Fox hunting, as you probably already know is considered a `sport” amongst some people. Fox hunting is barbaric and disgusting and how it is labelled a sport one will never know.
Like the illegal activities of past times such as dog fighting and bear baiting, the only purpose of foxhunting is to provide entertainment to a small minority of small minded people and is very ineffective as form of controlling fox numbers and provides no benefit to the environment.The Fox hunting season usually begins in November and ends in April. In this season more than a total of 16,000 foxes are killed throughout the UK but compared to this around 200,000 foxes each year, are killed by vehicles. So ask yourselves what is the need of these Fox Hunts? Nature controls foxes in its own ways.
Female foxes have fewer cubs when food is limited. Hunters also claim that they hardly ever catch foxes and in many cases foxes escape unharmed but imagine how you would feel if you are being chased by more that 40 dogs gnashing at your heels knowing that if you falter you will be ripped to pieces? Surely this would affect you somehow?At the moment fox hunting is banned in Scotland and talks mare being held to ban it in Ireland. However there is very little being done, here in the UK to put a stop to it. That is why we must put our foot down and say no, hunting is not justified.
It is no longer ok to do something because it is tradition. Would you still allow child labour just because it used to be a tradition? If so, than most of us would not be here, in this classroom right now. We would be scrubbing floors or sweeping the chimneys.Where has the idea of foxes being vermin evolved from? Vermin is the term foisted on us so that Fox Hunters can justify these evil acts of cruelty.
The truth is that foxes can prove to be very useful to farmers by keeping down the number of rats, voles and rabbits. For example one rabbit eats 6 of crops every year and God knows how many rabbits here are in the UK.Most farmers say that they find many lamb carcasses in a fox dens but reliable and independent research has found that the carcasses are of those lambs, which have been neglected or have died from exposure and the number of lambs killed by foxes are extremely low. Foxes do not hunt in packs and only enter a badly protected hen/duck pen.
It will bury excess prey for hard times. In truth, livestock are at greater risk during foxhunts.And it is not only foxes that are ruthlessly killed or harmed during these foxhunts. It is also the dogs, horses and cats.
Dogs are whipped if they do not obey Terriers are often left to die if they get stuck in a fox den. Hounds kill cats. Horses often get injured during the hunt. Fox hunters usually plan the hunt and therefore seal all fox dens, drainage holes and burrows so foxes run anywhere.
At times they run into farm lands where sheep or cattle are grazing. There, they are followed by the hounds and hunters which can cause distress to the animals.There are also reports of people protesting against fox hunting at the hunts being attacked. On December 31st 1991 a hunt saboteurs successfully rescued a fox only to be attacked by the hounds.
He was forces to drop the defenceless creature and received a great deal of treatment. The fox was horrendously killed. Furthermore, when hounds ate too `old” they are put down and if hounds slow down too much they are shot. Last year more than 10,000 hounds were killed some huntsmen admit to killing them just because they were the wrong colour!There has been a case when a fox was chased into a local primary school playground.
It was shortly followed by a pack of hounds which cornered the poor frail fox and ripped it to pieces as the small school children looked on. They were horrified by what they saw and were in tears. Imagine what the impact it probably had on tem mentally and how distraught they may have been. And yet leaders of the fox hunts go to countryside schools to promote their `sport”.
We must campaign to stop this evil carrying on. The government are deaf to the protests of the public. We must make them see that what they are allowing to continue is wrong. As most fox hunters are prominent in the government and are quite influential people the government will allow this sport to continue.
For example Princess Anne and Prince Charles are avid foxhunters, but because of these people should we accept the situation?No we should not. It isn”t as if there is no other alternative. There is drag hunting, where a scent mainly consisting of aniseed is laid out for the hounds to pick up and follow. No damage to the environment, no animals are savagely killed and no damage to property.
If foxhunters are true to their word, then they will accept this proposal. They claim that they only do this to see their dogs” work and enjoy the countryside. Well a drag hunt will provide all this minus the killing.There is no justification of fox hunting.
When animal cruelty and killing is a sport that we as humans enjoy and get pleasure from, that demeans society and shows what narrow-minded people we are, slowly but surely becoming. Its got to stop now.
