Re: Boxing Day Hunts.

I was just thinking that as I was reading this thread Mups. I admit I know nothing about keeping birds but surely there are ways to ensure their safety?

Re: Boxing Day Hunts.

Yes there are LD.
Two of my daughters have had chickens, ducks and rabbits taken by foxes but realised they should have kept them safer and foxes will do what foxes will do.
As for cats, if I didn't have cats I'd be over run by rodents, there are empty properties on three sides of me with fields and overgrown gardens, not to mention a junk yard with log piles and turkeys (gone now). Cats will do what cats will do too.

Re: Boxing Day Hunts.

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

Re: Boxing Day Hunts.

My daughter's lurcher, George, was lovely and gentle.
Humans should know better than to kill or train animals to kill for entertainment or sport.

Re: Boxing Day Hunts.

Surely it's the chickens, ducks and rabbits they enjoy. Even if they only take one, wherever the animals are it is generally close to a fox or two somewhere.

I have a foxes den in my garden. Every year, for so many I can't remember. The tracks in the early spring are a good clue that they are back again with family. I would never feed them although new neighbours from the city did !!

I've only seen the cubs playing on one occasion but noticed a number of old balls and bit of rag or toys in a particular part of the garden. Not all from our garden, so mum must have been finding them for the cubs to play with.

Only on one occasion has one tried to enter the house, when the patio door was open a little, and I entered the kitchen to find a nose poking through. It could probably smell the cat food that I had just put out. I was not happy with that , but it made me more careful and aware.

They are more and more in suburbia which is getting to be worrying in certain places, however, I don't much agree with fox hunting with the hounds, but realise that sometimes they would need to be controlled. That is sad and it's hard to know how else it could be done. The men of the land have far more knowledge and we should listen to them when the countryside is in debate. Knowledge passed on through generations, which by all accounts worked well, until others started to interfere.

Re: Boxing Day Hunts.

I don't believe for one minute that a lurcher can kill a fox quickly .
It would have to be a dam big lurcher these are dogs that usually hunt hares and rabbits

The fox is not killed quickly by a pack of hounds either it is torn to pieces and dies through multiple injuries .

Re: Boxing Day Hunts.

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.

Re: Boxing Day Hunts.

When I mentioned Lurchers I didn't say that they were used for sport nor that they took part in Hunts.

It arose from a conversation with two hill farmers who use them for fox control, usually during the lambing season.

Re: Boxing Day Hunts.

I had a Lurcher myself until early this year Devon. Lovely, gentle old gal. She never killed anything in her life, not so much as a mouse.
I got her as a pup from Lurcher Rescue, her and her sister had been dumped. She was about 5 months old when I brought her home.
She died in January aged 17 yrs & 7 months.



Another thing I'm wary of with foxes is the Sarcoptic Mange a lot of them carry. Dogs can get it off them too, so can we, but I believe it only lives a few weeks on humans.

Re: Boxing Day Hunts.

In years gone by l have attended protests against Fox hunting on boxing day. It may look impressive the horses well groomed and the red coat and leather bòots. But it is a cruel tradition one we do not need. Apart from the hunters there are the follower who came on foot or by car some bringing children with them. There are also the terrier men who send dogs in to chase foxes out. It is unlikely any political party would end Fox hunting completely. There are to many vested Interests. If they were to do that what about mink hunting? or Stag hunting? Grouse Hunting? Do you oppose them too?