Town mouse. Country mouse

It is now illegal in Britain to hunt foxes with hounds. Which is effectivly a ban on fox hunting as we know and love/hate it. This law was passed without it going through the House of Lords, which is how laws are normally passed, the House of Commons using the Parliament Act to enforce the law without interference from the House of Lords.

I'm sure the foxes are delighted, but I question the motives of the politicians.

How many voters, sorry, people live in the towns? How many people live in the country? During the industrial revolution the countryside's population effectivly emptied into the towns where their decendants still live. This means a tiny proportion of the country live in the countryside, the rest living in ever expanding towns. I am now going to make a very crude analogy: the House of Commons represent the towns (i.e. the common population in numbers); and the House of Lords the countryside (dare I say it, with their country estates).

If you were to do a survey in Dallas, Texas, and in the Canadian Rockies whether people would like to hug a real bear, what do you think the results would say? Now translate that to Britain with foxes instead of bears. The view of a fox in the towns and city is something resembling Basil Brush, 'it has fur so it must be cuddly'. The view of a fox in the countryside is a pest, feeding off young lambs, goats and poultry, knocking a blow for farmers. I myself live in a moderatly sized town which is bordered on the west, south and east by rural Worcestershire, but I can honestly say I know almost nothing about the countryside, I don't think it would too much of an assumption to assume most people living in towns are the same. I think it is this ignorance between town and country which causes so much friction between anti-foxhunters and pro-hunters. Animal rights protesters say that this is a blood sport where the hunters are finding pleasure in the pain of the fox. Hunters say that they pest control.

There are many people who are involved in the upkeep of the animals involved in a hunt, obviously the horses and the hounds. Now fox hunting is banned, people are going to loose their jobs, and what will happen to the animals involved in the hunt? Now there is no need for so many hounds and it is unlikey that all will be kept if they have no use. How many hounds will be put down because of the end of foxhunting? Fox hunting is a business. Much like football. People get injured and killed in football riots, what is the likelyhood of football being banned?

Foxhunting did control the population of pests, whether this is the prime objective or not. Now that is has been banned, the alternatives to pest control are traps, poison and being shot. Are these so more humane than hunting with hounds?

Now foxhunting has been banned, there are obviously people who will be happy at this decision and those who won't be, and how many of each? Who will they thank at the next general election?

Nitey nite.


I understand that this was going to be an controversal post before I wrote it and I invite people to comment. But I have tried to write it logically not emotively, and if you decide to comment, please comment out of logic and not emotively.