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Hunting?


Susa
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I live in the middle of the Charente Maritime and hunting is a regular (three times a week) event that affects most communes to some degree. Being in a small hamlet of five houses surrounded by woods and fields we are somewhat restricted as to where and when we can walk our dog. It's something we've got used to and accept as a price of where we live.

As someone who used to attend shoots most weekends in the UK I do find hunts here less organised and will never get used to the sight of groups of men walking along public roads carrying fully loaded shotguns/rifles.
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Here you go Pat, should have 'clickability' now (is that really a word [8-)][8-)] Have a look on here, it tells you how to do it http://services.completefrance.com/forums/completefrance/cs/forums/1758955/ShowPost.aspx

http://www.thisfrenchlife.com/thisfrenchlife/2006/05/keeping_la_chas.html

Blimey! That's the first two times I've managed that [:-))] Thanks yet again Clair [kiss]

We have lived down his way for over 9 years now and have only ever seen a couple of hunters and our next door neighbour was the presidnet of the local small hunt association. There seems to be one for the small animals and one for the biguns, sanglier, etc.

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In our 8 years of living here we've lost 8 cats - completely disappeared without a trace...cat number 9 went missing, and turned up a few weeks later with lead shot in his head, he lost an eye but survived. The vet told us that due to the pattern of shot, he must've been shot at close range.

I reported it to the gendarmes (its illegal to shoot cats unless there is an official cull of strays), who tried their very best to put me off and did nothing whatsoever about it (not that I expected any different). A letter (complete with images of the cat and his x-ray) sent to all the houses in our village had more effect - we have been told that words have been had in certain places and that it won't happen again.

Now of course we strongly suspect that this is what happened to the other 8 cats.

Strangely enough I'm not against the hunt per se, I do believe that we have an individual who hates cats rather than an "organised" hunt of them, but the fact is that people in our village know who did this and, until we really kicked up a stink, weren't bothered enough to do anything about it.

We keep a very close eye now on our current cats and I try not to wonder too much which of our neighbours might been the guilty one :-(

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Hoddy Wrote

My memory is not what it was but the occasional post where it has been suspected that a cat has been shot, it has usually been by a particularly obnoxious neighbour,

I have never understood the attitude of people who own cats and let them roam around outside of their own property. I find it outright disgusting that our neigbours allow their cats to come into our garden to c**p wherever they please. To make matters worse they spray on the car covers which make them stink to high heaven. The owners would soon object if I went round and did the same to their property. Thankfully, the generous use of poison and the ownership of a gun has reduced the incidents.
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[quote user="Lehaut"]I have never understood the attitude of people who own cats and let them roam around outside of their own property. I find it outright disgusting that our neigbours allow their cats to come into our garden to c**p wherever they please. To make matters worse they spray on the car covers which make them stink to high heaven. The owners would soon object if I went round and did the same to their property. Thankfully, the generous use of poison and the ownership of a gun has reduced the incidents.[/quote]

Not being a cat owner, although I sympathise with you regarding the problems that cats can cause, I would suggest that any action involving use of a gun or poison would be illegal. There are alternative solutions available - eg dissuasive chemicals - which will achieve your aim of keeping the cats away whilst not harming them.

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When a cat is seen in our garden I just get my catapault and put a stone a foot or so away from it.

Did you know that a cat can accelerate from standing still to about 60 mph in about 1/4 second? They are VERY wary in our garden and don't come in very often. [6]

As an aside. If you do get problems with the things c r a p ping in your garden then clear plastic bottles filled with water and placed when they foul deters them. I though that I was having my leg pulled when I was told, but it works. They used to hide in the rosmary by where we have a tray for a bird bath, but after I put a couple of bottles there they stopped. We also have a pile of sand they used to foul and bottles there stopped that too. Someone said that their reflection in the bottle put them off going near.

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Frankly, Lehaut, if you feel the need to resort to killing cats with poison or a gun because of a bit of poo in your garden - you've got big problems. God help any of your neighbours who REALLY get on your nerves.

Neutered cats don't spray/smell - all my cats have been neutered and don't spray. No, I can't guarantee that they don't poo in other people's gardens...... the hedgehogs poo on my gravel path and I've even found rabbit droppings in my veg patch - but I'm well-balanced enough not to feel the urge to kill them for it.

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Not only god help his neighbours, but god help him if a cat owner found out that he had poisoned their pet. As stated I do NOT like cats in my garden, but if I found out that a neighbour had poisoned one I would have no hesitation in reporting that to the gendarmes. Poison is not a nice way to die, plus it could be picked up by anything from a young child onwards.

How have we come to this subject from hunting??? Better if it were either put back on topic or locked me-thinks?

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I think the relevance to the original question/topic is that anywhere where there are people with guns, there are bound to be incidents and accidents. And you only have to look at the stats and newspaper stories for humans injured or killed by hunters (using their guns as individuals or within a group) to see that there are many every season.

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[quote user="Lehaut"] Thankfully, the generous use of poison and the ownership of a gun has reduced the incidents.[/quote]

Clearly, your pride in your actions will enable you to tell us whereabouts in Normandy you live. Or are you only bold when you're spreading poison or have your finger on a trigger?

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I have a cat, but I do understand how unwelcome cats are. They are most certainly unwelcome by the bird population who they have decimated over the years, the trouble is that cats excel at keeping their numbers up and up, birds cannot.

That cats using people's gardens as a toilet, well, I understand how annoying and upsetting that is, I was strimming once and a cat hadn't even bothered to bury their crotte and I got it everywhere. Not our cat, we didn't have one then.

I like cats, but!

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Just to answer a few points:

Use of Chemicals, we have over 3000 sq meters, I don't want the cats here, why should I pay for other peoples irresponsible attitudes by having to buy chemical sprays? (have actually tried them, don't work)

The last time there was a stray dog in our property, the Mayor of the village suggested I shoot it.

Neighbours, yes the last one who annoyed me, I took to the Police Tribunal. (her irresponsible attitude with 3 barking dogs) They moved.

Where do I live, pictures of my house are available on this forum.

Get something back, I am only responding to other peoples unwelcomed animals attentions.

Cats are not naturally occuring wild animals like hedgehogs and rabbits. If people cannot control their pets, they are inviting other people to do it for them.

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Not surprising your neighbours moved!

What do you do with the bodies, or do they manage to crawl away and die in agony somewhere else, so you don't even have the bother of that?

You are not only responding to other people's unwelcomed animal attentions, you are acting unlawfully and should be punished.

You almost seem like a troll.
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"Cats are not naturally occuring wild animals like hedgehogs and

rabbits. If people cannot control their pets, they are inviting other

people to do it for them."

Oh well, that's cleared up a problem then and this is totally wrong  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wildcat  and the domestique chat is an invention [:-))]

As far as I can recall, all domestic animals were once wild and the cat is no different.

Before you start jumping, I don't like cats in my garden, as I have already said, but I frighten them so that they are very reluctant to venture in to our 3150 meter square garden. Also the clear plastic water bottles are a great help too.

If you shoot/poison other peoples pets then may the heavens fall on you mate!!!!!!

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[quote user="Lehaut"] Thankfully, the generous use of poison and the ownership of a gun has reduced the incidents.[/quote]

Are you serious ? I mean, really serious? Do you poison and/or shoot cats ?

You do realise that that is illegal don't you, up to 3 years in prison and/or a 45,000€ fine

I suggest that you keep such confessions out of the public domain, especially if you have posted pictures of where you live

 

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Personally I think we have an angry chap here who is expressing what he would like to do rather than what he is actually doing and therefore I take his comments with a pinch of salt. I am a pet owner and lover, I have two cats and two dogs, and would be very upset if somebody poisoned or shot my cats and dogs. I would bring the full force of the law into effect and demand prosecution. However pet lovers can be quite strange and some quite extreme and there is a chance that if he really is shooting or poisoning cats (and dogs) one of these extreme pet lovers may take things into their own hands to extract punishment in a like for like manner. There are some right nutters out there in both camps so if I were he I would keep my mouth firmly shut and keep looking over my shoulder after making such comments and giving information out in a public forum about how to find where he lives. Luckily I am not such a person but you never know who is out there.
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Well done Quillian! But why a chap?

The aim of my initial question was to find out why cat owners think its OK for their pets to upset other people. There are many examples of people exhibiting this strange behaviour of "it does not bother me, therefore I don't care if it bothers you". Smoker who smoke in non smokers presence, throw their butts on the floor. Or "its only a little bit of my cats poo in your garden", its only a little scratch on your car, I have only taken a little bit of money etc My aim was to try to understand why people think like this. IMO its this malaise that creats many of the problems we have today - eg Taking my fat bonus does not cause me any problems, so why should I care!

Could a cat owner explain why they should be exempt from any responsibility because their cat did it?

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Because by its very nature a cats s different, and if I remember correctly, British law recognises this, I don't know the situation in France.

Dogs can be trained to only toilet in their own property, cats ( except for house cats) can not.

We have one of those electronic things that emits a cat audible noise, it's placed near their most frequent point of entry and seems to work. If you can't, be bothered to go this type of expense to prevent the problem then you must put up with the consequences.
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[quote user="Lehaut"]Well done Quillian! But why a chap? The aim of my initial question was to find out why cat owners think its OK for their pets to upset other people. There are many examples of people exhibiting this strange behaviour of "it does not bother me, therefore I don't care if it bothers you". Smoker who smoke in non smokers presence, throw their butts on the floor. Or "its only a little bit of my cats poo in your garden", its only a little scratch on your car, I have only taken a little bit of money etc My aim was to try to understand why people think like this. IMO its this malaise that creats many of the problems we have today - eg Taking my fat bonus does not cause me any problems, so why should I care! Could a cat owner explain why they should be exempt from any responsibility because their cat did it?[/quote]

Oh dear I don't think you would like me very much. I smoke, have two cats and two dogs however I think I am quite well mannered and I think of others.

I don't drop any litter including butts. I don't smoke around people who don't. I carry bags to clean up after my dogs when out walking even in the forest.

All our animals are steralized, our female cat because it attracts male cats, our male cat so it does not leave a smell around our house and garden. We are lucky and our cats are very happy roaming and hunting in our garden and the fences I have built to stop our dogs escaping also help. We have a cat loo for our cats which they use nearly all the time as we also made a 'sand pit' for them and the dogs to use in the garden both of which get cleaned out regularily.

We had cat problems when we lived in London i.e. similar to you but not our cats. We had to take steps using devices as described by others although the best thing we discovered was

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Roar-Lion-Manure-Repellant/dp/B0002B7OT2

which worked very well.

I have always maintained that there is no such thing as a bad pet only bad owners. Fortunatly there are more good owners than bad.

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A normal domestic cat can roam miles in the course of a day. It is not impossible, but not necessarily in the cat's best interests, to confine them. That said, the amount my cats defecate in my own garden, if they've got anything left to deposit elsewhere, then it's a miracle. Can I follow three cats,with a poo bag in my hand, all heading off in separate directions each day, scaling walls, climbing trees and generally going where no man has gone before (or is ever likely to go again)? No, I can't. I'm not irresponsible, I'm a realist.

France seems to have a great deal more cats with no actual owners, though. And a very lax approach to neutering.

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[quote user="Lehaut"]The aim of my initial question was to find out why cat owners think its OK for their pets to upset other people. There are many examples of people exhibiting this strange behaviour of "it does not bother me, therefore I don't care if it bothers you". Smoker who smoke in non smokers presence, throw their butts on the floor. Or "its only a little bit of my cats poo in your garden", its only a little scratch on your car, I have only taken a little bit of money etc My aim was to try to understand why people think like this. IMO its this malaise that creats many of the problems we have today - eg Taking my fat bonus does not cause me any problems, so why should I care!

Could a cat owner explain why they should be exempt from any responsibility because their cat did it?[/quote]

Well, I guess we're quits then, because I cannot understand why anyone would get so angry about cats in their garden (or indeed a scratch on their car, or a smoker smoking...) that they think it's ok to kill.....

To answer YOUR questions, I DO/WOULD care if my cats upset people. Perhaps I am lucky in one sense where we live at the moment - we have an acre of our own land plus fields to three sides, and our closest neighbour on the other side is also a cat owner.

If anyone in our village had come to us and complained about our cats then I would have done my utmost to stop them doing whatever it was. As said before, they are all neutered, all wear fluorescent orange collars with our phone number on them, and they even have radio-wave locator tags on them so we can keep track of where they are - and we check regularly. Eight disappeared cats and the ninth shot - and NOONE has ever complained about our cats.

In my case, this isn't about cat poo or whatever, it's about a nutter shooting whatever he feels like - in my opinion THIS is the kind of attitude causing problems in the world today.

Incidentally have you ever spoken to your neighbours about their cats coming into your garden? And by "spoken to" I mean in a friendly, lets-try-to-sort-this-out kind of way, not threatening to take them to a tribunal........

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