Smoke and mirrors.

As a hunter I have a moral obligation to pass on my love of hunting to the next generation. Both of my daughters were taught to shoot at an early age and one of them has continued to do so whenever she has the opportunity. It is our heritage and must be preserved at all costs.

I was reading an article in the Gloucester Citizen yesterday. The article was titled FU Chairman: Why the Gloucestershire badger cull must continue. It was an interview with Gloucestershire NFU chairman Charles Mann putting the case for the beleaguered farmers suffering not only from an endless cycle of bovine tuberculosis but an ongoing campaign of intimidation. We all know that the antis love the intimidation part, sneaking about in the night imagining themselves as ninja warriors as they cause criminal damage. As I was reading the article I noticed a link on the right hand side of the page entitled

Police: No shots fired at badger cull protesters, it was fireworks

Intrigued I followed the white rabbit and read the article.

The antis who are referred to as “protesters” in the article called 999 saying that the marksmen on the cull had, according to the posts on social media websites, shot at the antis sixteen times. The police duly turned up and investigated only to discover “There was no firearms operation taking place in that area at that time.” Ignore the grammar the police are facing cuts and obviously standards are slipping. Who set the fireworks off is pure speculation as there were no independent witnesses, though the police concluded it was the people involved in the cull that set them off. Regardless the police left the area satisfied that no one had tried to shoot any antis.

Now we shall examine the antis part of the article.

“Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting (GABS) is asking police officers to better protect its wounded badger patrols as they look for the injured animals
.
Keeping to public footpaths, a spokesman for the group said they have faced "increasing intimidation and a lack of balanced response from the police".

GABS spokesperson Nick Berry said: “The incident on Monday night was horrendous for our patrollers.
"It was either a deliberate attempt to harass law-abiding individuals or a botched attempt at culling badgers which put people’s lives at risk.

"We have been very disappointed that the police have refused to take the matter further and so we are making a formal complaint as well as taking advice as to whether or not the cull operators are in breach of their culling licence agreement."

As we can see they are now seeking police protection even though they are in no danger. Police protection costs money and as I pointed out earlier they can no longer afford to employ educated spokespeople, let alone provide bodyguards to the antis.

Mr Berry uses the term wounded badger patrol because he can’t call them by their real name, saboteurs. That would look bad in the media. He claims that the saboteurs are keeping to footpaths even though they are posting pictures on the internet of dead badgers. Are we to believe that these badgers were shot on the footpaths and left for the saboteurs to conveniently find? Only a fool would believe that hogwash.

Mr Berry then goes on to whinge, as they do when they do not get their own way.

Mr Berry and his wife Jeanne patrol the area in high visibility jackets with whistles to "alert the marksmen to their presence" not to disrupt the perfectly legal government badger cull of course. That would be illegal activity.

The mysterious case of the Hunt Saboteurs Association.

Facebook is frustrating as a source of information. Its endless newsfeed style means that important information can be lost as it scrolls off into infinity. It is a format that panders to a generation with the attention span of a goldfish. That said it can highlight the infighting between the factions of the hunt saboteurs and the money that is generated by the donations that people make to these organisations. Money is not the root of all evil but it can certainly lead to toys being thrown from the cot.

The first quotation is taken directly from the Hunt Saboteurs Association website. The headline reads Hunt Saboteurs Association proud to support local groups stop the cull and it then goes on to say the following.


Hunt saboteurs association Press Release September 15th 2013

“The Hunt Saboteurs Association is proud to announce it has donated a significant amount of money for hunt saboteurs in the badger cull zones to buy night vision equipment. The equipment will be used to locate the badger killers in the dark and enable saboteurs to quickly intervene between them and the badgers”

The rest of the article is the HSA telling everyone how wonderful they are so I have left that out of the quote, it would bore a donkey rigid.

The second quotation is taken from the Herts Hunt Sabs Facbook page and makes for some very interesting reading to be sure. I have inserted paragraphs to make it digestible. Apart from that the entire quote is verbatim so in advance, please excuse the mangling of the Queens English that follows but struggle through it. It is worth it.


"With immediate effect , Herts Hunt Sabs have found ourselves in the unprecedented position of being forced to disassociate ourselves from the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA). We believe it is in the PUBLICS interest to know the reason behind our decision. We are a transparent group and have no need for secrecy. We are a reformed group and in a short spate of time have proved ourselves to be very active with many people wanting to take part in active sabbing from our area.

In July 2013 we attended the AGM where a new committee was formed and we were given a copy of the accounts, the balance at the end of Dec 2012 being a very healthy £57,414.58, interestingly enough the amount donated to the sab groups was a mere £9696 for that year.
Mid July 2013 assets a very healthy £79,558 BEFORE the influx of donations/memberships stemming from the cull and the donations to groups amounted to £14,204. Interestingly enough, no break down further of WHICH groups were helped by the HSA. You can see a significant amt of money goes NOWHERE near the sab groups and just sits gaining interest.

We were told that the HSA actively wished to support grant applications if sab groups were struggling and the cap was £2500 per group. We believe that there are approx 24 sab groups in the UK and even if every single sab group asked for the maximum amt you can see there is a nice surplus still sitting there. The majority of sab groups lack a working sab vehicle and this has a MAJOR impact on sabbing. It is vital that every sab group has a sab vehicle so that they can get numbers out into the fields and have a direct impact and also for personal safety. We applied to the HSA for funding for a vehicle of £2000 (enough to buy one and insure it) and gave assurances of our actions for the season and offered to sign a contract so that the HSA knew that at any point our group disbanded or we werent being active enough, the vehicle would be given back to them.

We were DECLINED this support and assistance to at least " December some time when it would be reviewed" and so were at least one other well estabilished neighbouring sab group who have NO personal vehicles to use at this time so are in an even more precarious position. Now we believe within the HHS that the majority of the public consider that when donating to the HSA that their donations are going directly to the sab groups to help them get out in the field and take direct action to save a life and that is why at least one of us is a LIFETIME member of the HSA and has been for many years.

The decline of at least two vehicle fund requests has led us to see the HSA in a different light. We believe for EVERY WEEK sab groups do not have a vehicle , our hunted wildlife will have a greater chance of being murdered AND WE FIND THIS UNACCEPTABLE. We cannot be part of an organisation that puts a mere £2, 000 in the scheme of things, before A LIFE and that is the bottom line. We therefore feel that we cannot support the HSA in anyway. We urge anyone that is considering making any donations to donate directly to their local sab group, you can at least be safe in the knowledge that it will help them directly. We have also commented constructively on the HSAs web page and now also find that there is another page asking everyone to donate £2 to the HSA to help the badgers.

We have been blocked now from commenting any further on that page and find that action in itself speaks volumes. We will now continue our groups work and assist and support our fellow sab groups as much as possible, continuing to increase our bond with them but have no time for the committee of the HSA and the organisations misguided decision making and politics within. We are not here to play games and be part of an organisation that has blood on their hands as far as we are concerned, we are here to do a job and save lives. Thank you and well done if you have reached the end of this without falling asleep !!!"

As I said a riveting read, the money being donated to the HSA is not going to the boots on the ground and when the HSA is questioned by the members on its website they get banned. Is that the way for an organisation to behave? I think not, were I a hunt saboteur I would be looking at the HSA with suspicion.

If we extract the figures then they look like this.

Money held by the HSA in December £57,414.58
Monet held by the HSA in July £79,558.00
Increase in holdings over the 6.5 months £25,143.50

That is a donation rate of £3868.17 per month.

The HSA who if you remember said that had it has “donated a significant amount of money for hunt saboteurs in the badger cull zones to buy night vision equipment” Though they will not even say what groups actually received these significant sums, and that is when questioned by their own members.

Can you catch the aroma of rattus rattus as it wafts around the saboteurs camp. I know I can.

The great debate.

Let us be clear, there is no common ground between the antis and the pro hunting groups. The "morally superior" antis inhabit a world that owes its existence to the films of Walt Disney. If they leave their houses the woodland creatures clean house for them, whistling a memorable ditty. Badgers are wise old creatures that dispense their knowledge to the other creatures in an English accent. The term for their delusion is Anthropomorphism, a perfectly safe thing up to a point. Animals with human attributes have been used through history in fables that have thrilled children and adults alike. The fact is that some people refuse to leave the sanctuary of childhood and carry these beliefs into adulthood. The imprint of the humanised animals clouds their judgement and when coupled with the self generated moral high ground it leads to the hatred of normal people. We simply do not conform to their world view.

A rather famous German man once transformed his country using the self same mind set. The Jews were considered morally inferior and suffered the consequences. I am quite sure in my own mind that the antis would happily see all of us in a gas chamber. Their perspective is so warped that we as hunters fall below that of animals in the natural order. Can we hear the sound of marching boots and doors being kicked in yet? 
The general population fall into category three, those who do not care what other people do as long as they are left alone to live their lives in peace. They will see the brief news items concerning the badger cull and ignore it because it does not concern them. These people are our allies because the vast majority will listen to reason over the propaganda pushed onto them by the likes of the RSPCA. There are enough people waking up to the fact that this once venerable institution has been usurped by the animal rights fanatics. The poster that they produced concerning the cull was a bridge too far for many people. They are constantly in the news for all of the wrong reasons, this to our advantage and all advantages should be pushed as far as they will go.

 As this blog continues I shall be introducing you to some of the antis. I was banned from a well known social networking website the other day for a period of twelve hours. My "crime" was posting a picture of an irksome anti along with her real name. She saw fit to report me, no doubt incandescent with rage that she had been stripped of the false identity she uses on Facebook. I can picture her in my minds eye screaming obscenities at her computer screen and stamping her feet like a spoiled child.

Part of their delusional world is that this is one way traffic and that they are allowed to abuse and threaten hunters and their families without any comebacks. I have some very bad news for any anti reading this. If you resort to hiding behind false identities or feel it appropriate to send vile and hurtful messages in any form to hunters then you will be featured here. 

Who are "antis"

There are three types of people in this world. There are hunters, antis and those that do not mind what other people do. I hunt, both for food and also as a pest controller. My pest control business is solely foxes, they are intelligent, beautiful animals who command my utter respect but in certain circumstances they need to be killed. I have had many conversations over the years with people who wrinkled their noses when I told them what I do for a living. Most people have serious misconceptions when it comes to the shooting of foxes, they equate anything that involves the death of a fox by human actions with fox hunting. "The unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible" as Oscar Wilde once said. That statement when analysed for a moment speaks volumes about the class structure in England.

Fox hunting on horseback has been the preserve of the privileged since time immemorial and those who are privileged are envied by some who are less so. The less fortunate will find reasons to deride those who are more fortunate in the game of life. This makes those who hunt foxes on horseback a target for derision on moral grounds. The “antis” are against hunting and therefore, in their own minds, morally superior. This is how they reason things out. The mindset is a simple one, they disagree with the actions of another person therefore they are morally superior. Often we see in the belief system of the “antis” the root of either vegetarianism or veganism, this will then expand into other areas where they can exercise their moral superiority. As the joke goes, how can you tell a vegetarian at a party? They will tell you they are within the first five minutes. A vegan will be wearing a t-shirt proclaiming it so everyone knows that they are looking down upon those tucking into the rump steak.

This mindset has its roots in communist ideology, indeed it led to the extermination of the privileged in Russia. Alas for the antis this would be frowned upon by the authorities and involve long spells in prison. They use the threat of violence rather than violence itself because the latter would have serious consequences. As David Thorne said, “the internet is a playground” and the “antis” are the children therein. I have seen private messages on social networks from these people that wish children dead in horrific ways. This on the basis that the parent they are bullying support fox hunting, deer hunting or even the crime of eating meat. Yet they still consider themselves morally superior. Can you hear the crowds with pitchforks and torches mumbling in the distance?

The unfortunate truth for them is that fox hunting on horseback has been illegal since the Labour party decided to put one over on the “toffs” There have been few prosecutions under the anti hunting legislation since it came onto the statute books. This has led to a dilemma for the hunt saboteurs or “sabs” as they prefer to be called. Who do they look down upon now? Let explain before I go further. “Antis” and “sabs” are to all intents and purposes one and the same thing. The only thing they have done is to start calling themselves “hunt monitors” instead of saboteurs. It sounds friendlier when mentioned in the media.

The government sanctioned the badger cull to reduce bovine tuberculosis and the hunt saboteurs now have their new cause célèbre.