Countyside Alliance and FACT

[Guest sslatter]

[GlennB]

northern mark:

GlennB

 

What are your views on shooting as vermin control?

I'm always a bit worried about that word "vermin". Like, to a poultry farmer the fox is "vermin", but the fox is a great mate of the smallholder on account of the number of rabbits foxes eat. "Vermin" is a bit like "weed" eh? Just something that's in the wrong place at the wrong time, from the human point of vew.

But I'll blunder into your cunning trap mark - I have no strong feelings either way. If some animal population gets to troublesome levels then culling might be perfectly justified. And if shooting is the best way to go about it, then so be it - fire away. It's probably always worth wondering why that population got out of hand tho.

 

Regards

[Dave Lumb]

poledark:

Live baiting out...breed and release pheasant shooting out....multiple rods out....match fishing for money out.....I am not even sure about long poles!!

 

 probably a few more that others can add???

 

    Den

And when they have all added their pet hates there will be nothing left worth saving.....

[Peter Waller]

That is a fair comment Dave, but an unrealistic one. We really did have to let gaffing, gagging, gorging, liggering, lead shot and knotted nets go, and livebaiting might have to join them. Even if only as a piece of public relations.

 

Irrespective of our feelings on livebaiting it may have to be the sacrificial lamb. It does go counter to conservation claims by anglers. It goes counter to the claims from most pikers that pike should be returned. Why pike and not roach?

 

And before you accuse me of stabbing my fellow pikers in the back just consider the wider church that constitutes angling. Something that all 'specialist' anglers should do. There is a wide world of angling out there.

 

Consider, too, Den's very valid comment that perhaps if fox hunting had been prepared to compromise then perhaps it wouldn't have gone down the pan. Maybe angling should look at itself before it gets shoved!

 

[ 20. February 2005, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

[northern mark]

GlennB

 

I only asked as vermin don't get eaten.

 

By vermin I meant rats mainly

 

 

Regards

[Peter Waller]

Coypu, a rat, are lovely! Especially made into links.

[Jim Roper]

poledark:

Jim,I must admit to some doubts about the morality of breeding and releasing Pheasants for sportsmen(?) to shoot with modern weapons.

Den

The best shots I come into contact with, are usually using guns around 100 years old.

 

The alternative to releasing pheasants is to kill every item of vermin on the place, if you want wild pheasants to flourish.

Sandringham kill 6,000 pheasants a year but don't release any. They employed 16 keepers, last I heard, running over 100 Fenn traps each(probably more). The keepers at Balmoral run 150 Fenn traps each and they release, last I heard, 150 pheasants a year.

 

Most released pheasants don't get killed by shooting. They end up in nature's food chain.

 

No criticsm of Den, just information to enable informed decisions to be made.

 

[ 20. February 2005, 04:56 PM: Message edited by: Jim Roper ]

[chesters1]

quote:

---

Most released pheasants don't get killed by shooting. They end up in nature's food chain

---

after hitting my windscreen ,plenty of food for crows around here ,a stretch of road into a dip always has plenty of bodies.

i had six months under Lord Colemans head keeper (in my early 20's) at the begining when he said XX birds were killed each year i was confused to why he was pleased that most of his birds (and he and his staff raised them all) were dead ,i was looking through a townies eyes after a few visits i realised it was his job and he did his job well (i suspect he's long dead he was ancient and full of wisdom then) but i realise if he hadent did his job then he would not only be unemployed but him and his family homeless.

He was of the old school you could smell his gates a 100 yards away ,my biggest lesson was we were walking through a clearing and he put his arm across in front of me ,i stopped and he pointed ,behind a bush a weasel (or stoat i darent ask) was dancing right infront of a rabbit after a few seconds it jumped over the rabbits head and killed it clean with a bite to the neck ,the beastie then started dragging the rabbit away ,the keeper slowly crept up and shot the beasty ,i aked why (still a towny) he said it saved a cartridge ,wise and carefull with money even if he did load his own cartridges

i had the pleasure of learning to shoot using a purdey (and a fine one at that) i wondered where he got the money to buy them (he had them all over the place some stunning with gold "etching" along the barrels) he said they were presents from happy and very rich shooters ,i wonder where they are now ,they were his reminders of the old days when you could tell the gentry just from their manner nowadays money speaks and win on the lottery buys you a place but unfortunatly not the manners

coo this gets me thinking ,i had a lambretta scooter then and on my first day i was late ,i rolled up at 9.10am i spotted him walking home so apologised for my lateness ,he grinned and we went indoors for a cupper ,he said it was almost dinner time which puzzeled me ,he went off to the toilet and his mrs noticed my puzzelment and laughed ,she explained he started work at 5.30 in the summer (DOH) he was very forgiving and allowed me to start at dinnetime as i came from far away they must have laughed behind my back at this nieve towny

i was volentry it was one of the goverments "training" schemes and boy was i lucky to get it

 

[ 20. February 2005, 05:22 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

[Guest sslatter]

chesters1:

..i had six months under Lord Colemans head keeper (in my late teens)..

I hope he was prosecuted.. unless you too were as keen as mustard?

[chesters1]

you have to do lots of strange things in the country

i think its called shooting rights ...sorry

 

[ 20. February 2005, 05:26 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]