Back the ban bitches!

Posted by Hayley on Aug 6, 2010 in Skepticism | 0 comments

I’m sitting here and I’m feeling ridiculously stupid and relieved all at the same time. You may have become caught up in the whole fury that surrounded the ‘Urban fox hunters’ blog in which a group of friends from the Victoria Park area of Hackney claimed to be drugging and killing urban foxes because they were fed up with them and hated them.

I blogged about it and spoke about it on twitter as I was generally shocked and upset by what I had read on that blog. I didn’t dream that people would pass on what I had said to their friends who would then share it with more (and so on…) until there was literally an online mob baying for the blood of the urban fox hunters. This was scary.

I was quoted by The Times and The Mirror (without my permission, I might add…) and the urban fox hunters blog was getting more and more comments threatening the life of the people involved. People were angry and were threatening these people in ways that I didn’t feel were justified.

Then earlier today I noticed the blog had been removed by the admin (not by blogger, the host) and I wondered if there was any chance these people would be caught. My heart sunk at the thought that the people openly threatening to kill the hunters may have pushed them underground where they would be undetectable.

I despite cruelty and violence in every form but I don’t believe the answer if voilence in retaliation. Justice can be sought in other forms.

I blame ‘The animals of Farthing wood’ for turning me into the do-gooder that I am.

The reason I had been so vocal about what I saw on the blog in the first place was because I am 100% against fox hunting and I knew that the recent media hype about “urban fox attack” was likely to make people support fox hunting. This made me angry because foxes are generally docile animals that keep themselves to themselves. They wouldn’t even pick a fight with a cat if they could avoid it.

It turns out that it was a clever hoax by Chris Atkins (you may know about Starsuckers) and Johnny Howorth. It was intended as a satirical swipe at what they believe (and I too believe) is media hysteria over the danger of urban foxes.

You can read more here. I am so glad and think a lot can be taken from this.

Back the ban people!

p.s. If you want to quote me, please ask first

p.p.s My deepest apologies to Chris Atkins, Johnny Howorth and company for calling you ‘cowardly’ and ‘pathetic’ on facebook, the blog and in the papers (though the last part wasn’t technically my fault.)