I dont think contraception could be considered-it must be hard to put a condom on when you have hooves...

I know.

How about this Pidge? These are the ones that also believe you shouldnt kill Deer, look what happens when you dont!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbgDclFnxdI

I take the dogs out hunting vermin at least twice a week. I lock all our poultry up, and give them the free run of the bird area.
We will often get two or three rats, and several mice in a week.

The dogs enjoy it; and I gain satisfaction from keeping vermin numbers down.
I don't want to use poison, as I'd be worried my birds would eat it; and similarly with traps, I'd be worried that my smaller hens would get caught in them.

I also send the dogs out after rabbits; and use them as fox deterrents - male dog wee round poultry areas makes them seem like another fox's territory.

I don't see this as wrong. It's not pleasant; however vermin eat my hens food, spread diseases through their waste and kill my hens. I had several young hens attacked and killed by rats this year.

lol rubbish! but some folk dont want to think the fox is anything but a pest whatever studies have prooved ... i grew up in the countryside, my parents still live there, our garden backs directly onto open countryside i had rabbits and guinea pigs throughout my childhood and never had a single one taken by a fox...because they were kept secure even in the USA where they have coyote,mountain lion,wolves and bears(bit more challenging than the fox!) there are predator friendly farmers who have learnt to live alongside the wildlife that share their land and not blast it to kingdom come!....shame theres not more like em the environment would be so much healthier......

im not confusing it with anything however you dress it up trophy hunting is just that...trophy hunting and it seems the days of 'heads on library walls' isnt as rare as you think

http://www.westcountrydeerservices.co.uk/packages.html

I wish this was true! I live in a very rural area, and our next door neighbours have lost (this year alone) about 20 hens - most in one attack, plus 2 newborn goats to some foxes. We've found places in our fenceline where a fox has been digging to get into our bird area (the wire fence is sunk into the ground).

We are lucky that down the road is a game hatchery, and their boys are handy with vermin disposal. They patrol their acreage in the night and have found foxes and badgers breaking into their poultry sheds etc. Of course, the vermin have been shot. Our next door neighbour now also has a licence, and has killed at least 2 foxes this year (after the goats were taken) that he caught trying to get into their henhouse.

I've know of a badger that has ripped a henhouse apart to get to the birds inside, and a fox who killed over 30 birds in a night - there is no such thing as living with these creatures if you want to keep livestock safely.

it is true i never lost any of my pets to foxes and there are predator friendly farms! also foxes and badgers ARNT vermin!

http://www.predatorfriendly.org/about/index.html

http://www.mofga.org/Publications/Ma...4/Default.aspx

a : small common harmful or objectionable animals (as lice or fleas) that are difficult to control b : birds and mammals that prey on game c : animals that at a particular time and place compete (as for food) with humans or domestic animals

1. Various small animals or insects, such as rats or cockroaches, that are destructive, annoying, or injurious to health.
2. Animals that prey on game, such as foxes or weasels.

small animals and insects that can be harmful and which are difficult to control when they appear in large numbers
Flies, lice, rats, foxes and cockroaches can all be described as vermin.

The dictionary says otherwise, that's not to say they're not also beautiful and amazing creatures within their own right.

A gardening friend once told me a weed is a plant in the wrong place, wise words!

Do you honestly think that when a deer is shot the head is removed and the carcass is left to rot in a ditch? Venison is expensive and no one is going to leave that behind hence why poaching is on the increase.



Thats your opinion...and i know what i regard both of them as.

pmsl well i knew you two would consider our native wildlfe vermin oh and just to add its ILLEGAL to kill our badgers!

Removal or destruction of foxes is legally an offence of cruelty under the Abandonment of Animals Act 1960,
and is condemned by the government's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Foxes are not and never have been classified as “vermin”, so local authorities have no legal obligation to act
against them. They also know there is little point. Private pest controllers who offer removal service omit to
inform you there is no such thing as a vacant fox territory. Remove one fox and another will take over its
territory within a matter of days.

I never mentioned badgers

Foxes are legally culled all over this country, there is still no shortage, and they seem to be in good health generally. They're shot when they become a problem, if a new fox moves in to the territory of the old one, and isn't a problem, there's no need to shoot it.

If they weren't ever a problem, and their numbers were self sustaining without ever becoming too numerous, there would be no requirement to control numbers. They are generally shot upon the request of a landowner who has suffered numerous losses to their livestock.

It's the same with any other species that becomes too numerous and too successful for it's own good, where there is no natural predator to keep numbers in check. The best way imo and the opinion of many others, is to naturally mimic that selection process, by culling those that are least likely to survive, including those that come into conflict with other predators, of which man is the only one in many instances

I'm personally against messing around with the reproductive systems of wild animals, we do enough damage to ourselves and domesticated animals, causing infertility problems left right and centre. Culling maintains a much healther, younger and more robust population overall, by removing animals that are ill, deformed, or older.