Posted on 12/28/2002 6:28:30 AM PST by Enemy Of The State
A fox hunt in England. Queen Elizabeth II has reportedly ordered Prince Charles to give up hunting Queen Elizabeth II has reportedly ordered her son and heir to the throne Prince Charles to give up hunting, which is opposed by a majority of British people and members of parliament. "The Queen believes that continuing to hunt when the majority of MPs and the nation at large abhor it, is a step too far," the Daily Mirror Friday quoted a a senior courtier as saying. "It would be out of the question, of course, for Charles to continue hunting if a total ban is introduced," the source went on. "But the Queen believes that even if there is only a partial ban, Charles would court disaster for his future reputation if he over-rode the will of the people." Charles, his sons William and Harry and his companion Camilla Parker Bowles regularly go hunting near Highgrove, the prince's residence west of London. Under a new bill put before the House of Commons on December 3, a permit may become necessary to practise hunting in England and Wales.
Queen orders Prince Charles to stop hunting
LONDON (AFP)
© 2002 AFP
No, it means you have to eat that tree you cut down.
This was our family rule. Since we were never faced with coyotes "eating our lambs", then I guess that was never expresses as part of the rule. But you are right.... self-defense is a good enough reason as well. I would not hesitate to kill a rhino charging one of my kids, nor a coyote killing my herd.
The Rino issue is easy - stay away from them unless you a serious big-game hunter. Now the coyote thingy gets tougher, as there are many "varmits" I hunt and have no intention of eating or skinning.
Keep in mind there are various scavingers out there that will take care of any downed animal. Those coyotes, ground-hogs, feral dogs and (yes) deer will be consumed by critters who take care of any dead animal (and they all do die.)
Some deer are ill or weak from lack of food and best dispatched to end their suffering. No reason to haul them out of the woods. Just an example of why sweeping statements like "eat what you shoot" don't hold up in many situations.
This is a wonderful sport, which often doesn't even involve a fox. It is also very democratic, in that you ride up, pass the Master an envelope (in your hat) containing your fee and you're in. If you don't have a horse, you can often rent one.
It preserves vast swaths of open country, which the Greens should love, and the whole gang might kill one fox, or no fox, after hours and hours of rugged exercise. Besides, hounds do the killing. Last I checked, they are animals, too.
What should make the Labourites and Greens very happy too, is that with some regularity, a member of the classes they profess to despise is maimed or killed. So where's the harm?
In the British Isles the fox is a serious agricultural pest, one that does tremendous damage to chicken and sheep farmers. Foxes will actually eat a lamb as it is being born. British farmers feel a deep rage against foxes, not only for the great economic harm they do but for the suffering and death of their carefully-bred livestock. Somehow, the fox population has to be kept under control, but as long as foxes have this abundant food supply, their numbers continue to grow.
Last year Lord Burns, who was delegated by the Crown to prepare a lengthy in-depth report on the problems of the fox population, considered various ways of fox population control. The verdict was that because of the nature of foxes, it was more cruel to trap, gas, or shoot them than to hunt them with hounds.
For people who don't live in and work in the country, chasing the foxes may seem cruel. Well, death is cruel, and it is a hard part of country life, one that suburbanites don't often understand. The hounds give the fox a quick death--the fox is killed instantly with a quick twist to its neck. (It is not shot, by the way.) The speed of the horses and hounds provides the most efficient way of catching this swift, elusive, and very intelligent animal in a land where ATVs are not useful.
In Britain the battle against foxhunting is led by Marxist-Leninist animal rights activists who are quite violent and are not above murderously attacking hunters and their innocent horses. (A reporter for England's Independent newspaper a few weeks ago secretly tape-recorded animal-rights activists planning to injure or kill Prince Henry at a foxhunt.) The anti-hunting movement is fueled by class envy--the mistaken idea that only the rich ride horses--and by the well-meaning but sentimental city person's ignorance of country life. It is part of the process that threatens to end traditional English life and values.
Stop Hunting!!!
So9
Tally Ho, Press on...........!
The Brits are also claiming the cats have decimated the Song Bird population.
Tea time is not endangered...yet.
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