UK Hunting Ban Could Be in Jeopardy

It's been five years since the hunting ban was passed in Britain. It bans fox hunting, hare coursing, and stag hunting. You can still flush a fox out with dogs, but you can't kill it.

If the Tories take over, it could be in real jeopardy. They are totally against the ban.

Nesting Eagle Killed in Portugal, Another Brilliant Move

I come from a Portuguese family and I have no problem dumping on the Portuguese.

This makes me angry. It has nothing to do with poverty, just stupidity.

March 2009. Portuguese environmental groups - including SOS Lynx, A Nossa Terra and Almargem - have denounced the deliberate shooting of the country's only nesting male Iberian Imperial Eagle. The shooting occurred sometime between 21 and 23 February in the Vale do Guadiana Natural Park, close to the country's south-eastern border with Spain...

Miguel Rodrigues, spokesperson for SOS Lynx, stated: "Irrational attitudes constitute one of the main barriers to predator conservation in Spain and Portugal. If predator persecution cannot be adequately controlled, the future recovery of many important predator species will be in doubt".

Irrational attitudes? That's a diplomatic way of saying that it's ignorance, pure and simple.

Virginia Fox Smuggler Gets Six Months

Jerk.

Howard Glen Blevins, 68, of Asheville, N.C., pleaded guilty in March to five counts of trafficking in wild animals. A statement from U.S. Attorney Julia Dudley said Blevins had bought animals for several years from trappers in different states and brought them to Virginia to sell to the owners of "fox pens." Hunters would then pay to hunt in the pens.

He was caught after a yearlong investigation by Virginia game officials that included the undercover purchases of 54 red foxes and 47 coyotes from Blevins.

The animals were transported in the closed bed of a pickup truck, sometimes with two dozen or more animals crowded together. Often they were injured.

Fox Releases Garbage Press Release as "News"

How friggin' lazy can you get. Fox news prints a phony "news" story about a group that favors animal research called Speaking of Research. From the article:

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 28, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The tide could be turning against animal rights activists who demonstrate on campuses around the nation. Today marks the launch of Speaking of Research (SR: 7.52, -0.05, -0.66%), a student outreach organization, which aims to rally students and faculty in support of lifesaving medical research using animals.

Speaking of Research seeks to challenge animal rights dominance of the isshttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifue by participating in talks and debates on campuses across the country in the coming months. The group's website, http://www.speakingofresearch.org, provides students with the information and encouragement to enable them to speak out on the issue.

Oh no, the tide is turning! Based on what? Because some group funded by animal testing labs creates a front organization to push their agenda. The group behind this is Americans for Medical Progress. Here is their Board of Directors.

Aside from the whole astro-turf aspect of this "story", it pretty slimy for Fox to release this as news. It's not. It's a press release. Since when is it their job to launder this kind of crap and make it news? Oh right, I forgot. It's Fox.

ALF Targets Hunt Kennels in UK

Here's an item that slipped through the news on February 18. I often forget that ALF is active outside the US too.

Kennels of the Duke of Beaufort's and the VWH were the subject of the attacks that took place late on Saturday {February 16} and in the early hours of Sunday and included the Hunting Office's new base.

The letters ALF (a reference to the direct-action animal rights group the Animal Liberation Front) and the message "Enforce the Ban" were scrawled in red paint on the driveways of both hunts and the walls of the Hunting Office...

Today (18 February) marks three years since the Hunting Act came into play and it is thought the attacks could be meant to coincide with that.

Photo by Cyzaki.

Canadian Seal Industry Hurt by Import Bans

Oh, boo hoo.

Canada's centuries-old commercial sealing industry faces a "crisis" because of growing opposition throughout Europe that threatens to close vital markets, the head of the Fur Institute of Canada said Tuesday.

In a stark address to a gathering of about 100 sealers, Bruce Williams, chairman of the organization, said the future of the seal harvest is bleak if support for bans on the import of seal products continues to build in Europe.

"Unfortunately, the animal rights organizations around the world have come to realize that the easiest way to kill something - for maybe lack of a better term - is to kill the market," Williams said.

"If you can't sell the product, if it has no commercial value, then I would say that it is doomed."

Good!

Photo by yeimaya.

The Blood Sport of Wildlife Penning

Thanks to the Humane Society for having the stomach to investigate and talk about these brutal "sports."

Wildlife penning basically involves sticking a coyote or fox in a pen and setting a pack of dogs after them. The wildlife often gets torn apart.

Here's some more detail from the Humane Society.

Here is an interview with an insider who has witnessed these events.

What kind of people enjoy these things? And why do the more bizarre blood sports in the US always seem to be in the Southeast?

Photo by In posa.

Fox Hunting Not a Human Right

It looks like the pursuit of the inedible by the unspeakable (as Oscar Wilde would say), is not a human right. That, according to a recent ruling by Britain's highest court.

Britain's highest court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by countryside groups against the government's ban on hunting with dogs, ruling that the law does not contravene human rights.

It was the second time the Law Lords had been asked to rule on the lawfulness of the Hunting Act 2004, which banned fox and deer hunting and hare coursing with dogs in England and Wales following similar laws in Scotland.

Campaigners have tried to have the act declared invalid and claimed it would devastate rural communities and local industries supporting hunts, such as kennels for hounds and farriers who ensure hunt horses are well-shod.

But in a unanimous decision, one of the three judges, Thomas Bingham, said the act "must be taken to reflect the conscience of a majority of the nation".

"The democratic process is liable to be subverted if, on a question of moral and political judgment, opponents of the Act achieve through the courts what they could not achieve in Parliament," he said.

They are now going to the European Court of Human Rights according to Animalblog. That sounds like an incredibly stupid argument to make.

Photo by David Wulff