Posted on 09/05/2002 12:38:54 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
The names, addresses and phone numbers of more than a hundred British pro-hunting advocates have been published on the Internet by an anti-hunting group that says the hunters "deserve everything that's coming to them."
The list included several prominent British pro-hunting activists, celebrities and members of the royal family. Access to the Urban Alliance webpage was blocked, however, after reports of the "hit list" surfaced earlier this week.
Before the site went down, the Urban Alliance posted names of hunters and urged supporters to "hunt them down and give them a piece of their own medicine."
"Excellent stuff. The only good hunter is a dead one," read one message.
The website came to light as hunters, farmers and others are gearing up for a march on London on Sept. 22 to protest government policy towards rural areas. A spokeswoman for the Countryside Alliance, the group organizing the march, said Thursday that officials were keeping an eye on radical anti-hunting groups.
"We've contacted all the people on the list and warned them that there are some people out there who are quite unhinged," said Jill Grieve. "But the countryside is full of pragmatic people who aren't flappable -- we're not going to be too bothered about these threats."
Grieve said the Countryside Alliance has been in contact with London police and that the group didn't expect any trouble on the day of the march.
"Every time we have a demonstration there are a few 'antis' there," she said. "They talk a big game but they just can't deliver."
The Countryside Alliance is, however, warning members to make sure their property is secure after hints that radicals may be plotting break-ins and vandalism while rural landowners are demonstrating in the British capital.
"If you really want to stop the (Countryside) Alliance, don't go to London to boo them, get out into the countryside and hit them where it really hurts - in their own backyard," a message on the Urban Alliance site said.
Newspaper reports linked the Urban Alliance to the larger Class War organization, a London-based Marxist group that advocates violent revolution.
A Class War spokesman admitted Thursday that his group was in contact with the Urban Alliance but denied that the website was overtly threatening.
While not condoning attacks on hunters, the spokesman said "S*** happens." He said members of his organization would hold a counter-demonstration on Sept. 22, but denied the group was planning to attack pro-hunting protesters.
With the British government set to decide this fall on legislation that may ban the traditional sport of foxhunting with dogs, the debate has heated up on both sides. Legitimate groups have held protests in London and elsewhere in Britain, but several radical groups, both pro- and anti-hunting, have turned to direct action in recent months.
In July, a group called the Countryside Action Network clogged British motorways with a rush-hour slow convoy. Another group calling itself the Real Countryside Alliance is thought to be behind vandalism at the offices of four anti-hunting members of Parliament.
On the anti-hunting side, The Observer newspaper reported that envelopes with razor blades glued inside and designed to slice open fingers were sent to leading members of organized hunts two weeks ago. Nobody was hurt in the attacks.
Unfortunately, I didn't notice any of them strapped across the hood of a pickup truck (properly tagged, of course) at the deer check-in station that evening....
Not that the landowners could do anything even if they were home. Seems if you're a British homeowner, you just have roll over and take it if an intruder decides to make you his latest victim -- none of that barbaric defending-one's-self-and-property nonsense for them, what.
Forget about it man. You ever try to clean one of those scruffy bastards? And face it, even if you marinated them overnight in milk, they'd still taste like dirty diapers...
It's a class warfare issue with Marxist-Leninist roots, based in the misconception that foxhunting is some sort of pointless high-falutin' activity for rich snobs. In fact foxhunters in the UK come from all social classes; lots of them are humble farmers trying to help control out-of-control fox populations and have some fun along the way. Hunting is done largely because it is vital to maintaining the biological balance in the countryside, and is certainly the kindest way to keep the burgeoning fox population under control, as other remedies prove to be much more cruel for the foxes. Without control of this sort, foxes do tremendous damage to British agriculture.
It is also an economic issue as in the U.K. there is a large industry devoted to breeding, raising, and training hunt horses and hounds, supplying riders with clothing and equipment, instructing them, and so forth. Thousands of people derive their employment from the horse and hunting industry in the UK. The devastation to the countryside would be dreadful, particularly following last year's horrendous attack of foot-and-mouth disease, which was so catastrophic to British agriculture.
The monster terrorists are so peaceful and so loving toward animals that they regularly attack not only hunters but hunt horses and the families of the hunters.
What I wish American hunters of all sorts would understand is that those who take shotguns and go out to hunt ducks, or those with rifles who go after deer, are the brothers-in-arms of foxhunters on both sides of the Atlantic. When foxhunters are attacked, deer and wildfowl hunters are next. If these terrorists and left-wingers manage to get foxhunting banned in the UK, they'll do it here next. And then they'll come after the guys who hunt ducks and deer. . .
Exactly how are they supposed to kill an armed hunter?
We ought to post and encourage it. :) It'd make great TV to see a little green nazi going to the ER with a rifle up his arse....
(http://www.geocities.com/urbanalliance/pictures/jacket.jpg)
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