The Tuesday Rant - Foxhunting

Let's get something straight first. I've no issue with farmers shooting foxes to protect livestock. I've no problem with people keeping moghies or Jack Russell terriers to kill rats. I've no issue at all with killing animals for food or essential medical research (although I do for cosmetics). I have no issue with using hawks to control pigeons or even farms shooting them with shotguns to protect crops. None of those activities excite me, but I accept they need to be done to protect our food and health.

Fox hunting is however a totally different matter. As far as I am concerned, you'd have to be a sociopath to even start to think it is an alright thing to do. It is not a sport, a sport has two evenly matched parties with an unpredictable outcome. Both play with consent. Fox hunting is simply an excuse for a bunch of revolting half wits, who have an overblown sense of entitlement to run rampage across the country and glory in the brutal killing of animals. Foxhounds are not treated like domestic dogs and when their 'useful life' is over they are usually put down. The practice has little value in pest control as farmers generally deal with nuisance foxes with a shotgun. The argument that it is part of country life is like claiming sexual abuse is part of being an alter server at church. The only economy it serves is its own bubble and does nothing for poverty in rural areas. If it did, then such poverty wouldn't exist. There can be no argument that hunts benefit the environment as fishing clubs do. Fishing clubs manage Waters and preserve ecosystems. If hunts claim foxes are vermin and require destruction, how can they claim that they are preserving ecosystems? Foxes are a nuisance and in urban areas are increasingly becoming a problem, however no one is claiming a hunt in St Johns Wood or Hyde park is the answer.

To me it beggars belief that the Tories even considered bringing it back. The UK should be a forward looking nation, not a bastion of Middle Ages cruelty.

Rant over