However, in reality few farmers possess a rifle, nor is it proposed that the government should provide a squad of trained marksmen for this purpose. Most farmers will employ a shotgun and, out of the public gaze, take available opportunities to shoot foxes, seldom at close range and therefore often causing wounding followed by a slow and painful death. In 1949 the Labour Government appointed an independent Committee of Inquiry to enquire into Cruelty to Wild Animals, including the issue of hunting. It should therefore be allowed to continue. To livestock farmers and others, foxes are a real pest, killing poultry, piglets, lambs, ducks and game and other ground nesting birds.
Foxes therefore have to be and are controlled.
It is a fact that over two thirds of sheep farmers control foxes. Some 250,000 foxes are killed every year by one means or another. Labour cannot legislate to change the predatory instincts of foxes or the views of farmers or gamekeepers who seek to protect their stock or game. If hunting were abolished the fox population would be managed by snaring or shooting, largely with shotguns.