Let's get this straight: I am entirely against any form of cruel treatment of animals. If angling is unnecessarily cruel and painful to a fish, then I'm against that too. (I don't know--is it? Somebody start a new thread, please!)

I've never seen a discussion on fox-hunting that actually addressed the root of the problem: some people oppose a cruel and painful method of killing the fox. That's all there is to it. It's a red herring to blame hunters for treating the killing as sport.

The class aspect is more marked today, I think.It certainly used to be the case that all you needed to join the hunt was a servicable horse (which you might be able to borrow); it was a community activity in a time when hunt saboteurs hadn't been dreamt of.

Steve