Ok there are many different types of hunting. I used to hunt alot. I used to get calls from farmers who would ask me to control the population of certain species to protect another species or to save their crops! I did this for many years without any problems until one day I had to shoot a family of birds.. I'll not go in to detail but I the birds became very distressed and knew what was happening... this was my last hunt. Soon after I sold my weapons. However - I do still think this kind of hunting needs to be carried out for the protection of other species and crops.

We have invaded the wildlife with our roads and building forcing them in to an unatural habitat.. so sometimes I think it is necessarry to cull certain species!!

As for fox hunting - I'm so glad it has been ban.. I would love to take one of those posh twits in their red jacket and jodpers and drop them in the roughest part of Sheffield and let them run for their lives as they are being chased by an angry mob.. see how they like it!!

What's other peoples views on Hunting???

i personnally couldnt hurt or kill anything, ....but i know people that work for the famers , getting rid of rats mice etc, but i couldnt do it,

I could probably manage a rat.. but since my last experience there's no way I'd get back into it..

It's weird.. I'd have no problem shooting certain members of the general public but couldn't hurt an animal!!

hee hee ,yeah same as, there are certain people you could just get hold of and,.............., but animals couldnt hurt them

I dont agree with fox hunting but do agree with the culling of mice and rats etc.......I used to go hunt saboteuring in my younger days and the twits in red coats were very snotty - the way some of them tret their horses too.......I cannot see how its a sport???
It may be banned but I think they still do it when they can get away with it - its like anything else its probably gone underground

I'm torn!Coming from a long line of farmers there is a great tradition in my family, although me and my parents didn't farm my uncles and auntis are still lamb farming.

Let me give you a few things to think about, badgers aren't fluffy lovey dovey black and white docile creatures, they are more destructive among the sheep than foxes, yet they are protected. The number of foxes in mid wales has absolutely shot up to uncontrollable levels.

While the method of fox hunting with dogs wasn't the most effective or dignified way of killing foxes, it's more for the fun than anything, it did drive them away.

Farmers now resort to shooting and trapping, I go up to the farm in Montgomeryshire few times a year and they have a chalk board with how many foxes they have shot, not killed, shot and since the few weeks before Easter when the lambing season started they have shot around 200 foxes.

This is people's livelihood we are talking about. If those foxes took 1 lamb in their lifetime, £10 a lamb - it's more than that but say £10, that's £2000 lost. In the news and media all we get is that these lovely dovey cute sweet animials are being killed by arrogant ignorant toffs, when that is such a skewed and biased view.

I don;t think us city slickers and urbanites should have as much say what goes on in the country as peoples lives are the countryside.

I find it hard to agree with hunting with dogs, but there should be a window for a planned cull.

The missus' is American, we stayed with her grandfather a few years back, and it was the hunting season and we shot about 10 deer, was amazing the steaks, and all the meet that came off it. Very bloody but in the end tasted great. Now this was in a controlled environment. Only 2 weeks of the year can you shoot deer in most places I think.

I dont think I would be able to shoot a living creature. But I am for a reasonable controlled hunt without stupid cruelty in late Autumn when there is no babies...

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Yes, you are right. Everyone single person who fox hunts is a posh twit. How stereotypical would you like to be?!

I've hunted and I'm neither particularly posh or indeed a twit! People that hunt are so diverse, it's not just blue blood on a horse - one of my friend's I've met through hunting lived most of her life in a caravan and now works as a waitress. I'd hardly call her posh. (And she's 'well 'ard like blood, she'd have those Sheffield chavs like dat, innit maaan. )

Also, could you please explain something else to me, as I'm not sure I fully understand your argument.

At the beginning, you've said (and I quote) ... "to control the population of certain species to protect another species or to save their crops" by killing them - how then, does fox hunting differ from this?

Other than, it involves slightly more people, some of whom are mounted on horseback?

Ther basic principle of fox hunting is/was the same - to protect a species or crop from another by the controlling the latter population.

I can't help thinking (and please forgive me if I'm wrong) but it sounds as though you dislike the people (or their 'persona') that are involved with hunting, rather than the hunting itself?

Exactly, I hate fox hunting, I've watched some programmes on TV and its barbaric, poor fox must be terrified, apparently they die of exhuastion most of the time if not they get mauled by a group of dogs. mad: Thank god it's been made illegal in this country!