If Foxes must be killed, they can be shot by expert marksmen. - MYTH
Oh, yeah, this one is a classic.
It's one of those great sound-bite bits that anti-hunters can throw dismissively into any interview, to make it sound as if they have the answer to everything.
It sounds brilliant, and when they are being interviewed alone, they get way with it.
The only problem is that it immediately begs the questions : (Or, at least, it ought to)
What "Expert Marksmen"?
(Are the government suddenly going to allocate the S.A.S. to vermin control? We think not!)
They don't have the answers to these questions.
They ought to have them. They are perfectly reasonable, perfectly obvious questions.
But they don't!
WHY NOT?
You just look at any proposed piece of anti-hunting legislation that has been put forward to Ban Hunting with Hounds and you will find nothing about the future management of fox shooting. Nothing.
In reality, the answer is that the shooting of foxes will fall upon the shoulders of farmers and gamekeepers, expert or otherwise.
Currently most fox shooting is done by Gamekeepers, who are, in the whole, expert shots and are equipped with the correct tool for the job. (A high powered rifle with telescopic sight)
Many farmers and landowners currently do not shoot foxes, relying on the hunts to carry out control for them.
If hunting is banned, many of these people will feel the need to replace that control with shooting.
The result of this is that more foxes will be being shot by less experienced people, many of whom will not have the optimum type of weapon for the purpose.
The inevitable consequence of this is that more foxes will be wounded, to die slowly of gangrene, blood-loss or starvation.
It also means that more farmers and Landowners will need to acquire keep and use guns. Is that what we really want?
Ask any MP who says that foxes should be shot :
Does this mean that you will guarantee that no new gun laws are introduced to prevent farmers getting access to guns?
If their answer is anything other than a resounding "Yes", then you will know that their supposed support of fox control by shooting is not worth very much.
Final thought :
When John Fitzgerald Kennedy, President of the United States of America, was assassinated, he was shot several times in the body, neck and head. One bullet blew a considerable proportion of his brains out, as anyone who has watched the film "JFK" will have seen in graphic detail.
It took President Kennedy in excess of TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES to die.
That does not seem very "instantaneous" to me.