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no, not hunting jocks, but I believe that fox hunting has already been banned as sorts north of the border. Can anyone from the northern lands confirm this and if so are they now overrun by maurauding hoards of delinquent foxes?

och aye it has.

When the foot and mouth epidemic was on, and all hunting was banned-did the fox population increase......no it did fucking not!, did anyone care???? no they didn,t

pass me another ginger buscuit Holden, theres a good chap.

You won't get a reply from Caledonia. They've all been eaten.

Mart

As one of your Caledonian friends living in England, and fiercely opposed to bloodsports, hunting with dogs was banned north of the border. However a loophole was found in the law and the hunting still goes on minus the dogs and the fox is shot. A pity the hunters don't wipe each other out. Hopefully all loopholes will be closed in England. (Interesting to note that last week a hunting trip in Devon turned to tragedy when a 13-year old boy was shot dead. The hunter mistook him for a fox!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Living in Hunting country as I do I know a bit about this. The hunts have no intention of recognising a ban and 40,000 people have signed a petition pledging to carry on hunting and if need be arrested for it.
It will be intresting to see how the police deal with arresting them all on the same day!
If foxes looked like rats a ban would never have been considered and It often seems that the people in power have no idea about what living in the country is really like.

Hi Autumn, are you telling us that your life in the country is made hell by foxes and you have to rely on the fox-hunters to save you?
If you don't mean that please enlighten us.

Mart

Forgot to put its EJ, Autumns husband.
I'm pro hunting and indeed went out on Friday morning.
We don't care what people think of us or what they say, we will continue to hunt.

EJ

The Times. September 11, 2004

'This does nothing for the fox ? in fact we are killing more'
By Magnus Linklater

THE abolition of foxhunting in Scotland has had some unexpected results. Two years after the Protection of Wild Mammals Act brought to an end 200 years of traditional hunting, nine out of ten Scottish hunts are still in action. Almost twice as many foxes have been killed than before the legislation was introduced. And Darwin?s law about the survival of the fittest has been thrown into reverse; because foxes must be shot rather than hunted to death, the biggest and strongest animals, which usually escaped the hounds, are now being killed.
There is no question, however, that hunting as it was once understood ? the pursuit of a wily fox by baying hounds and thundering horses ? has been brought to an end. Most hunt officials I spoke to admitted that the sport is a pale imitation of what it once was, and that conforming to the rules laid down by the new legislation means that much of the excitement of the chase has been lost. Subscriptions to hunts are well down, business for farriers and saddlers has been lost and some hunt-followers, disgusted at the idea of shooting foxes have resigned.

But the sport survives. No foxhounds have been put down as a result of the ban. Only the 150-year-old Dumfriesshire Hunt has been disbanded, and even its pack of hounds is being reformed. For those hunt enthusiasts, like Allan Murray of the Countryside Alliance, who enjoy watching foxhounds picking up on the scent of a fox, there is still much to enjoy. ?It is not the same, of course,? he said, ?but watching the hounds work is my hobby and fascination, as it is for many others, and as long as there are hounds in kennels, they?ll come out to watch them.?

Scotland?s Act allows the control of foxes in the countryside but not their pursuit by mounted huntsmen. MSPs accepted that dogs are needed to ?flush? a fox out of covers, but once it emerges, it must be shot rather than hunted. Only if it is wounded, can hounds and huntsmen be used to pursue and finish it off.

What mounted hunts now do, therefore, is to position men with shotguns at vantage points around a wood, then send in the hounds to pick up the scent and drive the fox towards the guns. The riders? only opportunity for a gallop is in between covers, or in pursuit of a wounded fox.

?It is a very different way of killing foxes but it is a very efficient one,? said Philip Fergus of the Fife Hunt. ?The trouble is that the wrong foxes are getting killed. The first fox to be flushed out is usually a good, fit animal, the one who used generally to escape the hounds in the old days. The ones that are left behind are the older more infirm animals. It?s the wrong way round.?

He has seen the number of hunt-followers diminish but not to the extent that some predicted. ?There are still supporters who like to come and watch the hounds in action,? he said. ?They don?t see the fox getting killed, but then they rarely saw that anyway.?

A legal challenge to the Act, on the grounds it infringed hunt supporters? human rights under the European Convention, failed this year when it was dismissed at the Court of Session. The judge, Lord Nimmo, ruled that the Scottish Parliament was within its rights to ban an activity of which it disapproved. He did appear, however, to leave a loophole, which could be exploited in the event of anti-hunting legislation being introduced in England. As Scottish hunts are still able to operate, albeit in restricted form, Lord Nimmo ruled that the human rights of those taking part had not been denied. If Westminster were to impose a total ban, the case could be made that it went further than the Scottish Act and was an infringement of the European Convention.

Trevor Adams, who runs the Buccleuch Hunt, was one of those who brought the action. ?We have had an age-old tradition taken away from us,? he said. ?The Bill has done nothing for the fox and in fact we are now killing more than before. But at least we have preserved our packs, with bloodlines that go back 200 years, and we are helping farmers . . . The trouble with governments is that they are very good at stopping things being done. When it comes to doing positive things, they are less successful.?

End up in jail then. Best place for people like you.

Mart