Other field sports

[Clifftop]

So den, Are you against terrier work on fox hunts? as it is a integral part of fox hunting...

 

I have no problem with shooting, I do it myself but I consider ferreting to be much more sporting. I have been ferreting and bolted lovely big healthy buck rabbits, and released them 100% unharmed, believe it or not, dosent bother me.

 

With ferreting, if I bolt a young rabbit or a pregnant Doe I can release it for next year. Something which you cannot always do when looking through a rifle scope. I do shooting, but on a pest control basis.

 

Incase you are unformillar with ferreting, you place nets (purse nets) over the rabbit holes, then enter the ferrets (normally 1-3) which then bolt the rabbits into the nets.

Ocassionally, like in the picture the ferret will bottle up a rabbit in what I call a 'cul de sac' and it will need digging out with the aid of a ferret finder. A small collar that the ferret wears so that I can pin point where they are with a reciever box. There is no more 'sporting' way of rabbit catching than ferreting IMO.

 

I am 17 now and you dont hear me getting in fights and hanging around on street corners, I would sooner be out with the dogs, ferreting or fishing. If thats "sick sick sick" then I dont know what isnt....

 

Just remember, If the day ever comes when fishing is under heavy pressure to be banned, wouldnt you wish that people had been more openminded?

 

Josh

 

 

Well said young fella.

[Guest Shots for fun]

Agree 100%

I'm lucky that I get a lot of opportunity to shoot, I shoot pheasant, partridge, pigeons, ducks and geese, as well as rabbits and red and roe deer. My favourite shooting sport is pigeon shooting and both my wife and daughter would rather eat pigeon than almost any other meat, with roe deer venison a close second my favourite).

Neither my wife or daughter will eat farmed chicken, pork or lamb and very little beef. Not because they don't like the taste but because they don't like the way they are kept, transported and killed.

They are very aware of where their food comes from.

I have been shooting all of my adult life and have no moral problem with it. My feeling is that when you have killed, gutted, skinned and butchered an animal, you have earned the right to eat it. My rule is that I only shoot what I eat, and I always eat what I shoot.

With regard to posts regarding fox hunting can I just raise a few points.

I have never hunted foxes with hounds and never wanted to but I can understand why some people do. I have no problem with it. I joined both marches to London, not to support hunting but to let this "government" know that I didn't like to be dictated to.

There are people who shoot foxes (myself included). They are called farmers and gamekeepers. They would like to shoot every last fox in the country. What stopped them in the past were the fox hunting interests that wanted foxes on their ground. Without hunting there is no reason for foxes to exist as far as the farmers and gamekeeper are concerned. (BTW, most of my mates are gamekeepers)

It is a bit like some peoples attitude to Pike in their fisheries. In some cases it is only the Pike anglers that have changed opinions and championed the cause of the pike. Same with foxes and fox hunters.

Most of the anti fox hunting rubbish that you hear spouted has nothing to do with animal "rights" and a lot more to do with perceived class privilege see some earlier posts . If people really cared about animal rights they wouldn't buy battery eggs or intensively reared chicken for a start.

 

Great post.

[Elton]

I don't shoot myself

 

That's reassuring. We like you here.

[Steve Walker]

[Sportsman]

With maturity come s a greater appreciation of the need not to kill. You are 17 Den is not I am not. Den gave a very moving and honest account regarding the dying fox cub. To me that was very moving and really says everything you need to know about how we should all act towards other creatures. but you may have to wait a few years.

 

Can we assume that you have evolved into Vegan then?

Does this mean that as you get older you stop eating meat, or is it OK for someone else to kill it for you.

Josh, carry on and enjoy what you enjoy, and keep the honesty that goes with it

[Guest J.Iddon]

Can we assume that you have evolved into Vegan then?

Does this mean that as you get older you stop eating meat, or is it OK for someone else to kill it for you.

Josh, carry on and enjoy what you enjoy, and keep the honesty that goes with it

Dont worry I will!

 

Anyone who is against people going out rabbiting and getting abit of food and eats meat themself is a hypocrit. Simple as that.

 

People dont seem to understand much about food. Almost as if they think its born on a polysteyrene tray The rabbits I catch I know have lived there life 100% natural and free. Something which people dont take into consideration when eating there discount chicken and KFC's.

 

I will always be out rabbiting, nothing will ever stop me. Government included .

 

Josh

[Steve Walker]

Anybody see Hell's Kitchen last night, where the celebrity contestants were asked to clean a whole, plucked pigeon? I can't find a YouTube clip of it, but it was pathetic. How can someone be that squeamish about some guts? Do people think meat is made in factories on little polystyrene trays? Oh, and then they were getting upset because Marco Pierre White had shot a deer and brought part of the carcass in to show them how to butcher it. They showed the deer being shot, and it had a better life and death than a lot of farm animals. No trip to the abattoir in a lorry for that beast, just a single unexpected gunshot out of the blue.

[peterpikefisher]

to hunt for the pot is a great thing

to hunt for sport is another thing

however to hunt for fun is neither

 

i am in to hunting for the pot IE: rabbit pigeon duck geese deer squirrel

all very tastey.

however i do not over hunt that is to say kill more than i require or can use for my own consumption ..

[Sportsman]

Sorry but what do anglers who practice C&R do if it's not hunt for fun?

[Guest Rabbit]

Dont worry I will!

 

Anyone who is against people going out rabbiting and getting abit of food and eats meat themself is a hypocrit. Simple as that.

 

People dont seem to understand much about food. Almost as if they think its born on a polysteyrene tray The rabbits I catch I know have lived there life 100% natural and free. Something which people dont take into consideration when eating there discount chicken and KFC's.

 

I will always be out rabbiting, nothing will ever stop me. Government included .

 

Josh

 

Fair enough, I reckon what you do with your ferrets and dog is a damn site better than some of the others of your age. I used to work for the Ministry of Agriculture when I was 17, and graded slaughtered pigs. I am not oblivious to the fact that animals have to die to feed us. however I suppose I do sound like a hypocrite in that I do eat meat, but not the meat of wild life but farmed animals. farming is sustainable wild life by and large is not, apart from maybe rabbits.

 

Most of us when we age find it better to watch and observe the wild life as opposed to catching and killing, it is a mind set that comes with age.

 

But please if you enjoy what you do then that's great, like I said far better than some other things you could be doing