Hurrah! I'm not a criminal!

[Everard_Busby]

I'm delighted at long last to have received the following letter from the Alliance and wanted to share it with you all. I'm thrilled to bits!

Dear Mr Busby,

Thank you for the thirty seven letters you have sent to the Alliance during the last month. I apologise for the delay in replying but we ran a competition to see who would be picked to reply and had such a laugh doing it we got carried away and forgot about actually writing to you.

You describe at great length your concern that you may be breaking the Hunting Act 2004 by using your dogs to flush out deer on your property. I note that you backed up your correspondence with a commendably detailed array of data such as Ordnance Survey maps and coordinates, signed affidavits from the dinner lady from the local nursery school that she has indeed witnessed your actions during her frequent fag breaks, an album of photographs capturing the "flush" and over a dozen videos you yourself have made (NB I enclose one of the videos which I think you intended to send to magazine called Readers' Wives; out of compassion we enclose free of charge Michael Winner's Fat Pig Diet book).

My opening words were "thank you" and I meant it. We've had such a laugh in the office over all of this. Indeed, a colleague of ours who's been suffering from depression for over a year is now off the Prozac and quite full of hale and pace.

I am therefore delighted to assure you that no court in the land would ever determine that you were "hunting" within the terms of the said Act. Please don't take this personally, but we reckon only a retard would think it was.

I remain, sincerely yours,

Rory Featherstonehaugh

PS Concerning your second query, the Alliance policy is that ketamine should only ever be used on horses.

 

[Ravenwood]

LOL - is this another new user name GB?

 

[Bunce]

Very funny Giles.

Firstly I have reported you to admin and asked for your account to be permanently deleted.

Secondly your attempts to sow confusion and doubt over the Hunting Act are doomed to failure. Let's make it quite clear what is against the law.

It is illegal to flush out a wild mammal with dogs unless certain strict conditions are met. These include the use of no more than two dogs and that reasonable steps are taken to shoot the wild mammals as soon as possible.

We are fully aware that you use four dogs to flush out wild deer on your farm and then refuse to shoot the deer.

The reason you are still allowed to do this is not as you suggest because it is not in fact illegal to deliberatly flush out deer with four dogs. It is because it is entirely up to us who gets prosecuted and who does not. Our policy is to allow individuals to flush out wild mammals with dogs without shooting them because we do not believe it is in the public interest to stop them breaking the law in this manner.

That being said we are prepared to and have prosecuted hunts for failing to shoot flushed out wild mammals. In these cases the public interest in securing a prosecution against a member of the hunting fraternity clearly outweighs the deers interest in not being shot.

Members of the hunting commumnity need to be aware. They must prevent there dogs from flushing out wild mammals that they are not prepared to shoot.

Your attempts to blur the boundary between the legal and illegal are pathetic. To say that flushing out is not defined as hunting is an absolute nonsense. The Hunting Act 2004 clearly and explicitly states that flushing out is hunting.

 

[GinaB]

Sense of humour bypass there Bunce?

 

[antihunt]

You state the law correctly Bunce. However what I consider to be a great shame is that you are allowing people to break the Hunting Act because you do not consider it to be in the public intertest to get them to shoot animals.

I do understand that some people might be uncomfortable about the Hunting Act however it is not up to us to decide which laws we obey and which we do not on the basis of whether we agree with them.

What you are basically saying is that certain people should be allowed to deliberately break the Hunting Act.

I feel sure that this man who deliberately flushes out and chases wild deer with his dogs will shortly be prosecuted. This is why he is now desperately trying to give the impression that it is in fact legal to flush out deer with as many dogs as you like.

As you say, it is not legal to do this unless no more than two dogs are used and the wild mammal is shot as soon as possible.

We in the anti hunt community are very proud of this law and it should be enforced.

 

[antihunt]

Sense of humour bypass there Bunce?

What Giles Bradshaw is doing is NOT funny.

First of all he deliberately and openly breaks the Hunting Act and secondly he continuously pours scorn on the law.

He should not be allowed to taunt the police and the anti hunting community any longer.

Everyone should have to obey the law.

I have reported this criminal as well and I hope others can too so he can be removed from the forum and stopped from denigrating the law.

 

[Sidesaddle]

Fantastic letter, Giles! One of your best ever.

 

[antiantianti]

lol you are very kind Sidesaddle, but it's not actually me!

 

[Bunce]

Everyone should have to obey the law.

I do appreciate your sentiments. However we simply cannot prosecute just anybody who breaks the Hunting Act. Our view is that the exemption is anomalous and the law in this area must be used with a considerable degree of discretion.

The public wants to see the Hunts prosecuted and we have got away with it so far by targetting the law against them. However if we started prosecuting anybody else simply on the grounds that they break the Hunting Act by illegally flushing out wild mammals then it would make the law look ridiculous.

 

[k9h]

Oh yes of course your right didn't you just prove that with Tony.

Oh.... wait a minute...



YOU LOST that one didn't you!

 

[antiantianti]

Our view is that the exemption is anomalous.

By 'anomalous' read wrong?

So basically what you are saying is that it's fine for people to flushnout wild mammals with dogs, the laws wrong to make that illegal, people should just ignore the law and neither the police nor the LACS should enforce it.

 

[Bunce]

Oh yes of course your right didn't you just prove that with Tony.

Oh.... wait a minute...



YOU LOST that one didn't you!

The Tony Wright case hinged on whether he took sufficient steps to ensure that the escaping foxes were shot. Yes we did lose that one because he clearly did take steps to kill the foxes and the judge decided he reasonably thought they were adequate.

A better example is the Quantocks Staghounds case where the Judge decided the steps taken to kill the deer were clearly inadequate as ten guns should have been used to kill the entire herd whereas only two guns were used innevitably meaning that not all the flushed out deer were destroyed.

That illustrates why we choose not to prosecute everyone who breaks this exemption. The public would not put up with the enforcement of such a law unless it is against the hunting fraternity.

 

[antiantianti]

So basically the Hunting Act as it applies to the vast majority of people who go out with dogs is absurd and it can and indeed should be ignored.

 

[Everard_Busby]

Bunce, I admire the strength of your convictions and like you I used to think I was breaking the Hunting Act but the Alliance has shown what an idiot I was being. I've even taken to asking the opinion of hunters in the pubs I go to in Exmoor and they openly laugh in my face calling me all sorts of nasty names: "pillock", "nutter" and even "closet-anti", which is particularly close to the bone because I don't actually hunt, though I do like to wear hunting pink - boots and all - on our swingers' nights. The missis wants to dress up too, but until the Fat Pig Diet kicks in she'll have to carry on making do with the kaftan.

 

[Bunce]

Giles, I know exactly what you are trying to do. You are trying to suggest that flushing out wild deer with dogs is not in fact hunting. We won't put up with people trying to dilute the law in this manner.

When a deer is disturbed by dogs in a wood it is put in fear of it's life. That is cruel. You obviously find this whole thing funny but then again it is perfectly clear that you do not care about animals.

Parliament debated this issue to a considerable extent and they decided that flushing out wild mammals with dogs is cruel and that it therefore should be banned unless certain strict criteria are met.

I would remind you that the courts have decided that flushing out can include a chase. If you had your way then it would be legal to flush out and chase wild deer with a pack of dogs.

This is why the number of dogs allowed to be used is limited to two and why reasonable steps have to be taken to shoot all the flushed out wild mammals as soon as possible.

Flushing out with more than two dogs or failing to take steps to shoot flushed out wild mammals is illegal.

You are a highly cruel person who is attempting to pour ridicule on a perfectly reasonable and valid law.

You are also breaking forum T&Cs by logging on as another account and attempting to stir up trouble.

I have spent years monitoring hunts and I am not going to be told what is and what isn't illegal by an oaf.

 

[jessop]

Just disturbing a deer in some woods isn't cruel. yes you could say that it is put in fear of it's life but it just runs away.

Flushing out wild mammals with dogs shouldn't be illegal at all and people definitely shouldn't be required to shoot them.

 

[Everard_Busby]

My life's so boring it's the only excitement I get. Someone in a pub in Simonsbath the other evening said: "Have you tried drag?" I replied: "Years ago, but I could never find the right eye shadow."

 

[Bunce]

You state that it is not cruel but Parliament has decided that it is. Yiou may think that it is ok to go into a wood and disturb deer. In today's society to do so is a criminal act.

 

[Bunce]

You really are a pathetic and desperate little idiot Giles.

 

[jessop]

You state that it is not cruel but Parliament has decided that it is. Yiou may think that it is ok to go into a wood and disturb deer. In today's society to do so is a criminal act.

It isn't cruel just to flush out deer and it shouldn't be illegal.

Even if it were cruel, shooting the deer would only make it more so.

The law is a nonsense and should be changed. In the mean time people should ignore it.

 

[peakpark]

Er......do these posts remind anyone of Alex Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets? i.e. the same actor playing several different roles?

 

[jessop]

You really are a pathetic and desperate little idiot Giles.

I think he is very funny and is showing this law up for the farce that it is.

 

[Everard_Busby]

Bunce, you sound like the missis. To be honest mate, I only come on here to get away from her. She's always nagging. Nag nag nag. We went to the doctor a few years ago about having kids. She asked: "Doctor, can I have an epidural?" He said: "Mrs Busby, lots of women elect to have one during child birth." She retorted: "Not for giving birth, you stupid man, for the conception!"

 

[GinaB]

My life's so boring it's the only excitement I get. Someone in a pub in Simonsbath the other evening said: "Have you tried drag?" I replied: "Years ago, but I could never find the right eye shadow."

PMSL!

 

[winterhorse]

it's ok everard, in a previous thread, bunce told me that because, the drag pack i hunt with, occasionally flushes out deer when we pass through, we need to be shooting them!!!!
honestly the law means more animals die???
the pack in question has always been a registered drag pack, but according to bunce must now start a killing spree. my OH would rather it was foxes, but we won't go there! :grin:

 

[Bunce]

You admitted to doing nothing to prevent the dogs flushing out wild deer. Read the law. Flushing out wild mammals is illegal because it is cruel. If you cared about animals then you would prevent your dogs flushing them out. The fact is that parliament has decided it is cruel to flush out amimals and you do nothing to prevent the dogs doing so.

 

[Bunce]

PMSL!

How typical of the complete lack of respect for animal welfare and the law that you find him so funny.

 

[jessop]

Winterhorse, do you flush out animals on a regular basis while out hunting?

 

[GinaB]

PMSL!

How typical of the complete lack of respect for animal welfare and the law that you find him so funny.

Actually I have a lot of respect for animal welfare and help out in regards to conservation and animal rescue centres. I just found the drag/eyeshadow comment hilarious.

Bit like how I'm finding how much you are over-reacting hilarious.

 

[winterhorse]

Winterhorse, do you flush out animals on a regular basis while out hunting?

no we dont we are a drag hunt and if the deer decide to run about and as you call it or sorry should i say bunce believes the deer are in distress then how can that be illegal hunting as we prior to hunting have a designated route that we follow????