There is a danger that the new Conservative government might overturn the current Hunting Act which bans hunting with dogs. Or they might in some other way weaken the current laws which restrict the hunting of deer and foxes. The hunters find ways to circumvent the law. The animal advocates expose these underhand tactics. The hunters seem to be addicted to killing animals. They have no sensibilities towards animals. I have neighbours like that. They have a dead mentality when it comes to animal welfare. Personally, I would shut down all hunting of all kinds in its entirety. The countryside pursuits mob would be up in arms and complain bitterly but who gives a damn?! Their fun is all based on animal cruelty. How can that be justified in the 21st century?
“The Hunting Act 2004 is the law which bans chasing wild mammals with dogs in England and Wales – this basically means that fox hunting, deer hunting, hare hunting, hare coursing and mink hunting are all illegal, as they all are cruel sports based on dogs chasing wild mammals.” – League Against Cruel Sports
It seems to me that the only reason why the political parties allow hunting is to avoid alienating voters. The decisions about banning or allowing hunting are not made on moral grounds. It is about politics and money. The higher values of life such as integrity and morality are deprioritised when push comes to shove.
Here is the result of the poll presented in a different way:
Ipsos, the company carrying out the poll say on their website:
“When asked whether each activity should or should not be made legal again, 85% say fox hunting should not be made legal again, 87% deer hunting, 90% hare hunting and coursing, 99% dog fighting, and 94% and badger baiting.”
Why do some people enjoy killing animals?
I am curious as to why hunters enjoy killing animals. Ultimately, it has to be about an inherited human instinct, a base instinct, an animalistic instinct, if you like, instinct to kill. Humans are predators and although we have distanced ourselves from animal-like behaviour, a lot of what humans are about is still very basic in terms of instinctive behaviour.
One website for hunters and about hunters provides their reason why people like to kill animals for fun. They say that “the bottom line is that it feels good. Is it wrong to exercise these base desires? No more so than wanting to sleep in shelter, eat food, have sex or breathe”.
Hunters shoot exhausted stag at close range after 3-hour chase with dogs
So, the author of this article thinks that the desire to kill animals for fun is no different than the desire to breathe or have sex or eat food.
As usual, the person totally ignores the fact that they are killing a sentient being and that they caused pain to that animal. They ignore the fact that their pleasure is based on pain. They treat animals as nuts and bolts, inanimate objects to take pot shots at.
And invariably, hunters always justify their killing by saying that they kill for food when they could just as easily pop down to the supermarket. And they always bring up the conservation card namely that they shoot animals in the name of conservation and control of wildlife and “disease control”. They struggle for justification, but they are very expert at finding it in order to cover up the real reason, the base reason, they like it.
And they realise too, that animal advocates see sport hunters as dinosaurs. They see them as backward people in a world trying to be modern and more civilised and more respectful towards animals. It is a very backward pastime. And we know sport hunting is gradually phasing out but there are many diehards who simply can’t stop.
Suppression of humaneness towards animals is a modern development?
I have stated that sport hunters are backward people but there is an alternative theory which suggests that kindness and respectful treatment of animals is an ancient human phenomenon rather than a recent one. The theory suggests that this natural tendency to be kind towards animals has been suppressed by the rise of domestication and other cultural changes. And therefore, the tendency to abuse animals is not part of our “animalistic” nature but the reverse. We are much more likely to respect animals, but domestication has engendered in humans the feeling they need to dominate animals and in dominating them the extension is to kill them without feeling.
Sport hunting gradually being phased out
We know it’s phasing out because back in the day in the early part of the 20th century, in India, during the British Raj, army officers used to “bag” tigers by the dozen, by the hundreds actually and saw nothing in it. Tigers were seen as vermin and pests. Now they are treasured by most of the world except those that want to eat their body parts. That’s a reference to China by the way.
But the thing is sport hunting is on the way out, but it is a grindingly slow process because governments like the British government don’t want to displease the countryside pursuit people because they are old-fashioned white British English, and they vote for the Conservatives. And in the UK the Conservatives have been in power for a very long time. They cling onto power despite Boris Johnson’s indiscretions.
And so, the current legislation in the UK allows hunting of deer and foxes under very strictly control conditions which opens up loopholes through which the hunters drive a horse and cart. However, the underlying feeling of the mainstream Brit in the UK is that there should be no loosening of the current restrictions on hunting, and I suspect that the majority want the restrictions tightened up even further but for political reasons I stated that won’t happen.
Below are some more articles on sport hunting.
