Saturday 7 August 2010

Urban fox hunting video was a spoof

Seems I was right - it was a spoof after all. Apparently it was all about showing up how awful foxhunting really is, and how the government shouldn't repeal the Hunting Act. Yeah right, not a bunch of smug media students who're ever so slightly scared at the response to their silly prank. Read the story at the Guardian here...

Oh, and when you've finished, check out this piece about the RSPB on the Telegraph website -Delingpole at his hilarious best... "Even GOD hates the RSPB, that’s how awful it is."

10 comments:

Alan Tilmouth said...

Delinpole's hilarious piece is littered with factual inaccuracies. At least you accept comments including criticism, he is censoring negative comments to his piece on his own site presumably until the dust settles. He knows that what he has written (about Kestrels) has no foundation in fact and he's running scared.

Alan Tilmouth said...

Oh and the 'smug media student' has a Bafta to his name, something neither you nor I are likely to achieve in the foreseeable future.

James Marchington said...

Hi Alan,

By 'factual inaccuracies' you mean, perhaps, suggestions you disagree with. Of kestrels, for instance, he says "there are two far more likely culprits... the second is other, larger, birds of prey".

Not having done the research myself, I can't prove or disprove this, but I've heard of larger BoP taking kestrels so perhaps it's a factor.

I've a lot of time for Atkins's work, although it's ironic that someone who professes to have such a low opinion of the media establishment should receive one of its highest awards.

I don't think this was one of his finest moments.

vicky said...

I'm not sure I see how drugging a fox and beating it with a cricket bat equates with real foxhunting but hey ho. Thankfully it was not real as spotted by our savvy Mr Marchington (I had no chance to view the video). I maintain there needs to be debate on humane urban fox control though...so lets hope some good comes from their silliness.

vicky said...

Maybe it's time for some honesty from the RSPB? Admit that rare birds sometimes eat other rare birds, admit that there are areas where bird and human populations will clash and REALLY work to improve the situation! Could birds which are overall rare but locally common to nusiance levels be relocated? Could a cap be put on top carnivore BOP's with relocation or egg pricking used to keep their numbers stable and allow birds and animals loewr down the food chain to thrive too? I don't envy the RSPB, they have a difficult juggling act but for me their approach is too antagonistic for people to work with. Shame. And remember God loves everyone, even the RSPB!

Alan Tilmouth said...

Welsh studies on Red Kites revealed 36 bird species taken in 764 pellets analysed, Kestrel didn't figure as for his ludicrous proposition that it 's the fault of the Sea Eagles.
Apart from the fact we both know they only eat live lambs how the hell does he think they manage to get from the west coast of Scotland and back savaging hundreds of Kestrels on the way and not get noticed? We both know he's talking bollocks. Kestrels are declining possibly for several reasons but one of the biggies is that 70% of livers analysed (Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme) contain poison residues from rat & mouse poisons.

Sooty said...

Don't think he is running scared Alan after all he picked up mega money for rubbish.Your point abot rat poison why didn't RSPB tell us this.
Vicky must be a very humane person reminding all of us that god loves the RSPB,how twee.

Meconopsis said...

Kestrels are declining possibly for several reasons but one of the biggies is that 70% of livers analysed (Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme) contain poison residues from rat & mouse poisons.

Now the RSPB know this stuff but dont let Jo public see the facts.

Same as the huge number of Red Kite deaths in Scotland this very year but will of cource be listed as poisonings by the RSPB marketing squad.

Posted as well on Avery's blog as well so lets just see what he has to say.
Thanks Alan for the tip off.

Meconopsis said...

The BBC Panorama program is filming on Grouse moors just now trying to catch grouse keepers out from what I hear they have been in Yorkshire and have been seen in Angus in Scotland but the program is not getting the results the RSPB promiced ?? Maybe the problem is not as bad as what people think.

vicky said...

No Kestrels dying from second hand rodenticide I can believe. Next question is where is this from. Most rodenticides are designed to kill rodents relatively slowly so they return to their burrows to die and the area is not littered with corpses. Are more resistant rodents surviving too long? Are kestrel feeding habits changing or are poisoned rodents travelling a long way? I have never seen them hunting around farm buildings (where farmers might be using rodenticides) seeing them mainly hunting grassland and road verges...
If the RSPB tells people what they really know, and suggests how farmers can help we'll get somewhere. Over simple statements about intensive farming being to blame don' help. I'm pretty sure organic farmers kill rodents too.....