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How does the hunted fox suffer?
What`s wrong with angling?
Pheasant Shooting - The Killing Fields
WARNING - Very graphic pictures
Every part of a fox hunt is cruel - from the chase, to the dig-out, to the kill. There is no 'quick nip to the back of the neck' in hunting. Lead hounds will snap at any part of the running fox, before the pack rip it to pieces. If the fox manages to go to ground, then it will be forced to fight with terriers for hours before being hauled out and, if lucky, shot.
Copper the fox made national headlines. After being chased, and caught, by the Chiddingford Hunt hounds, he managed to bolt down a rabbit hole. Luckily, Hunt Saboteurs were close by and physically blocked the hounds from Copper, using a policeman's helmet. Copper had suffered bite wounds to his rear flanks and was losing blood from his penis due to kidney damage caused during the stress and exhaustion of the long run from the hounds. The vet was able to offer scientific evidence that hunted foxes undergo pathological stress, a level of suffering so intense that they can die even if they succeed in escaping the jaws of the hounds. He was quoted as saying 'I have never seen such trauma in a dog, even a badly injured one.'
Post-mortems commissioned by the Home Office on four foxes killed by hunting revealed that there was evidence of multiple bite wounds to the face, head, rib cage, heart, lungs and stomach.
What`s Wrong With Angling?
Angling is Britain's most popular bloodsport and is responsible for causing pain, stress, fear and death to thousands of millions of fish every year. When caught. fish are not killed instantly upon leaving the water, but exposed to an environment they are not designed to cope with. Primarily. they can't breathe. Other factors include stress imposed due to the sudden change in temperature, noise. vibration, oxygen concentration, light intensity and damage to a protective mucous layer. If fish survive this ordeal, they are often put into a keepnet. These nets are designed to contain fish underwater, before being released at the end of the fishing session. However many fish will receive injuries from the net mesh or from being squashed together with other fish and many will die due to depletion of oxygen over a period in these devices. Keepnets are most popular at fishing matches, enabling each angler to weigh his complete catch at the end of the match. Many pleasure anglers use keepnets simply as a personal ego boost.
The pure barbarity of angling becomes clear on examining the process of hooking, playing and landing a fish. A fish is deceived into impaling itself on a (usually) barbed hook, resulting in the infliction of an injury. The angler may then "play" the fish in order to tire it and allow it to be landed. On leaving the water, a fish is unable to extract oxygen from the air and is subjected to extreme stress. During the handling process, a protective mucous covering which provides the creatures waterproofing and protects it from infections, is damaged. If a fish has swallowed the hook, the hook's retrieval is very difficult, the suffering is prolonged and is likely to result in damage to the fish's gut and subsequently death.
Pheasant Shooting - The Killing Fields
Pheasant rearing and shooting is a multi-million-pound business in Britain that subjects millions of artificially-hatched birds to the rigours of intensive farming; threatens the environment; kills nearly 5 million birds and mammals in predatory control programmes each year; and annually dumps around 75,000 metric tonnes of lead shot on the countryside.
While exact figures are not available, it is reasonable to assume that up to 36 million pheasants are killed each year in Britain. Many are shot when just 20 weeks old, although their potential lifespan is several years. A further 12 million birds suffer injuries and are never recovered. Most of these birds are captive-bred.
In an attempt to eliminate aggression caused by crowded conditions in the rearing pens, beaks are partially amputated (a mutilation sometimes performed several times in the bird's short life); blinker-like spectacles are fixed in place (sometimes by pins driven through nasal septums); millions are fitted with plastic or metal 'bits' to prevent closure of the beak; and one wing could be tied to prevent escape.
These intensively-reared birds are especially vulnerable to infectious and other diseases, including salmonellosis and E coli septicaemia, gapeworm, yolk sac and rotavirus infections, impaction of the gizzard with wood shavings, infectious sinusitis and malignant tumours. The high incidence of disease has generated a corresponding increase in the amount of chemical compounds directed at tackling it. These include antibiotics, whose over-use is contributing to the worldwide spread of antibiotic resistance in human and veterinary medicine. Also in use is DMZ, which the European Union banned in the mid-'90s for all species except game birds, because there is no accepted safe level.