WEBVTT

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Hunting really means
searching for an animal

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pursuing it or chasing it with the
intention to catch it and kill it.

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Hunting is great,
it's a social thing.

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The community come
and support not only hunting,

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they support each other and find out
what their mate up the road

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has been doing for the past week.

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You know, it's great. I love it!

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To be honest I don't really
understand the mentality

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of someone that enjoys pursuing
and brutally killing an animal.

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I think it's completely
wrong and immoral.

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Stereotypically, your huntsman
is wearing a red coat

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and is a very rich toff,
a land owner.

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I think the stereotype of someone
who is against hunting

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is very much a hippie extremist!

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It's a great equaliser actually

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because they all fall off
at the end of the day.

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It doesn't dictate who is
going to have a muddy end

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whether you've got a million pounds
in your trust fund or not.

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More women than men hunt,

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and over 19,000 by our estimation,
under 24's hunt.

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We have people from all different
walks of life and all different ages.

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It's not just
animal rights extremists.

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You have to be incredibly disciplined

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in order to get your horse fit
initially to go hunting

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You have to plait your horse
and clip it and groom it.

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It teaches great discipline
and planning.

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The product of all that work is going
and having a great day with people,

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riding through beautiful country

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knowing you are supporting
local business in the rural economy

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and you know, having a great day out.

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The fields don't grow in squares.
It's a managed area.

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Fox hunting and hunting in general,
is part of that management.

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They just get fixated on
a fox being killed

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but that fox still
has to be controlled.

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It's a government requirement
to control the rabbit population.

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Rabbits have to be controlled
which means they have to be killed.

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The government enquiry found that
hunting was no more or less humane

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than any other method
of fox dispatch.

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Foxes are seen as a pest.

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Hunting's another one of those things
that it does need to be done.

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When you kill an animal for sport,
it's so unnecessary.

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It's such a brutal way to die.

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The argument of using it
as a method of control

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has been proven not to be the case.

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Most foxes are killed by shooting.

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Six percent in England and Wales
are killed through hunting with dogs.

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I understand the opinion that some
species need to be controlled

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for conservation purposes,
I don't personally agree with it.

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There are better ways
to control populations

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without the need to kill them.

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The term 'pest' is a very
subjective viewpoint.

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One person's pest
is someone else's sacred animal,

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so the view of a pest varies

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from country to country
and person to person.

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A fox is not a pest, it doesn't kill
vast amounts of livestock, erm...

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It's not a problem
in the countryside.

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It is a tradition
and if they want to continue that,

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trail hunting and drag hunting
is an ideal way to do that

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so you maintain all of
the social aspects of hunting

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without having to
kill something at the end.

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It should never have become law
not to do it, it's just ridiculous.

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I don't believe in lots of things

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but I'm not going to go and say that
there should be a law about it.

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Accidents do happen.
We're not denying that.

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I'm not going to stand here and say
all the hunter, you know,

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no foxes have been killed.

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It's not true. Accidents happen.

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You have to prove intent
on those accidents.

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It is possible to train dogs
to follow a human scent.

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This would limit accidents.

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Trail and drag hunting can be used
as a guise for hunting a live quarry.

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That's where enforcing the act
comes into play.

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It's definitely important that
people go out and monitor hunts

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and people who break the law
are prosecuted

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so they know it's not acceptable.

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The antis ruin
everyone's day, basically.

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For instance, this weekend hunting
has been banned, you know...

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Why 60 people in balaclavas

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with hunting horns
and sprays had to go

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and scream in the face of children
at another hunt, I don't know.

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Hunt saboteurs actually try
and stop the hunt from happening.

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They try and protect the fox
from being captured and killed.

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I don't agree with
law breaking in general

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in order to sabotage a hunt.

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Trespassing is commonplace.

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By breaking the law, it means that
the people who are for fox hunting

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can attack their ethics as well.

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And because they are willing
to go that step further,

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almost make them as bad
as the hunters.

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I find it very uncomfortable
when someone says to me

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when they find out what I support
and what I do as a job.

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I find it very uncomfortable
when they go, "Oh, it's cruel!"

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You say, "Why is it cruel?"
and they can't understand.

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They can't explain why
they think it's cruel

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because they don't understand it

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and they go and order battery chicken
from a Chinese takeaway!

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No one can do everything.

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No one can completely cut out
every aspect of cruelty

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because it's embedded
in so much of our world,

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testing on animals,

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using animals for food,
using animals for clothing.

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But, I think it's important
to do something

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to try and end the suffering and
I think that hunting for sport

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is something that should have
been history a long time ago.

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It serves no purpose.
There is no need to do it.

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It's purely for the enjoyment of
people who could get their enjoyment

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doing something that doesn't end
in the death of an animal.

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If someone doesn't
understand hunting,

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saying maybe they should go out
for a nice country picnic

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doesn't really have the same
levels of excitement

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as galloping your horse down a hill
at however many miles an hour

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and meeting a jump, kicking on
and getting over it.

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It's what excites people.

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It's what doesn't excite me to be
a vegetarian, might excite an anti.

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I'm fully respectful of that
and therefore, you know,

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they should be a more respectful of
those people choosing to go hunting.