The Sunday Times
January 21, 2007
Pest control — Sandringham style
The fox, which is one of Britain's commonest mammals, is seen by many people as a pest that kills farmers' chickens. They are now also being increasingly seen in towns and cities.
The fox never stood a chance when it had a brush with the guns at Prince Philip’s (the Queen's husband) shooting party yesterday, writes Maurice Chittenden.
First it was blasted by one of eight people taking part in the shoot on the Sandringham estate. Then, as it lay wounded, it raised itself to snarl at a gundog, so a gamekeeper beat it over the head with a flag used to signal to the beaters. Still not sure whether the fox was dead, the gamekeeper was spotted doing the unspeakable to the uneatable, appearing to stamp on it before dragging it into the undergrowth.
The prince, whose shooting parties bag up to 7,000 pheasants a season, looked on nonchalantly, shotgun across his arm. Philip, 85, was previously thought to have given up shooting because of failing eyesight. The fox’s demise, although legal, is more likely to cause a ballyhoo among city dwellers. In 2004 the Queen was criticised by animal rights campaigners after taking a wounded pheasant from a gun dog’s jaws and beating it with her walking stick until dead. In 2000, she was photographed wringing the neck of a badly injured bird at Sandringham.
thetimesonline.co.uk
January 21, 2007
Pest control — Sandringham style
The fox, which is one of Britain's commonest mammals, is seen by many people as a pest that kills farmers' chickens. They are now also being increasingly seen in towns and cities.
First it was blasted by one of eight people taking part in the shoot on the Sandringham estate. Then, as it lay wounded, it raised itself to snarl at a gundog, so a gamekeeper beat it over the head with a flag used to signal to the beaters. Still not sure whether the fox was dead, the gamekeeper was spotted doing the unspeakable to the uneatable, appearing to stamp on it before dragging it into the undergrowth.
The prince, whose shooting parties bag up to 7,000 pheasants a season, looked on nonchalantly, shotgun across his arm. Philip, 85, was previously thought to have given up shooting because of failing eyesight. The fox’s demise, although legal, is more likely to cause a ballyhoo among city dwellers. In 2004 the Queen was criticised by animal rights campaigners after taking a wounded pheasant from a gun dog’s jaws and beating it with her walking stick until dead. In 2000, she was photographed wringing the neck of a badly injured bird at Sandringham.
thetimesonline.co.uk
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