Feeling good - ethical dilema...

[Paul Montgomery]

So, my next door neighbour keeps chickens. By pure fluke, I looked out of the window to to see a fox crossing from our garden to hers - it was only about 10 ft from the house and stopped for a  bit of a look round.

Do I grab the camera and get a few pictures of it, or run out and chase it off? I chose the latter and feel better for it....

[Oldboy]

Ah! That proves you are not a true photographer. 

But you are a wonderful neighbour. 

[Beaux Reflets]

Last year our dog brought a home severely badly injured Coypu to the front door mat. I immediately attendended to the creatures requirements, without thought of fetching the camera for a closeup shot . Guess that makes me an untrue photographer too.

[krennon]

Paul I think you did the right thing there as a fox would have killed all the chickens rather than just taking one for its dinner..

Andrew what's a Coypu? 

[Graham]

  Keith.
                 A Coypu is a bloody great big rat thing, that looks a bit like my old headmasters eyebrows!
                                             Graham.

[Beaux Reflets]

Looking like this.

[Hinfrance]

Keith, a coypu (ragondin in french) is a large water dwelling rodent with bright orange teeth of South American origin. They are somewhat larger than a domestic cat.

They were brought to Europe to be farmed as a source of low cholesterol meat. Animal rights protesters let them into the wild in the UK where they did serious damage to the waterways in the fens and they were eradicated.

The French farms failed too, many were released into the wild and coypu are now quite common - they breed like, well rats - our neighbour has a family of them living in his pond. Unfortunately they are very destructive and reluctantly he has had to agree to have them destroyed before they completely ruin the pond ecosystem.

[Beaux Reflets]

The ones I photographed that were as big a Jack Russell Terrier  were eventually trapped and remove as they devasted a maze crop, felling over half an acre in a week or two just to eat the tasty sweet cobs. 

[Graham]

  I always thought of a Coypu as a big cuddley rat.....cuddle that thing and you'd never play the harmonium again!
                         Graham.

[krennon]

I remember now those are the things that a few months ago people were getting mixed up and mistaking as giant rats ( I can see why though) bloody animal rights idiots like the same ones that thought it would be a really good idea to release the minks from the farms into the wild where they have now all but decimated the water vole population....wish they'd think about what they're doing before doing it....not that I agree with fur at all (unless you're an Innuit in which case yes you can wear fur as that's for survival not for vanity and glamour)

[anglefire]

My Nan used to be a dress maker and furrieress - she was very good at both and I used to watch her make and repair fur coats. The small firm she worked for was driven out of business by mindless thugs who called themselves animal rights protestors.

If I'm honest, I don't see the difference between a leather coat (Shoes etc) and a mink or rabbit coat. The raw material in 99% of the cases came from farmed animals. So why persecute the fur trade but not dairy or meat trade.

[greypoint]

Largely because mink and other such species roam over a large area and are territorial in the wild. Keeping them confined in tiny cages stacked together is a particular type of daily torture when fur is a totally unnecessary commodity these days. Leather is a by product of the meat trade - and great as it would be if more people gave up meat or at least cut right down, that's not going to happen any time soon. So leather is a bit different. And I'm not an animal rights fanatic .... I just think any small step towards a less cruel world has to be positive.

[anglefire]

Yes I can see that argument, and it is certainly valid.

But I doubt leather for coats comes via the meat trade - as any damage to the skin devalues it. Might do, I really don't know.

And of course you have to stop veil crates, battery farming etc.

As for reducing our love of meat. Not a hope in my house!

[greypoint]

I stick to Quorn - they hunt it just up the road in Leicestershire 

[anglefire]

 I tried quorn once. It was quite nice mixed with a chicken curry. 

Would hate to eat it when I could actually taste it and feel the texture