Blood sports should remain history
FOR someone who is neither for or against hunting, Colin Richey is rather vehement in his letter. More important issues than hunting, Echo April 24.
Most polls show as many as 75 to 80 per cent of people are against hunting, even in the West Country, and it could influence the way they vote.
Given that David Cameron has said many times that, should he gain power, he will repeal the act as soon as possible, surely if there are far more pressing matters why waste more time on an unimportant bill that had already previously taken 700 hours of parliamentary time to get into law mainly due to Conservatives trying to talk the bill out of time?
If deer, hare and the demonised fox are such pests why are they only hunted at certain times so as not to interfere with their breeding times?
Owing to the shortage of hares they were sometimes brought over from Ireland to be torn apart by greyhounds.
While repealing the act, and the widespread re-establishment of otter, which are eating anglers' fish, perhaps the otter hunting act could be repealed.
What a great social occasion that would be with a pack of hounds chasing along the river banks, then the digging out and killing, and a nice pint down the local.
This law, like all laws, only needs to be enforced.
If some criminals get away with their particular crimes it cannot be right to say 'it is hard to enforce, so why bother?'.
There are many other barbaric fun sports that have been confined to history.
Let's keep these blood sports history as well.
As a young tractor driver, I lived and worked in the country for many years and it was one of my duties to join the diggers and watch foxes thrown to the hounds. So it is of no use saying 'he's a towny and doesn't understand country life'. I've been there, done that and got a bad conscience because of it.
Name and address supplied.
3 Comments
by Dutch, Exeter
Saturday, May 01 2010, 10:50PM
“Exonian, if someone delays an Ambulance trying to get to a dying man, by making them detour around a bit of tended lawn, they have their priorities wrong! To point this out is not undemocratic. This is what this whole fox-hunting debate is doing, detracting from the real issues. I will not vote for David Cameron, as I don¿t trust him anymore then the other corrupt self-serving LibLabCons, but I pray that he will concentrate on the issues important to this country. However, I doubt it, and just like Labs wasting hundreds of hours of parliamentary time on bringing in this almost unworkable bit of law, so the Cons will probably do the same in the opposite way. I just hope that Chief Police constables, who are at the sharp end and can¿t really afford this childish posturing one way or the other, will continue to carry on ignoring this relatively unimportant issue and not waste any of their scarce manpower on it. Whatever happens, I hope some of the ¿tribes¿ in this country start grasping the importance of prioritising issues in a crisis.”
by Exonian, Exeter
Saturday, May 01 2010, 10:14PM
“Dutch - I think you will find, in a democracy, that we can "harp on about the welfare of foxes" whenever we like.
IO presume though that you will protest vociferously if a Cameron Government wastes parliamentary time discussing this matter when there are so many other pressing matters for them to be dealing with.”
by Dutch, Exeter
Saturday, May 01 2010, 7:44PM
“Dear Name and Address Supplied, I'm quite sure the Granny mugged in broad daylight, the 47 year old assaulted, the 52 year old woman at the end of her tether, threatening disgusting young yobs harassing her, with a knife, all in Exeter, would only be to happy to ask for less police on the beat (if that is possible) in order to prioritise the alleged safety of some foxes in the surrounding countryside. I personally want the police to do their most important job, which is protecting humans first. If at one stage in the future, which is looking increasingly far away, we are so flush with money that we can afford decent pensions, to equip our Armed Forces properly, have a world-class NHS and education system, a working judicial and prison system on top of the lowest crime-rate in the world, a border properly patrolled, and racist right wing parties defeated by politicians who listen, then you can harp on about the welfare of foxes, not before.”