hunting

[Peter Sharpe]

I've just remembered my uncle's a farmer, so I hope he never gets to read this. I was going to ask him for a sack full of ewe nuts. Oops!

[chesters1]

ram nuts surely

[Tim Kelly]

Didn't know ewes had nuts!

[Peter Sharpe]

My thoughts entirely, but it seems they have corn steep liquor as a major ingredient, or so I've read elsewhere.

[coxie]

I started this and have been away for a little while. I have just read all the posts and very interesting they are too. Any hope of getting a united front is gone if the differences of opinion aired on this subject are anything to go by.

 

As far as I am aware, the government have abandoned talk of licensed hunts, they want a complete ban, unless the area in question would not support other methods of fox control (shooting, poisoning, trapping), as in the very desolate moorland areas where access is a problem. This will be good news for many people I'm sure, including some of you on Anglers' Net.

 

My problem with this is, even though I have never hunted, or been shooting for that matter, I fear the consequences of a ban. The antis never seem to think of consequences. What do they think will happen to the foxes once hunting is banned? Will they live happily ever after. No they won't! They will be shot, poisoned or trapped. Much better than being torn to shreds by hounds. NOT!

 

It's the same with fishing. Do they think there will be any fish left in the rivers if fishing is banned. Who will know?

 

Mink. Let's release all those poor mink into the wild. Consequence? No water voles left.

 

My girlfriend is a member of the general public. We have had several “discussions” about whether fishing is cruel or not. She can’t see how sticking a hook into a fish and dragging it fighting all the way to the bank doesn’t hurt them and I have a job explaining that. Of course, the hugely ironic thing is that she owns cats, which, routinely, torture and kill all sorts of birds and animals every week, but that’s “Nature’s way”. Don’t ever rely on the general public!

 

Peter Waller is correct when he says that the antis' sport is being nuisances. It's more serious than that. When hunting is banned what will they do with their weekends? They will find another activity that they don't agree with and try to disrupt that. At the very least hunting keeps them off our backs.

 

Mally's idea of punching antis in the gob is a great one, if they threw my tackle in I'd do the same, but they don't travel alone and they don't generally let you get that close. It is so easy to ruin someone's fishing from a nearby bridge or from the far-bank.

 

And Peter Sharpe, you may think PETA are pathetic, but wait until angling is the only thing they have to concentrate on.

 

Lee, The Trent Barbeler made so many good points. Hunting, shooting and fishing are all perfectly legal activities, which people should be free to make their own minds up about participating in. But a minority, which the real antis surely are, have whipped up such a storm over hunting that it is soon to be banned. They could do the same to us. And I look forward to people like The Dacer, who thinks that hunting with dogs is barbaric, something from the 12th century, explaining that fishing isn't cruel when the time comes to justify ourselves.

 

I hope I'm wrong, but sadly, I can see the day when our sport is in the same position as hunting is today.

[miasma]

coxie...if it became proven fact that fish can

experience pain,would you consider quitting?

Be Lucky!....miasma..

[John 'BLOCK']

The majority of people who go on demos either way have no idea why they are there !!

And there are the small minority which want trouble...these "antis" would i've no doubt be involved in football hooliganism or something else if there were not obvious risks and costs involved....its trouble for trouble........if as is always said fishing is the greatest participant sport then what do we have to worry about.......surely a safety in number situ would arise.....if necessary get political get numbers up and tell these politicians that they will lose the vote if they pander to people who really are just thugs in disguise....on the home front as anglers it really must begin at home !!

If we all do our bit and keep people on our side

[coxie]

Miasma,

 

That's a good question. It's something I try not to think about. But, if I had to give an answer, then I would continue fishing. I already treat anything I catch with the utmost care and would continue to do so, but, if it was proved that hooking them hurt them, I would carry on hooking them!

 

And that, in all honesty, is why I could not argue against fox-hunting. They know the fox gets hurt and they hunt anyway, we hope the fish don't get hurt, but, I suspect, most of us would carry on anyway!

 

My honest belief is that if fox-hunting stops, killing of foxes will not stop, they will be shot, poisoned or trapped, and all those things hurt too.

 

I would have preferred to see hunting continue for very selfish reasons. I don't hunt, but I believe hunters should be allowed to do it if they want to, it's legal, they were not breaking laws, unlike the trespassing , violent antis. But there are other reasons. I have a pretty miserable vision of the countryside without hunting, shooting and fishing. It's a countryside devoid of wildlife, because there is no-one left to conserve it. Hunters need to make sure there is something to hunt, shooters need to make sure there is something to shoot and anglers need there to be fish in our rivers and lakes. I'm not sure who would be bothered without us.

[Tim Kelly]

I honestly believe that all animals feel some sensation and the better developed their brains are the closer to pain as we know it, it is. However, my dog clearly doesn't feel pain as I do. It lies in the most uncomfortable objects that would have me getting away from them immediately. A couple of years ago while I was out beating with him he ripped a big lump out of his chest at some point in the day. He carried on ploughing through brambles all day absolutely as normal and I didn't even discover the injury until the next day. I felt considerable pain at the vet's bill though!

Also, Pike suffer incredable damage during spawning and you see them in the spring with great lumps missing off them, but they carry on as normal. You catch plenty of trout in trout ressies with cormorant wounds, often with thier gut poking out of the side which feed perfectly normally.

It's very dangerous thinking that our feelings and sensations are the same as animals. After all, who would want to impale a maggot if you thought they were squirming in the kind of pain we'd experience if someone stuck a foot thick lump of metal through us!

[Cranfield]

The anti-hunting lobby state that they are not against foxes being killed, just hunted.

 

Foxes will continue to be shot,trapped and poisoned.

 

miasma raises an interesting point, if it was proved that fish feel pain would you stop fishing ?

 

I would continue to fish, whilst treating the fish as carefully as ever.

Yet strangely, I stopped livebaiting 20 years ago because I was not happy doing it.

I hasten to add that I was one of those that wrote to the EA regarding the Lake District ban.

 

I believe the pain/stress argument will be the one that the antis will use against angling.

They will not object to us catching and killing the fish, but they will claim that catch and release is being cruel.