What do Americans think of fox hunting in England?
October 11th, 2009 Posted by: admin
I have been fox hunting since i was about 9 or 10, then when the ban was introduced i started drag hunting. People in Britain are either for fox hunting or against, and the anti’s are really anti, one hunt i was on an anti was arrested for lashing out at a horse with a fence post, why would someone who is for the protection of animals hit a horse. Do people in America also have the same extreme views?
Fox hunting is a tradition, it is the sport of British Kings. My grandfather is a field master, they ride at the front of the hunt, and all my family hunt, i have been brought up in the countryside, hunting and shooting. xxx
The dogs do not rip the fox apart, well not on any hunt that i have been on, they are normally shot.
By: Tilly T
Fox hunting is a tradition, it is the sport of British Kings. My grandfather is a field master, they ride at the front of the hunt, and all my family hunt, i have been brought up in the countryside, hunting and shooting. xxx
The dogs do not rip the fox apart, well not on any hunt that i have been on, they are normally shot.
By: Tilly T
October 15th, 2009 at 00:12
There are extremists everywhere. The US extremists are also known as PETA… an example of animal rights gone wrong. They spend all their money on campaigning & advertising, i don’t think they really help any animals.
What are you hunting foxes for? If it’s for sport, then i don’t agree with that. Foxes are still living things and killing them for fun is just cruel.
If it’s for a particular reason, like you can actually use the foxes for something, like meat and furs, then i can accept that, although i still don’t like it.
October 15th, 2009 at 14:35
most people in america hunt to eat. i’ve known people to eat possum (ew haha). but i don’t mind that..but for people to hunt fox’s with dogs and horses and to let the dogs rip apart the fox is not really a sport to me. i have guns but i don’t hunt..but i support people who do… but that type of hunting seems to me just a part of the rich british upper class thing to do. hunt it, shoot it, eat it and use plenty of A1 sauce haha.
edit: thanks tilly… as americans we know only something about fox hunting sweety.. i guess its all that damm tv haha or cartoons
October 16th, 2009 at 01:53
I am not a supporter of what we Americans call “canned hunts”, which means that the prey is either raised or captured and is caged prior to the hunt only to be released when the hunting party is ready to go after it.
I just don’t see that as very sporting nor do I see the challenge in it for the ‘hunters’. If I am not mistaken, this is usually how it is done with English fox hunts.
We also have our versions of the canned hunt in the US, where usually well-heeled ‘hunters’ will pay large sums to go hunt game ( usually exotics ) on a ‘ranch’ where the animals are kept in a fenced area. This is also called a “high-fence hunt” as the fences to keep the animals from escaping are quite tall. This method is also employed in Africa and in many of the Latin American countries.
It’s sort of like the proverbial “shooting fish in a barrel” and while some condone it, I just don’t see it as sporting. I would rather go home empty handed than hunt an animal that does not have a fair chance of eluding me.
Trust me, I have come home from many a hunt without a prize and been perfectly satisfied. Maybe not beaming with joy….. but it makes the anticipation of the next hunt that much better and the eventual spoils that much sweeter.
No doubt many of my fellow American hunters will express the “I never killed nothing I didn’t eat” philosophy and that’s where I will differ from many of the folks here.
If the animal is healthy in population numbers and the game authorities have granted approval, I see nothing wrong with taking game just for a trophy…fish, fowl or fauna.
As to the fox, while many city-dwelling “animal lovers” see a cute little toy, I know fox for the destructive and vicious little killers that they are.
Whoever said that wild animals do not kill just for the fun of it have never seen the results of the fox getting into the chicken coop. I understand why these dangerous little vermin were held in such contempt in earlier times and hunted and killed with such abandon. One fox attack on a farmer’s chickens could cause that farmer’s family starve that winter.
Fox hunting was a community service that evolved into a social event for the lords of the manor who were often protecting their estate and their neighbor’s livestock from attack.
If modern fox hunts were not canned and involved hunting wild fox, as long as the fox population could handle it, I’d see it as a honorable sport.
October 18th, 2009 at 15:47
if i’m not gonna eat it i don’t kill it - unless it’s along the line of home defense.
October 20th, 2009 at 13:56
It seems to me like a grand way to break you neck and to make farmers mad with the hunters, but I’m not opposed in the least bit.
Here in the American South, fox hunting is an entirely different type of sport and generally does not involve horses, and broken necks. It is generally done at night and is often accompanied by moderately large quantities of food and liquor around a campfire while listening to the dogs run the fox. An experienced hound man can tell you what dogs are leading the pack and their exact location as well as he could if he were running or riding along side the pack.
Quite frankly it would not hurt my feelings to hear that a few hundred fox hunt protestors got trampled into mud puddles. We have the same sort of idiots here in the states. Among other things they do is lead a female dog in season through the woods before a hunt, ********* all over the area to frighten game away from the human scent, and some of the more rabid anti-hunting terrorists have even shot and killed hunters.
I am a great believer in tradition and was quite annoyed when I heard about the fox hunting ban. Maybe when foxes proliferate and start clearing out the henhouses, some one in Parliament will get a clue.
Doc
October 21st, 2009 at 12:57
I only kill what i can eat….(deer, turkey, dove etc…) Killing for sport, like what y’all do, is just messed up. Now if a fox is messing with your property or fighting with your dogs or something like that…then go on and shoot the critter. But to kill something just for the sake of killing it…..that’s wrong.
October 22nd, 2009 at 14:49
I think it is fine and is a grand sport. I bought some clothing worn from Swaine Adeney of London and San Francisco. PeTA is a destructive nut group that puts foxes, chickens, etc. far ahead of humans. They even have a house doctor who gives his irresponsible advice based upon PeTA’s magazine and books he writes. Some Americans are a fanatic as anyone in Britain. I was once named PeTA Enemy of the Month, and I am proud of that. PeTA is hypocritical.
October 24th, 2009 at 01:52
No opinion either positive or negative about it, just seems a damn peculiar way to hunt such a small creature.
October 24th, 2009 at 18:16
DJ - Sorry to disappoint you but you’re mistaken. In the UK we never had “canned” hunts. As you are unaware of the UK traditions and etiquette please refrain from answering question as it only feeds the trolls.
The fox was always driven from the woods, hedgerows or it’s earth (it’s den). The fox was then hunted across many a field with no boundary.
I hope to see fox hunting returned to its former glory in the UK.
October 26th, 2009 at 09:47
English fox hunting is a canned hunt, a least how it was practiced when I was there. Maybe some places are different, but I saw the foxes in a cage that were not released untill all the men and ladies were mounted and ready to go.
October 27th, 2009 at 19:24
Here in the states, we have very little understanding about “fox hunting” in England.
In America, prostests over hunting revolve around the “cruelty” of killing an animal.
In the UK, it is more of a “class” issue. Most hunters in America are working class and poor people. In the UK it is an Upper class thing. The fox hunting ban is just battle in the “Labour vs Torrie” war for control of the UK.
So I would say few Americans really have the background to answer your question.
October 29th, 2009 at 16:11
I think Fox hunting in England is a jolly good tradition and should be kept alive.
Tallly Ho!
October 31st, 2009 at 11:01
Well Lets talk about fox hunting,, Its NOT realy hunting, its a great exersize, and when a lady is on the hunt , bounceing around in the sadel , i have found shes more receptive to a quick 1 in the bush , especially if her hubby is a few miles away with the hounds ,, wink wink
November 3rd, 2009 at 06:28
I think it is fine, it is an old tradition. I have trapped fox and people here think it is cruel because they think it breaks the leg or causes them to bleed and they think traps have teeth like in the movies but they don’t. In reality all it does is hold the animal by it’s paw until it is shot. Of course I skin out the foxes and the hides are sold and the meat is re used as trap meat or to feed coyotes, racoons, ect.
Most people think we are the only species that hunts for sport but actually they are sadly mistaken, It happens all the time in the wild by different species. Heck look at outside cats they kill mice, moles, rabbits, and squirrels all the time and they don’t eat them. This means we are not demented for doing the same thing, the only thing wrong with it is we go against nature by taking energy to kill something and not eat it.
Hunters are of a varied economic spectrum in the U.S. I know a lot of high class, middleclass, and lower middle class people that hunt. People that are actually in the lower lower class I don’t know anyone that hunts because hunting here is a market that you have to spend money on ususally for clothes, calls, sprays, blinds, stands, guns, ammunition, scopes, rangefinders, and other stuff. there are however old timers that use the bare minimum and still harvest animals.