Roger Waters supports fox hunting?

Talk about other Floyd related musicians here.

Should fox hunting be allowed?

Yes!
11
39%
No!
13
46%
Only for pest control.
3
11%
Other answer!
1
4%
 
Total votes: 28

Sean Hewitt

Post by Sean Hewitt »

The problem with these hunters is that they are using the "evil killer fox" argument - but they help breed foxes to kill! When hunting was stopped in the UK recently becuse of foot-and-mouth disease the overall effect on the fox population was: zero.

The hunters are more interested in the "fun" and "paegentry" of the kill than in controlling foxes. If some animals are pests then it's fine to try and control and kill them. But this is about something else: ritualised cruelty.

As a Roger Waters fan, I am extremely disappointed in him for acking this cause and in this site for mouthing such utter nonsense as "conservatism is the natural order of the British people". Tell that to Tom Paine!
jimihendrix

fox-hunting

Post by jimihendrix »

I thought that Roger Waters had become boring and staid in the last twenty years or so with creative juices being replaced by prosaic rants few people want to buy.
He is in good company: the Countryside Alliance protest ten days ago was a procession of the most faceless, overnourished and bigoted people you are ever likely tpo come accross. There were few farm labourers there, the very people who really HAVE got an axe to grind: their wages like us social workers are dismally low.
Good luck to him and his Countryside Alliance, he can get lost in the belch filled club rooms that welcomed these faceless entities into their bosoms Sunday a week ago - for all I care.
I do care about cruelty.
NO MAN HAS THE RIGHT TO INFLICT PAIN AND MISERY ON ANY ANIMAL, we are not taking any justified freedom away when we ban foxhunting soon.
Yes by all means keep the numbers of rabbits and foxes down - BUT NOT IN THE NAME OF SPORT, YOU SICK PEOPLE.
I suspected Roger Waters was turning against his roots when I heard his son was going to a private school - his socialist leanings seem to have swept aside with that tide of money which has come his way. His mother should be ashamed of him
good riddance I say, he will be losing a lot of fans, the tide ist turning and has been - a long while, Carl
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Post by quicksilver »

Okay.....just my opinion but I have no problem with hunting at all as long as the animals are used for food or you are protecting your family or land. I live in Wisconsin where deer hunting is a tradition. But I would not hunt just for sport. Now having said that, I believe Fox hunting is a long standing tradition in England and should be treated with respect. I don't think it's anything to be shamed of in this case. I'm pretty much a right wing conservative so I don't subscribe to the politics of most musicians anyways. I Think you have to respect Rogers opinion for what it is, his opinion.
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Re: fox-hunting

Post by Real Pink in the Inside »

jimihendrix wrote: NO MAN HAS THE RIGHT TO INFLICT PAIN AND MISERY ON ANY ANIMAL, we are not taking any justified freedom away when we ban foxhunting soon.
Do you eat meat? Meat is murder. And murder is murder. So why don't you go protest outside your local McDonald's or Burger King over the fact that they are making a lot of money off of murder if you're such a jolly ole socialist? They have certainly murdered more animals than the folks in the Countryside Alliance, and to add to that, they've made billions of dollars doing so!
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Post by quicksilver »

jimihendrix- Don't take this so personal. Roger has his opinion and he's entitled to it. You're a sorry soul who blames the problems in your life on everyone else. If you don't like your job get a new one; The public school system where I live is lousy which is why my kids go to a private school. I want to give them the best I can afford, which means I sacrifice in other areas. I happen to love meat and feel like a big steak right now! Now that's my opinion and I'm not forcing it on anyone. If you're a vegetarian that's fine, but don't force me to be one. To say that he's going against his roots is obsurd.....what the heck do you know about his roots!! as people get older there opinions change based on experiences. :x
Col

Foxhunting

Post by Col »

What is Rog on about?
Saying that people just want to have a go at the hooray Henry posh types and spoil their fun. Yeah, killing for fun, don't feel hypocritical meat eaters, for the most part animals that are killed for food are done so humanely. Foxes aren't so lucky, the hunted ones lie down exhausted while the dogs rip 'em to bits.
Vermin control? Give me a break, you can't tell me that we can put men on the moon but we can't find a humane way of controlling foxes.
Upholding tradition? Bollocks, bullfighting is a tradition under the same name, killing for fun. Its a tradition in some countries to hang dogs so they die slowly, makes the meat taste better, but hey, its a tradition, that's alright then is it? It's also a tradition to drop a goat from a great height to it's death in parts of Spain, carry on Manuel?...NO! Killing for fun or a 'good day out' is wrong.
Where were the 400,000 country folk when the miners and thousands of
others were being put out of work? Did they march to London? "Nah! I'm alright Jack, till they come after my stack and lo we shall rise and give Tone a bloody nose"
Col.
ps Keith, your anti fox propaganda in your newsletter was most distasteful, I suggest you keep those views in here you naughty boy! Otherwise, hope you're ok mate!!! :-)
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Re: Foxhunting

Post by Real Pink in the Inside »

Col wrote:Don't feel hypocritical meat eaters, for the most part animals that are killed for food are done so humanely.
I don't know about you, but I consider murder to be murder. "Humanely" is quite a subjective word. Who in here knows what it feels like to be murdered?
Col

'murder'

Post by Col »

I see your point, and have much respect for 'veggies', but realistically, you're not gonna stop the meat trade, but we CAN stop the barbarism of foxhunting.
Col
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Post by Real Pink in the Inside »

As Roger himself asked, "why not first address the transport of live animals to slaughter, the tethering of sows, experiments in the cosmetics industry, the factory farming of poultry and the caging of veal calves?"

Myself, I don't like to hunt, but I do like the taste of beef. In general, humans are omnivores. And while I don't like to hunt, I don't see why people should not be allowed to hunt if they want to. Is meat murder? Yes. But I feel it is natural for humans to eat meat. Some people feel it is natural to hunt.

To be making a big deal out of the rural tradition of fox hunting seems to be quite ridiculous considering some of the problems that need to be addressed in England.
sem

foxhunting

Post by sem »

nobody who refers to himself as an animal lover would be interested in supporting a "sport" that involves allowing a group of dogs tear a fox apart and then spreading the blood on the cheeks of younger hunters.

mr. waters has changed into a sell-out, right winger, something that commonly occurs in older weathly people.

oh well, we still have keith richards-the last remaining hero in rock and roll.
k-a-o-s

Post by k-a-o-s »

:oops:

Having seen Roger live for the first time this year i was excited to hear he would be doing a benefit concert. But after hearing that it is in support of the country side alliance i will definitly not be going.
I can not believe that roger says he is pro choice not pro fox hunting, after all what choice does a fox have when it is being ripped to pieces by a pack of dogs.
I am quite frankly embarrassed to say i am a fan of Roger anymore and will even consider not buying his new studio album when it is released.
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Post by Keith Jordan »

Fox hunting should be licenced so that it is no longer a sport for the rich. Tearing animals apart is not very nice. :D Us humans need to eat other animals because that is simply natural and correct in my opinion. Fox junting should not be banned but licenced.
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Post by Real Pink in the Inside »

Roger Waters Countryside Alliance/Whip Craic concert
Royal Albert Hall, London, 16 October 2002 - second press release

Sunday Times, UK 13th October 2002

My father died when I was five months old. Killed, like his father before him, in a world war.

Three years ago, a family heirloom was handed down to me which, until then, I never knew existed. It is a small diary, kept by my father, in his 16th year. This modest volume, as anyone who has lost a father when young will understand, is one of my most treasured possessions.

I have always felt passionately about the hunting issue, but the discovery of the diary helped me to understand why it is so important to me. The entry for January 1, 1931, for example, is particularly poignant. It begins:

"The New Year’s Eve Dance finished at 3am and Ken and I went into their house for some coffee. Verna and I went to the hunt at Romaldkirk. Lovely day. Hounds put on railway line, set up a hare and ran it west."

My father was a man of high principle, just like his father before him. My grandfather was a coal miner in the drift mines of Co Durham, and later became Labour agent for Bradford. My father was a committed Christian, but also a dedicated communist. You could not fail to be a communist in Bradford during the 1930s - when some children had neither shoes nor clogs, but rags about their feet.

My father and my grandfather shared a love of the British landscape and of the countryside and its traditions.

They gave their lives protecting those traditions; my grandfather in the trenches of the first world war and my father at Anzio, fighting the tyranny of Nazi Germany. I find it ironic that Hitler banned foxhunting in 1939.

I am filled with the sense that I am heir to their passion, and hope I have inherited what I admire about them as men.

I may be better known as the former frontman of Pink Floyd, but I have always felt as passionate about the countryside as I have about music.

Whenever I have worked abroad, whether touring during my time with Pink Floyd or in the years since, the British countryside and its landscape have been a recurring source of inspiration and strength.

That is why I am appearing in concert on Wednesday at the Albert Hall in support of the Countryside Alliance. After the Berlin Wall came down, I stood in front of 350,000 people in the Potsdamer Platz and performed The Wall. In many ways, the Whip Craic fundraising concert this week is just as symbolic.

That is why I have also chosen this occasion to perform for the first time in public the overture from my forthcoming opera about the French revolution, Ca Ira. This is a project that has engaged me for more than a decade, and I have put as much of my soul into it as I did for my Pink Floyd work.

For anyone who doesn’t know, the Countryside Alliance encourages the conservation of wildlife and defends the traditions of country life. One such tradition is hunting with dogs.

In my own childhood, I would attend the Christmas meet of the local hunt. I remember watching its progress across farmland and thinking what a spectacular sight it was.

I was especially struck by the other hunt followers on their bicycles or in their Ford Populars with their Thermos flasks, ruddy complexions and infectious enthusiasm.

When I was young, I was also forever rescuing wounded animals and nursing them back to health and freedom. I was determined that when I grew up I was going to become a vet.

Although things turned out very differently, I mention this only to illustrate that the pro-hunting fraternity is informed by a love of animals, not the reverse. My view is that hunting with dogs is not only morally correct, but also a natural expression of man’s nature as an omnivore.

I know there are other musicians who would disagree with me. But I am not the only contemporary musician to support the Countryside Alliance. Jon Lord from Deep Purple, for one, will also be appearing on stage this Wednesday.

It may be that we are part of a minority. If that is the case, I would expect parliament to protect our rights, as it should any minority.

It would be a grave mistake for the government to impose legislation on the rural community, which would create a bitter divide between town and country in a nation already battling with a sense of loss - loss of empire, loss of self-respect and loss of national identity.

There is some deep part of the Englishness in me that compels me to stand and be counted.
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Post by mostHigh »

a real fine thread going here,
great job guys
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Post by David Smith »

Look, just because we don't like something does that mean it should be illegal. Look back to slavery, the blacks were disliked by whites and they treated them like ****. What i'm saying is we should be able to as people accept forms of entertainment or fun without slapping a law against it. Maybe then we can progress as people. For a society to work we must accept that people have a right to be themselves, and aslong as they don't harm one another (animals are not equal to people, don't even try and say they are) then there really should be nothing to defy it.

Oh, one other thing, people may decide to eat foxes, so that makes foxes a sorce of food to some. Fishing is the same principle, we jame a hook through a fishes head, yet that's acceptable. Why? People eat fish and people may eat foxes. Let people do what they want so we can live together as ourselves.