Badgers

[Finman]

Good afternoon all,

 

 

I know this is an emotive subject, and had divided opinion in the past, but this is not what this topic is all about. I have received a message from an organisation called '38 Degrees' who where involved (to their credit) with the effort to stop the government privatising woodland.

 

Their newest effort is focused into stopping the cull of badgers by shooting them. I find this an indirect threat to shooting, irrespective to what our feelings and thoughts are for badgers or for shooting them. If anyone gives a monkey's, if a farmer in whose land I have had countless forays shooting rabbits and having a lot of fun with a rifle, says to me that he wants badgers shot, then I will shoot them (provided it is legal and all necessary licenses have been applied for and gotten). I have never, to this day, shot or atempted to shoot or kill a badger by any other means.

 

If you want to cast your vote in their poll (should they help with stopping the cull of badgers or not), you can follow this link

 

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/badger-poll

 

and have your say,

 

best wishes,

 

 

Finman

[TonyH]

I don't know who these 38degree people are but (i) the woodland-privatisation thing was a red herring (an awful lot of woodland is already privately owned, and most of the State-owned land consists of vast gloomy acreages of alien conifers) and (ii) I'd have no problem in shooting badgers if it were legal. I've often been asked to: most farmers I know think there's a strong possibility that the badger-TB link is real, and there's no shortage of badgers at all; most think badgers more of a pest than foxes, in fact, mainly because of their sett-digging in fields (nasty if your tractor wheel hits a fresh sett) and the extreme difficulty of getting DEFRA to do anything about the buggers. I've always refused requests to "get rid of a few of those black & white foxes" because it's against the law, there are too many prying eyes around the countryside, and I don't want to risk a thumping fine plus the loss of my FAC.

Tony

[re'M'ington]

done

[Noz_God]

thanks for the link Finman

[Finman]

Evening fellas,

 

glad you found the link of use.

 

TonyH, I do not suggest that we throw caution to the wind and off we go shooting badgers merily oblivious to the consequences, not at all. I hope that my initial message made that explicitly clear. This is not about whether badgers should or not be shot. I have a feeling however that the namby-pamby caftan-wearing tree-and-bunny-hugger brigade will jump on the opportunity en masse and vote 'YES' (Should we work together to stop government plans to kill badgers?), paving the way for the next question: is shooting an activity that should continue?

 

Now, call me paranoid, but I still think that they're out to get us...

 

Voting against the motion will at least show some support to shooting (indirectly) although, directly, the poll is about culling badgers by means of shooting them and I do acknowledge that.

 

best wishes,

 

Finman

[TonyH]

..TonyH, I do not suggest that we throw caution to the wind and off we go shooting badgers merily oblivious to the consequences...

Finman

 

Finman, I never thought for a moment that you did!

Tony

[sako75]

Yep done!