[MK Chris]

We have a load of fox holes near where mum lives, it's quite a nice walk down to them - you rarely see a fox apart from in the distance though, they're very quick.

[MK Chris]

Also (sorry for the double post), after showing my mum how to send an email on Sunday, this morning I have checked my emails to find that she has emailed me her team's table tennis result from Wednesday! Fair enough it probably took her from Wednesday to remember how to turn the computer on, but she has one foot in the 21st century at least.

[Zoot]

Ha, bless.
Yesterday I discovered I could plug my external HD with all my music and movies on directly into my xbox and play through there without the need of getting the xbox to chat to my PC... How the * did I not realise this before??? Before now when I've wanted to watch my ripped movies in the bedroom I've had to connect the xbox to the PC via a 20 m Cat5 cable, draped through both the front room and kitchen when all i had to do is bring the tiny Hard Drive in with me...

Gawdammit

[foot-loose]

This too, it's a beautiful version of an amazing song.

You like Biffy? You should have said something...

[rustybike]

We don't get hedgehogs round here, only bloody foxes which are a pain in the arse.

I love foxes! They're gorgeous. I wish we got them and hedgehogs. I 'lure in' (according to Mr. Sunny) skunks, opossums and raccoons.

Wow. I love wildlife. I saw a beautiful badger the other night running down the road. It was HUGE! Tell me, are skunks as smelly as they make out on the telly? I've always wondered that...

[Yudster]

Wow. I love wildlife. I saw a beautiful badger the other night running down the road. It was HUGE! Tell me, are skunks as smelly as they make out on the telly? I've always wondered that...

Do you know, I worked in wildlife conservation for ten years, and I live in the country, and I have never seen a live badger. Lots of roadkill, but I've never seen one alive. I could, half a mile up the road there are several setts, but I've never been to see them.

[MK Chris]

I've never seen a badger either and I've lived in the country all my life. Mind you, if I ever met one, it's a fair bet I would be keeping quite a distance.

[rustybike]

Wow. I love wildlife. I saw a beautiful badger the other night running down the road. It was HUGE! Tell me, are skunks as smelly as they make out on the telly? I've always wondered that...

Do you know, I worked in wildlife conservation for ten years, and I live in the country, and I have never seen a live badger. Lots of roadkill, but I've never seen one alive. I could, half a mile up the road there are several setts, but I've never been to see them.

Awww. That's really sad. There's a dual carrige way in Brighton that heads towards Lewes and I swear to god, there's roadkill every 5 minutes. It really upsets me, especially when it's something really pretty like a pheasant.

I've never seen a badger either and I've lived in the country all my life. Mind you, if I ever met one, it's a fair bet I would be keeping quite a distance.

Badgers are beautiful if you ever get to see one alive; they're magnificent, suprisingly fast; the only reason I got to see it was probably because it was roaming dustbins that were placed near Stanmer woods for collection, which is sad in itself. Definitely not an animal I'd mess with in person or in a car either, like you said. I'm sure if you hit on it would completely damaged your axle or something at least to do with the alignment of the wheels.

[MK Chris]

Foxes tend to be running away when I see them (no I don't hunt, I despise hunting.)

[Yudster]

Lots of foxes about here, and deer - fallow and muntjac (which look more like dogs than deer, but unlike dogs are very very tasty).

[MK Chris]

There's a deer park near here, but other than that you don't see many.

This is a brilliant story.

[Andy B]

If you all lke foxes so much you can bloody have the ones round here. Getting into the bins and making that weird howling noise that sounds like a bird being strangled at all hours of the night.

I'd happily see urban hunting introduced but with 4x4's instead of horses.

As for Topher's link...I like it, that's quite like me, I have a list of the debts I owe and to whom. Not all of them are money. I still owe my best mate 163 sleeps on my sofa before I'm fully paid up with him.

[MK Chris]

Fox hunters often say that only city folk are against fox hunting, which is so utterly untrue - I, for example, have lived in the country all my life. There are also two types of fox hunter: those who say that they never catch anything and those who say that they have to do it to control numbers (there are far more humane ways of controlling numbers anyway); how can they have it both ways?! It's stupid.

[Boboff]

It's not stupid, it's a tradition.

A tradition which is elitist and cruel. But there are allot more cruel and elitist institutions and practices which are still allowed.

I personally think it's a shame that a historic tradition has been banned, but I dare say in the name of progress it is for the good.

I have no idea why this post reads like a Dr Fox Judge Comment from the Britain got the pop factor thing, but hey.

[Yudster]

..........(there are far more humane ways of controlling numbers anyway); ...........

There aren't, actually. Shooting them is much less humane, you end up with wounded foxes staggering around the countryside and no-one wants that. Hunting them with dogs is the most efficient way to do it. There are some places where some kind of control is necessary because of numbers, but on the whole foxes are, as Andy says, far more of a problem in towns than in the country. Foxhunting is basically harmless sport (harmless in that it will have no effect on the viability of foxes as a species or the ecosystems they survive in). I can't imagine wanting to do it myself (I really only have any interest in killing things if I am going to eat them), but I don't have any issues with people who do.

[MK Chris]

It's not stupid, it's a tradition.

A tradition which is elitist and cruel. But there are allot more cruel and elitist institutions and practices which are still allowed.

I personally think it's a shame that a historic tradition has been banned, but I dare say in the name of progress it is for the good.

I have no idea why this post reads like a Dr Fox Judge Comment from the Britain got the pop factor thing, but hey.

You're right, it's a tradition. Some traditions are good. In my opinion, this is a stupid and (as you say) cruel tradition. I understand there are lots of cruel practices that are still legal, but that does not make this one right.

I think our deer park would beat yours Topher.

I dunno, ours is in Woburn Abbey.

[MK Chris]

Damn you and your facts Yudwuk.

[Yudster]

I'm really not sure I can agree that foxhunting is "cruel". Being a wild animal isn't like Beatrix Potter stories - strange though it might seem, for most wild animals there are far worse ways to go than chased by dogs and killed quickly. As for them being traumatised - thats pure anthropomorphism, wild animals chase and kill each other all the time. If we hadn't killed all the large predators in this country (wild cats, wolves, bears, eagle owls etc) foxes would have this kind of thing happening to them every flippin day. Thats what its like to be a wild animal - not like in the picture books.

That being said, I still don't want to do it myself. I'd probably fall off my horse and get killed. Talk about kismet.

[MK Chris]

As for them being traumatised - thats pure anthropomorphism, wild animals chase and kill each other all the time. If we hadn't killed all the large predators in this country (wild cats, wolves, bears, eagle owls etc) foxes would have this kind of thing happening to them every flippin day.

True, but wild animals chasing them is part of nature - training and breeding dogs to chase them and tear them to bits is certainly not natural.

[Andy B]

I think our deer park would beat yours Topher. Good old Sevenoaks, full of crap shops, trees and deer.

I think mine would beat yours Lalottie.....Richmond Deep park...it's within 20 minutes drive so I'm claiming it as mine.

No shops, just trees and deer....lots and lots and lots of deer. You can't move for the buggers somedays.

[foot-loose]

..........(there are far more humane ways of controlling numbers anyway); ...........

There aren't, actually. Shooting them is much less humane, you end up with wounded foxes staggering around the countryside and no-one wants that. Hunting them with dogs is the most efficient way to do it. There are some places where some kind of control is necessary because of numbers, but on the whole foxes are, as Andy says, far more of a problem in towns than in the country. Foxhunting is basically harmless sport (harmless in that it will have no effect on the viability of foxes as a species or the ecosystems they survive in). I can't imagine wanting to do it myself (I really only have any interest in killing things if I am going to eat them), but I don't have any issues with people who do.

I'm really not sure I can agree that foxhunting is "cruel". Being a wild animal isn't like Beatrix Potter stories - strange though it might seem, for most wild animals there are far worse ways to go than chased by dogs and killed quickly. As for them being traumatised - thats pure anthropomorphism, wild animals chase and kill each other all the time. If we hadn't killed all the large predators in this country (wild cats, wolves, bears, eagle owls etc) foxes would have this kind of thing happening to them every flippin day. Thats what its like to be a wild animal - not like in the picture books.

That being said, I still don't want to do it myself. I'd probably fall off my horse and get killed. Talk about kismet.

I am 100% against everything said here.


Wild animals killing each other to survive is totally different to a bunch of arseholes breeding hundreds of dogs, keeping them in shit conditions, then setting them loose on one animal with the sole intent of ripping it to shreds. * tradition as well, by the way.

Yes, shooting them is probably not so 'effective', but the point of the hunt is NOT population control - it's a blood sport and it is rediculous that there has even been a discussion on whither it should be allowed to continue.

Your argument that life is not like a beatrix potter book is fair enough, life is pretty shit I'm sure for them, but thats nature. It's manage fine up till now - you seem to be saying that having a pack of dogs rip you to bits is the lesser of two evils??


At least with sports such as deer hunting, there is a point to the kill - the animal gets eaten and I imagine most of the rest of the bits get used one way or another, but with a fox hunt - there is no reason to it.

[MK Chris]

What he said.

[Sunny So Cal]

Ditto. Well said, Foots.

[Yudster]

See, I don't have any more problem with the validity of that argument than I do the hunters. Its absolutely true - hunting is rarely a tool in population control, its a sport. Not one I understand, can't imagine how anyone could find it pleasurable to be honest. But its still no crueller than a fox starving to death because there isn't enough food to be had or dying slowly from the effects of poisoning, or dying slowly and in agony after being hit by a car and not killed. None of those scenarios is natural, and they are the three most common ways for foxes (and most other wildlife) to die.

I absolutely take your point that there is no necessity for foxhunting. Of course there isn't. I don't mind it having been banned - I don't see thousands of jobs in the countryside being lost as a result. But I wouldn't have had a problem with it continuing either.

[Sunny So Cal]

Tell me, are skunks as smelly as they make out on the telly? I've always wondered that...

Yes. They are smelly little *. They're absolutely adorable though. I think somewhere on my Facebook you can see some photos of baby skunks & racoons. Anyhow, when I worked doing wildlife rehab, whenever skunks would be brought in we'd have to call the skunk team immediately to come pick them up, otherwise the whole care center would smell. Particularly baby ones. They get easily frightened and just spray. My dog is so stupid she has been sprayed numerous times in our backyard because she chases all the animals that come through. I've tried telling her those aren't little striped kitties but it's to no avail. She's got a healthier respect for the racoons because they'll stand on their hind legs and kick her arse.