From: "Dave Coull" <coull2-AT-btinternet.com>
Subject: Re: UK Uproar/The Hee-Haws and the Anti-Wars
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 22:51:23 +0100



Heather forwarded something from Schnews, which made
some very good points, and most of which I agree with, 
but there is one point with which I have to take issue


> the great British public will never come to accept 
> the hunting of wild animals 


I can imagine circumstances in which the great British public
might have to accept the hunting of wild animals.

How about the collapse of civilisation, for instance ?

The human species has had to rely, at least to some extent,
on the hunting of wild animals for very long periods in the past. 
Millions of years, in fact. While I am certainly not  _advocating_
a return to such primitive conditions, I think it is unwise
to assume that they could never come round again.
Given this possibility, however slight, it is probably
just as well that some people should keep alive
the knowledge of how to hunt.

People who talk in terms of "banning hunting" 
just confuse the issue where fox-hunting is concerned.

The Great British Fox-Hunt is  NOT  about hunting.
It really is as Oscar Wylde described it  "The English
Gentleman in pursuit of the fox   -   the unspeakable
in pursuit of the uneatable". It is a ritual which has
NOTHING  to do with genuine hunting. A ritual
in which the main victims we should be concerned
with are the human beings who have to put up
with these red-coated higher class yobs on their 
chargers, with their large packs of baying hounds 
and their trumpets, riding roughshod across
the countryside. The main aim of this ritual
is  NOT  hunting. The main aim of the ritual
is to say  "WE  OWN  THIS  LAND". 

My attitude towards such "hunts" is that
I am in favour of direct action to prevent
them from riding roughshod over everybody
who lives in the countryside, but I think
any anarchist who supports a legal 
ban on hunting as such has got themselves
into a quite contradictory position. 


Dave Coull