Sorry for the rather long length and on an old debate - but i only saw this late last nite on the signing section.
Was watching a documentry about life in a country village. The programme opened with talking to a farmer and then the cameraman/narrator then went on to
Fox hunting, describing it as a (i forget his exact words, sorry) something along the lines of a fine sighe/great tradition and then cutting to a scene with the farmers wife shouting at the hounds chasing a
Fox, in a rather aggresive (dare i say it bloodthirsty) tone, obviously being careful what she said, which i found a bit alarming. She then went on to say how its the most effective form of control and calling everyone who disagrees ignorant. Please note I do understand foxes numbers do have to be controlled sometimes (though woinder if sometimes if stronger chicken coops etc would work better in some cases, but admit lack of knowledge about this) but think there is a more humane way.
It was rather insightful with the constant and rather insulting accusing of 'townies' not having a clue whats going on and whats right for the countryside, straight after saying that
Fox hunters arn't a snooty lot that look down on people. lol
The cameraman briefly mentioned that some people in the countryside were against it but then spoke to 3+ people about how banning it would be wrong and 1 stating how the
Fox always has its neck broken straight away and the ripping apart always happens after (contary to footage ive seen....), and that townies cant stand the sight of death but country folk live in the real world and are used to it and its humane, - never mind the chasing for miles of an animal with natural predators.... He then went on to moan about the fact that townies have no problem with
Rabbits and rats leading me to 2 points - they have natural predators and that there numbers wouldnt be so high if there were more foxes...
They then to talk to terrier owners hunting the foxes by digging them out and shooting then who said in Scotland the foxes are going extinct because people like them are killing them all, as they leave them for the
Fox hunters. Is this true? And what about
Fox hunting being the best form of control?
Then they satarted talking about how
Fox hunting is their livelyhood, dismissing drag hunting as an option, but with no reasoning for this.
The programme ended with the first hunt after the ban came into force. One vowing to hunt a
Fox anyway and of course there was a massive turnout to be filmed, nothing to do with the fact they'd be on TV of course...
This is the stuff that shocked me most. First to constant badgering by the cameraman of the farmers son about how they've cruelly banned his hobby until he cried and then filming him crying and still badgering him about it. Then they cut to people vowing to hunt what method they could - is it normal to be this bloodthirsty?
But the worst piece of 'documentry' making was the scene of the farmers family riding in the opposite direction as the drag hunt started, after previously stating its not the same as hunting a
Fox, and then the scene of a silent family with crying faces deprivied of there tradition etc. But left me with the thought: if there traditions meant so much, why did they not carry them on in the humane way they could?
Im not sure what other peoples views are on
Fox hunting but this film showed blatent bias towards the Pro
Fox hunting lobby. I thought the Beeb was meant to be neutral?