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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2017/sep/16/foxhounds-will-always-kill-foxes-when-hunts-allow-them
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Foxhounds will always kill foxes when hunts allow them | Foxhounds will always kill foxes when hunts allow them |
| (17 days later) | |
| Joss Hanbury, master of the Quorn hunt, says foxhounds have “been bred for generations to hunt live prey”, giving this as a reason why hunts keep killing foxes, implying that it’s just one of those unfortunate things that can’t be helped (News). | Joss Hanbury, master of the Quorn hunt, says foxhounds have “been bred for generations to hunt live prey”, giving this as a reason why hunts keep killing foxes, implying that it’s just one of those unfortunate things that can’t be helped (News). |
| If someone’s bull terriers savaged a bull, it would be no good the owner pleading that the breed had been bred for bull-baiting and therefore there wasn’t much he could do to stop them. He would be prosecuted and the dogs might well be destroyed. But hunts take out packs of 30-plus dogs that they state are uncontrollable and take them to coverts almost certain to contain foxes. So foxes get chased and killed and the hunts pretend they thought the hounds were on a non-existent “trail”. | If someone’s bull terriers savaged a bull, it would be no good the owner pleading that the breed had been bred for bull-baiting and therefore there wasn’t much he could do to stop them. He would be prosecuted and the dogs might well be destroyed. But hunts take out packs of 30-plus dogs that they state are uncontrollable and take them to coverts almost certain to contain foxes. So foxes get chased and killed and the hunts pretend they thought the hounds were on a non-existent “trail”. |
| I have been a hunt monitor for 23 years and have watched hundreds of hunts. I am convinced that trail hunting does not exist, but is a front for every hunt to continue hunting live quarry, a “cynical subterfuge” in the words of one unusually percipient judge. However, considering its fatuousness, this excuse is remarkably successful at repeatedly getting hunts out of trouble. | I have been a hunt monitor for 23 years and have watched hundreds of hunts. I am convinced that trail hunting does not exist, but is a front for every hunt to continue hunting live quarry, a “cynical subterfuge” in the words of one unusually percipient judge. However, considering its fatuousness, this excuse is remarkably successful at repeatedly getting hunts out of trouble. |
| The National Trust should bear in mind that a landowner allowing illegal hunting to take place can be prosecuted. If it succeeds in crushing the motion to ban all trail hunting on NT land, it will have placed itself in an invidious position.Penny LittleGreat HaseleyOxfordshire | The National Trust should bear in mind that a landowner allowing illegal hunting to take place can be prosecuted. If it succeeds in crushing the motion to ban all trail hunting on NT land, it will have placed itself in an invidious position.Penny LittleGreat HaseleyOxfordshire |
| Last chance on climate change | Last chance on climate change |
| The extreme weather that has caused devastation in Florida, Houston, the Caribbean and south-east Asia is symptomatic of climate breakdown, which is happening as a result of global warming caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels (“Survivors of Irma beg for aid”, News). | The extreme weather that has caused devastation in Florida, Houston, the Caribbean and south-east Asia is symptomatic of climate breakdown, which is happening as a result of global warming caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels (“Survivors of Irma beg for aid”, News). |
| We have about 15 years to stabilise the atmosphere before climate breakdown becomes unstoppable. It will result in the failure of staple crops in tropical zones, floods, droughts, wars over land and resources such as clean water and chaotic, forced mass migration to temperate parts of the world. | We have about 15 years to stabilise the atmosphere before climate breakdown becomes unstoppable. It will result in the failure of staple crops in tropical zones, floods, droughts, wars over land and resources such as clean water and chaotic, forced mass migration to temperate parts of the world. |
| The maturing of the renewable energy industry and developments in smart grids and battery storage mean we have a chance to avert climate breakdown. The most effective action we can take is to switch to a 100% renewable energy supplier. Nuclear power is too expensive, too slow to build and too dangerous. Cumbria’s police and crime commissioner recently described Sellafield as a big strategic target for terrorists. This applies to all nuclear power plants. The only sensible future is based on clean, safe, affordable and abundant renewable energy.Anne DismorrNorwich | The maturing of the renewable energy industry and developments in smart grids and battery storage mean we have a chance to avert climate breakdown. The most effective action we can take is to switch to a 100% renewable energy supplier. Nuclear power is too expensive, too slow to build and too dangerous. Cumbria’s police and crime commissioner recently described Sellafield as a big strategic target for terrorists. This applies to all nuclear power plants. The only sensible future is based on clean, safe, affordable and abundant renewable energy.Anne DismorrNorwich |
| Pay cap must be lifted for all | Pay cap must be lifted for all |
| I read with interest of the looming “winter of discontent” (News). Living in a seaside resort with problems of deprivation, it beggared belief that universal credit was trialled here. I think the disingenuous premise was that if it could work here, it would work anywhere. But this led to severe problems for many. | I read with interest of the looming “winter of discontent” (News). Living in a seaside resort with problems of deprivation, it beggared belief that universal credit was trialled here. I think the disingenuous premise was that if it could work here, it would work anywhere. But this led to severe problems for many. |
| The chancellor cannot rule and divide between public sector workers. The removal of this unfair pay cap needs to apply to all. If this is achieved, we may begin to believe in the government’s tarnished mantra of wanting a society that works for all.Judith A DanielsGreat Yarmouth | The chancellor cannot rule and divide between public sector workers. The removal of this unfair pay cap needs to apply to all. If this is achieved, we may begin to believe in the government’s tarnished mantra of wanting a society that works for all.Judith A DanielsGreat Yarmouth |
| Bell Pottinger reined in too late | Bell Pottinger reined in too late |
| As an addendum to Catherine Bennett’s article (“PR execs behaving badly…, Comment), it is worth noting that during the Bell Pottinger scandal, the Public Relations and Communications Association did little or nothing to rein in the agency’s shocking activities in South Africa, until its shamefully silent hand was forced. It is legitimate to ask who else within the PRCA membership is enjoying the comfort of a blind eye while they pursue similar immoral activities.Mike AbbottLondon W4 | As an addendum to Catherine Bennett’s article (“PR execs behaving badly…, Comment), it is worth noting that during the Bell Pottinger scandal, the Public Relations and Communications Association did little or nothing to rein in the agency’s shocking activities in South Africa, until its shamefully silent hand was forced. It is legitimate to ask who else within the PRCA membership is enjoying the comfort of a blind eye while they pursue similar immoral activities.Mike AbbottLondon W4 |
| Library lives on – but only just | Library lives on – but only just |
| Your review of Andy and Peter Holden’s Natural Selection exhibition (“Birds do it…”, New Review) talks of the “former Newington Library” but the library still exists, housed in a metal container above a collection of takeaways rather than in the distinguished building purpose-built for it 125 years ago. | Your review of Andy and Peter Holden’s Natural Selection exhibition (“Birds do it…”, New Review) talks of the “former Newington Library” but the library still exists, housed in a metal container above a collection of takeaways rather than in the distinguished building purpose-built for it 125 years ago. |
| Four years ago, a fire started in the neighbouring Cuming Museum and it and the library have been closed since. Southwark council said it would cost £40m to make safe and yet a private art academy did so for £30,000. In consultation, residents asked for a library – instead, they got this. Admirable as I’m sure the exhibition is, it is under the shadow of the wider gentrification of the Elephant. Did the council deliberately come up with an unworkable figure? It has a good record on libraries. Clarity would be welcome. Toby BrundinLondon SE17 | Four years ago, a fire started in the neighbouring Cuming Museum and it and the library have been closed since. Southwark council said it would cost £40m to make safe and yet a private art academy did so for £30,000. In consultation, residents asked for a library – instead, they got this. Admirable as I’m sure the exhibition is, it is under the shadow of the wider gentrification of the Elephant. Did the council deliberately come up with an unworkable figure? It has a good record on libraries. Clarity would be welcome. Toby BrundinLondon SE17 |
| A tax on tax havens | A tax on tax havens |
| Mariana Mazzucato outlines an interesting viewpoint (“After Irma, let those who use our tax havens contribute to the repairs”, Comment) on modern inequality. Perhaps it is time for a Tobin tax, a levy on financial transactions, reinforced by a penal rate on all transactions involving tax havens.Paul SaltLondon W1 | Mariana Mazzucato outlines an interesting viewpoint (“After Irma, let those who use our tax havens contribute to the repairs”, Comment) on modern inequality. Perhaps it is time for a Tobin tax, a levy on financial transactions, reinforced by a penal rate on all transactions involving tax havens.Paul SaltLondon W1 |