Illegal Fox hunt takes place on railway line

[northwichcat]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-14797560

 

[eMeS]

From the news story:

The IFAW member who filmed the incident, who wished to remain anonymous, said it was "completely irresponsible".
...
"This is a main line railway, I don't know what would have happened if they'd have hit the hounds on that line."

From personal experience, I can tell the "IFAW member" that what happens is that the dogs get hit, lose limbs and lay around on the track some dead, others shaking uncontrollably whilst waiting to die.

Not a pretty sight.

 

[Temple Meads]

Not only is there the cruelty towards the ox, the danger for the dogs and possibly the travelling public is rather high too, totally inexcusable in my eyes.

 

[Clip]

Though the thread title is slightly misleading as there was no fox hunt that took place on the railway line.

It was where they ended up after allegedly chasing the fox.

 

[DavidBrown]

I think the important thing about a case like this is not to turn it into a pro/anti fox hunting debate. Anti hunters will inevitably claim that it proves all fox hunting is bad, and pro hunters will defend the fact that they got their dogs off the line as soon as they knew, and were being very responsible.

Personally, I think that the hunters were a bit silly holding a meet near to a railway line, or headed towards a railway line. I know that they will cover a lot of miles, but surely as soon as they are aware they're nearing a railway line or motorway, they should call the dogs back before something like this happens. Of course you'll still get anti hunters complaining of apparent "hunting", but the hunters have stayed well within the law and kept everyone and everything safe.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The BTP position is that no trespass offence had been committed as no people had gone on to the railway line.

 

[90019]

Rather a non story, I think.
Must be a slow news day.

 

[Bon Accord]

Another non story designed to whip up the emotions of anti hunt brigade.
The hounds ran onto the line unintentionally and were immediately called back - no offence, no delays and no problem.
Personally I've never seen the point of Fox Hunts as they're rather inefficient, in my part of the world a 12 bore is the preferred medium - you can bag far more of the little beggars in one sitting.

 

[blacknight]

Cunning Mr Fox attempting to dispose of a pack of chasing hounds using a passing train, they could make a film out of an episode like that. The Belstone Fox 2 hopefully next time he will lure redcoats into the 4'

 

[WatcherZero]

Nevermind dogs on the line, someone drove a car to the summit of Snowdon using the railway line.

 

[Chapeltom]

Typical BBC non-story, the sooner its public funding is cut the better. A supposedly neutral organisation that has an obvious left wing bias and anti-hunt stance - I have no hunting stance either way btw.

No trespass was committed, there was probably no illegal hunt taking place and that's probably the last of it.

 

[HYPODERMIC]

Typical BBC non-story, the sooner its public funding is cut the better. A supposedly neutral organisation that has an obvious left wing bias

:roll: ...As if this topic wasn't already primed to blow. I'm not a mod, and I'm not pretending to be, but can we please not needlessly bring politics into this?

I agree that this story doesn't quite live up to the headline hype, but the impression I got from watching the video report was that this was angled as one of those "and also in the news..."/'quirky' curiosities that get put on to raise an eyebrow but little more.

Edit: I should also add that I do agree with the principle of the rest of your post though; I don't think any crime has been committed here and the parties involved appear to have acted responsibly.

 

[HST Power]

Well at least the hunters got the dogs off the track quickly, and the fox legged it without smashing into the next Express service. There isn't much else to be said.

 

[exile]

Typical BBC non-story, the sooner its public funding is cut the better. A supposedly neutral organisation that has an obvious left wing bias and anti-hunt stance - I have no hunting stance either way btw.

No trespass was committed, there was probably no illegal hunt taking place and that's probably the last of it.

Please tell me how the article showed any left-wing or anti-hunt bias. "No trespass was committed" - true - but then that was stated in the article, "there was probably no illegal hunt taking place" - well that's for the police to decide.

 

[brianthegiant]

Typical BBC non-story, the sooner its public funding is cut the better. A supposedly neutral organisation that has an obvious left wing bias and anti-hunt stance

A left wing organisation that should have its funding cut?
You're sounding very much like the Murdochs here.
Great, lets trash the bbc & replace it with more news international? I think not.

 

[Flamingo]

Network Rail are responsible for maintaining fences to prevent incidents of this type, I seem to recall, which is why they have to pay compo whenever they hit any cows/horses/sheep on the line.