A quiet time for reflection...

[LACS]

Clodagh's cheery declaration yesterday that people opposing the ban on hare coursing intend "to cull the entire population [of hares], or as many as possible" has made me think of another creature which hunters almost hunted to extinction: the otter.

When in post-war Britain environmental factors severely reduced the numbers of otters to dangerously low levels hunters insisted on keeping hunting. They were still doing this in the 1970s. They used precisely the same sort of arguments then which they use now to justify animal abuse.

Otters exist in my country today DESPITE hunters.

 

[AlanE]

LACS, you must be aware that it was in fact the hunts which first drew the attention of conservationists to the shortage of otters? Didn't you know that?

And where does the link between 'animal abuse' and hunting come in? Hunting is nothing to do with 'abusing' animals; we leave that to the so called 'sabs' and antis. How do you live with yourself now that the pernicious Hunting Act is law?

 

[LACS]

Wrong again! In the 1970s the predecessor of the CA, the BFSS, vehemently opposed any attempt to ban otter hunting or add the otter to the list of protected species.

 

[Clodagh]

It was the otterhound packs themselves that stopped it, I admit I don't know when.
Also, I was speaking of the landowners in East Anglia with the big flat fields that coursers love. It isn't such a problem here as we have small fields with hills and hedges (Not hills by Exmoor/Wales standards, but enough to break the line of sight.)
Our hares won't be shot, can't abide it, have you ever heard an injured hare scream?
We do get illegal coursers in, but we patrol our land and try to cope with the threats and violence that result.

 

[LACS]

"It was the otterhound packs themselves that stopped it"

Yes, but only after they gave in to irresistible public pressure. Even in the late seventies the main blood sports organisation in the UK was declaring that hunters had every intention to carry on killing otters and that their friends in Parliament would resist the call to protect otters.

 

[Clodagh]

Any thoughts on listening to a badly shot hare? I doubt you have ever heard one.
Foxes can't scream in pain but their nervous system no doubt shouts the same message when they've got a 'leg down'.