Re: Boxing Day Hunts.
Originally Posted by
deylon
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I agree seeing a Hunt is a fine thing ,but I cannot bear what they do,,It is not a fair contest, the fox is often flushed out ready for the dogs to chase when they start, the poor thing doesnt stand a chance,
then it is torn to pieces and its blood smeared on a new comers face , often a young child.
As for foxes killing ducks/ hens this is sometimes a stray dog ,not a fox and would not happen if they were securely locked up at night. My friend keeps chickens, her house backs on to fields with foxes/rabbits etc, but she makes sure her 'girls' are safely locked in their fox proof house at night.
Lurchers are not usually dogs used in organised hunts, specially bred fox hounds are used .Most dogs will chase if they see something running / flapping around, a Lurcher .being long legged, just happens to get there quicker, also they are used by unscrupulous people for illegal hunting/poaching, but, like any dog ,they can be trained and make wonderful ,loyal,loving pets
I agree with everything you've said Deylon. And as for the 'blooding' practice, well, does anyone think any responsible poultry owner would do such a medieval thing if they shot a fox - NO, of course they wouldn't. It's yet another of the hunting fraternity's sick practices.
My friend I said about earlier was right in a way, about the poultry owner's responsibility to shut the birds up safely at night.
Many just leave the birds to go in on their own and don't bother to go round and shut the doors/popholes behind them. It saves them having to go back in the morning to let them out again. That is just asking for trouble but unfortunately it's the birds that will suffer because of their laziness.
Every bird I had, even all the waterfowl were shut in different houses at night. I would still sometimes see the young cubs come up the field and check all the housing, to see if I'd slipped up and forgotten one.
The only ones I couldn't shut in were the peacocks because they weren't in an enclosure, they live more naturally and liked to sleep in a tree at night, all lined up along their favourite thick branch. That is how a darned fox took one of my white ones.
Being snow white, he could see her easily when the moon was out and waited under the tree in the early morning for her to fly down for her breakfast. Beautiful bird reduced to a blood bath one morning. Her 'husband' went to pieces and was a nervous wreck after witnessing that.
The beautiful normal blue coloured ones are brown underneath and probably blend in with the branches more at night.
I used to leave the big barn doors open until dark so they could go in and sleep in the rafters if they felt safer, but they never did, they always went back to exactly the same branch on the same tree, and in the same pecking order every night for years.
Sorry for going on a bit, it stirred old memories and I was very, very fond of them all.