Should fox hunting (with a pack of dogs) be legalised?
No. And before the thumbs start getting downwards I’m going to get my reasons in first. I am a country boy, born and raised. Dead animals don’t bother me unduly and the only animals I get remotely sentimental about are cats and dogs. Cats because they keep mice down and dogs because they work. Fox hunting with hounds is wrong, however, for a couple of reasons. First off, it does nothing to cut numbers of foxes. There are a lot more foxes than there ever were hunts and the claims of the hunting community prior to the ban were simply ridiculous; on the one hand, they claimed to keep fox numbers down; on the other hand, they also claimed the majority of foxes escaped. You certainly can’t have it both ways. Up my way, we have a simple approach to fox numbers. No need for dogs, horses or anything like that. Generally we just use a Landrover, a .237 calibre rifle and a high powered spotlight. Scan the hill with the spotlight, any animal is picked out in very stark light. From the range of th
