Lee McKee wrote
>Here in Massachusetts, I've been reading and listening to reports about
>the march of fox hunters and other "country folk" to London to protest a
>variety of laws impinging on country life.  I was wondering whether UK
>subscribers could tell us whether any ferreters were in the march, and
>how that went.
 
The National Ferret Welfare Society, Bedford Ferret Welfare, Wirral Guild of
Ferreters, Dorset Ferret Welfare and Bolton Ferret Welfare were all on the
March.  From the NFWS were the President, Vice-Chairman, The Secretary,
Membership Secretary, Editor and a number of the Society members.
 
I travelled down to London with the Fens Coursing Club - I've got a lurcher
but coursing it not my scene at all (I don't have a problem with one dog
being used to catch a bolting rabbit that has missed a purse-net, the rabbit
has a pretty good chance of getting away).  It was snowing when we left Bury
and crossed over into Yorkshire on the M62.  Once we crossed the Pennines
the weather cleared and we travelled the rest of the way down the A1 in
sunshine.
 
Most ferreters did not take ferrets with them, 284,000 people took part in
the protest and it wouldn't have been fair to the animals.  However, I did
see a photo of one owner with her ferret in yesterday's Daily Mail.
 
Everyone keeps referring to it as the day the "countryside" came to town -
not entirely correct, there were plenty of "townies" who marched.  Most of
the membership of the BFSS is made up of folk who live in urban areas.
 
The marchers descended on London in coaches (over 2000 of them from all over
the UK) by rail and car.  The numbers overwhelmed the underground system
(subway to you folks in the US) - there were trains every 50 seconds to move
people to and from the centre of London.
 
Hunting with ferrets is not threatened, at present, but quite a number of
ferreters actually use dogs to mark inhabited warrens, the dog is also used
to catch any rabbits which escape out of un-netted holes.  If Foster gets
his bill through Parliament (highly unlikely now, as the bill will not be
given time) the next targets will be fishing (around 2 to 3 million people
go fishing) and then it'll be ferreting and as most ferrets in the UK are
working animals it'll mean that the welfares/shelters will be unable to cope
with the number of ferrets that will be thrown out.
 
Defenders of the fox say that chickens should be locked up at night to
prevent Britains most cuddly killer from including it on its menu.  One
banner brought home the extent of the fox problem:- "Eat British lamb,
50,000 foxes do".  That's an awful lot of new-born lambs that fall prey to
foxes.
 
I would say that the whole day went very well, the marchers were good
humoured, the police just stood back and watched.  At one point 8 police
officers had to get across to the other side of the street and they had to
cut through the marchers, I heard one officer say "Excuse me, please" before
he dashed in front of some marchers, at any other time he would probably
have just pushed people out of the way.
 
One newspaper reported that there had been 7 arrests but it didn't say
whether it was pro's or anti's.  In all it was a good day out, the weather
was better than we had been expecting.  I only hope that the countryside
won't have to march again - I don't think "they" could cope with tractors,
horse-boxes, land rovers etc all descending on the capital.
 
Sheila
Bolton Ferret Welfare & National Ferret Welfare Society Newsletter Editor
http://www.btinternet.com/~sheila/ferrets.htm (Last Update 27 Jan 1998)
Waiting at Rainbow Bridge: Jill & Deanna Troi
[Posted in FML issue 2236]