moan about it. if you don’t want the dogs on your ground fence it so they can’t get in as for what goes on outside your fence ultimately it’s got f all to do with you and shouting about it will make it worse.

I don’t understand this. Farmers are the first to go absolutely mental when there is someone else’s dog loose on their land, but if the dogs belong to a hunt it’s suddenly okay and he should have to fence his whole area in?

 

[Scholsey]

I don’t like allot of things that other people do but that doesn’t mean I have to right to shout and moan about it. if you don’t want the dogs on your ground fence it so they can’t get in as for what goes on outside your fence ultimately it’s got f all to do with you and shouting about it will make it worse.

Shouldn’t be the landowners job to fence the hounds off their ground, if the landowner says no hounds it should be mean no hounds and if hounds go on then it should be followed by a sincere apology to the landowner.

 

[Red Fred]

The GWCT have been doing some studies on our foxes as they are trying to stop them predating the wading birds on the meadows. They have tagged some and discovered that one fox can typically range 15 miles on its travels every night, taking in the birds nests, our chicken run and buildings, the bins all over town, before crossing the bridges on the A31 and doing a tour of the forest on the other side of the river.

 

[ajd132]

Shouldn’t be the landowners job to fence the hounds off their ground, if the landowner says no hounds it should be mean hounds and if hounds go on then it should be followed by a sincere apology to the landowner.

Every farmer who doesn’t want a loose dog on their farm should fence in every footpath, it’s their responsibility.

 

[betweenthelines]

If the foxes were not dug and destroyed there would be no justification for chasing the pests. Finishing what you've begun is how vermin is controlled. Death above or below ground is the purpose of hunting. I've said it before and I'll say it again foxes have have no idea there are folk enjoying hunting or enjoying their deaths. Foxes are ambush predators given to short bursts of energy to procure prey but are evolved to have stamina to try to evade being preyed upon. Death by hound or hounds is the closest thing a fox gets to a natural death apart from starvation in old age or scratching themselves to death with mange. I've also said it before I've no interest in hunting foxes with hounds because I'm a rifle man (can't stand nags, though my wife loves them and bred them) and my land lends itself to rifle work. If I had 4,000/40,000 acres of rough fell/moor largely inaccessible to anything other than my ewes with their lambs and hounds I would elect another more efficient method of control. Hounds.
There is a lot of associating hunting with toffs and their mounts, far more foxes are controlled by foot packs and not solely for the purpose of protecting mans greed or avarice for sport or farming gain. Hunting in The Lakes served to protect man's interests and also to preserve precious stocks of upland nesting waders. Damning hunting without questioning the gains made by the death of a few for the greater good of many is an act of sentiment not sentience. Damning the acts that other mens' conscience accepts as wholesome because you believe otherwise is egocentric and unwholesome.
We could always take the pleasure aspect away and just poison them with bait dropped by aeroplane...

The last sentence sums up the issue

There's a word that describes people who kill for "pleasure"

 

[primmiemoo]

No it's not country people who are the worst perpetrators. I have lived on my farm for 54 years. I cleared an area for a permanent muck midden site and took it out my field map. 2 new houses were built 50 metres away and the first and only thing the house builder said to me was You will not be putting your muck there again will you in a threatening tone. Needless to say after discussion with department of ag and local planner their was f**k all they could do as I had gained permitted development rights and informed all authority's.
I need to live near 2 incomers from Surrey who have complained about me to all and sundry while I am going out my business. The thing that irks me is they are so ignorant that they move to a new area and start telling the locals what they can and can't do.

Sympathies, blue. A late friend was bullied and harassed by monied chavs from some urban area in the South East of England. They saw him as easy prey, because he spoke with the local accent, was a gentle gentleman, and he'd given them benefit of the doubt by being neighbourly to them when they moved in to the former farm next to where he'd retired to.

 

[primmiemoo]

Again, completely agree with most of this. The Guardian is really awful at times and feeds into the anti "left" propaganda machine - definitely as much click bait as the daily mail. George Monbiot has a way of approaching these things which I can see would wind most of you up but I do believe it comes from a good place - he does mean well even if he goes about it the wrong way.
I can't speak for celebrities, and I guess we're all hypocrites to a degree, but I do practice what i preach. The thing is, what I am interested in is moving on from the tired old arguments - I happen to believe for instance that sooner or later we'll all be going back to the type of mixed farming systems that used to be the norm - regenerative systems just make sense when you look at how all the imports are going up in price - yes i know this means more expensive food, but this should be subsidised properly so its available to all.

Monbiot is coming from the angle of the fashionably privileged. He writes to the negative of most that is gone before, sentimentalises what little he approves of, and keeps in with his idealistic, monied, urban chums. That's the trouble with him and his ilk.

 

[primmiemoo]

I agree with you - i'm not arguing that foxes don't predate livestock, of course they do. And i'm not against you hunting them. But I can't change the fact that I love wildlife, and when a dog pack comes through my valley to clear out my foxes because someone else doesn't like them there, I'm not going to keep quiet about it.

It really does sound unlike a normal foot pack you have out your way. It would be worth having a chat with the local plod ~ if you have one.

 

[Longlowdog]

@Benj I can and do support the views of those who welcome foxes to their land. It's their land they may do as they please. I've watched foxes for countless hours. Watched them through a scope and not shot them. They are vermin in the eyes of the law. But you are colouring me bad by describing the actions of anyone who controls foxes be that for economic or conservation purposes as 'persecution' as though I was Hitler or a genocidal dictator. I know what effect controlling foxes on my land has done, it has left voles and mice for barn owls to breed where they have not been for generations, it allows lapwings to breed unmolested, it allows broods of wild pheasants to fledge and many more benefits. I accept some places can do this without fox control but my piece of paradise is a new island among intense farming and draws pests and predators along with the colonising species. Perhaps in time it will support unregulated amounts of foxes and sustain its ecologically valuable species as well but it doesn't yet.