Best not get into an "discussion" on FB!

[highlandponygirl]

...over a "cruel" old photo (not mine) of a hound pursuing a chase with a fox, with urban dwellers who coo over the sight of these cute fluffies raiding their bin for left over pizza and who wont accept a need for population control is a part of necessary land management and not a sport for toffs.

Lesson learnt and fingers burnt!

 

[Dunlin]

I follow and photograph my local hunt and have taken some really lovely photographs, I put them on my Facebook account as I wanted to share them, I actually had to close down my account for 24 hours so people could calm the heck down! These are current photographs from this season and obviously not a fox in sight, in fact many photographs of the trail runners! It won't help with some people though, they think they are right and no matter how much 'evidence' you provide it will always be wrong. I have now had to set up my own page to display the photographs as I cannot be dealing with the backlash of some so-called friends calling me a blood thirsty toff!

 

[highlandponygirl]

Well, this discussion continued in length into the small hours. Turned out to be a very good debate between people who hunt with hounds, gamekeepers, farmers, people who agree & disagree with hunting. Quite a lot of reasonable opinions from everyone with the majority, including a few anti-hunters agreeing towards the same conclusion that the current trend in growth of the fox population can't continue at it's current rate and that the current management of them is not working. It was good to have a debate with people from all points of view in what ended up being a sane discussion. It's such a shame that more discussions on this topic can't be debated rationally amongst some.

I would love to see those pics though. An element of hunting I enjoy is watching working animals utilise their inherent ability to do the job they were bred to do. Very fascinating subject

 

[Kat]

My husband got a load of abuse for posting photos he had taken of a bloodhound meet on his art page on Facebook. It was stated in the album title that it was a bloodhound pack and when the first response came in about cruelty and killing foxes he explained that the hounds follow the scent of a runner and no animals are harmed and that they have never killed anything even pre-ban but the abuse, threats and accusations continued regardless of any explanation.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

I had pair of prints of a fox in my flat, in my non horse days, there was also a print of GSHP, one day my lodger [a bit unstable it turned out] attacked my verbally because I had pictures of foxes on my wall, what is that about?

 

[Dunlin]

"Dorset Equestrian Photography" is my Facebook page, it's open and public so no need to register or join. I'm not out with my previous local pack anymore having just moved, I also had to extensively fix my car as it's not the best for going off road, so I am changing packs for Autumn Hunting this year and will be back out again come October but with SD I don't mind having a debate but it's when people act so narrow minded and blinkered it becomes a problem because they won't listen to anything you say and thus it doesn't become a debate any more with facts it just becomes some idiot having a rant based on what they think they know. Like I said, it does make me chuckle when people brand me as a blood thirsty toff. I have a common 'townie' accent, drive a 'townie' car, live on the breadline and the sight of blood makes me want to faint, I feel sick just looking at a mangled badger on the roadside so if Fox Hunting is what some people make it out to be I'd be having a nervous breakdown following the hunt, but as it happens I have a thoroughly enjoyable day out with nice people watching some stunning horses, gutsy riders and hounds work the countryside (not the flippin wildlife)!

Oh and I have a pair of brass figures, 1 of a fox the other of a hare, they were my Grandmothers. I've had comments before from people saying "oh you like hunting then"? It's a fox and a hare, a popular childrens story, 2 animals, how on earth does having them translate to "I love fox hunting"? Some people are just stupid/baiting for an argument.

 

[Cinnamontoast]

But it's ok for the fox to kill all of a mate's chickens, the whole coop slaughtered overnight. Lickle fluffy fox, bless! Apparently chickens are less worthy than foxes. Go figure.

 

[Dunlin]

Well quite, my Mother kept chickens for many years but after losing in excess of 100 chickens in just 1 year she gave up. The sight of seeing 20 odd chickens ripped to shreds, no part of them eaten and not 1 missing is horrifying especially for me to see when I was very small. Seeing my Dad (legally) shoot foxes on his land was not pleasant but it was necessary, no amount of fencing would keep those damn foxes out of the chickens. We also lost a few lambs to them and sheep were frequently bitten as well.

Anyone who has been anywhere near a fox should know they are certainly not cute ickle fluffy things, they are bloody vicious much like badgers and strangely enough any other wild animal!

 

[highlandponygirl]

Trying to get people to see our pov that they are a threat to livestock/poultry & that's one of the reasons for wanting to hunt them & not for the fun of it. Could have argued till I was blue in the face but I was repeating myself as were they with opposite opinions being unconvinced either way.

 

[Alec Swan]

The simple and undeniable fact that our countryside has developed and evolved as it has, through man's management, seems to bypass those who would lecture us today.

For me, the fact that foxes do damage to poultry and game, is almost an irrelevance. For me, the fact that it behoves us all to manage and maintain a sustainable balance, with all our wildlife, is what makes sense. Those who loathe those who are involved in such management practices, will never listen to either reason or common sense. Idiots to a man, and their self righteous proclamations are responsible for the mess in which we, and our responsibilities, find ourselves.

Alec.

 

[flirtygerty]

I follow and photograph my local hunt and have taken some really lovely photographs, I put them on my Facebook account as I wanted to share them, I actually had to close down my account for 24 hours so people could calm the heck down! These are current photographs from this season and obviously not a fox in sight, in fact many photographs of the trail runners! It won't help with some people though, they think they are right and no matter how much 'evidence' you provide it will always be wrong. I have now had to set up my own page to display the photographs as I cannot be dealing with the backlash of some so-called friends calling me a blood thirsty toff!

Then they are'nt friends are they

 

[Dunlin]

No, hence me calling them so-called friends. I never knew they had such strong views and would express it to me in such an obnoxious and unjust way! Ahh well, live and learn!