Melecide, Lupicide, Felicide and Vulpicide -British Specialities

 

The one thing I heard again and again from people at museums as well as on wildlife groups was that they had never heard of Britain (I include Ireland here as part of the "British Isles") having three types of fox.

I have to make it clear since this caused much annoyance amongst certain 19th century naturalists, that when I write "types" I am not meaning species. We have yet to have DNA work carried out but are assuming (a dangerous thing) that all three types were of the Vulpes species even if, as with Ireland, they were a unique island species having been separated from Continental Europe for millennia.

It also needs to be pointed out that the wolves of Britain were also, again, unique island species but not subject to the dwarfism found in other island species. 

The current "wild tabby" that people call the Scottish wild cat bears no resemblance to the actual original wild cat. That cat was yellowish (with a grey phase) with stripes and naturalist Pennant dubbed it the "British tyger". It fulfilled the role left by the lynx (a cat that may well have survived into the Medieval period in Britain). This wild cat was big -often the size of the dogs used to attack them and that they were ferocious and not above attacking a man and dogs if pushed is documented.  This was a unique species to Britain (the Irish wild cat I deal with in some detail in The Red Paper Felids).

The wolf was simply hunted because they were wolves and the true extent of this lupicide is shown in the Red Paper Canids with forestry and woodland not burnt down or cut down for agriculture but to make the wolves more accessible. There are very rare remains of wolves in Britain but they await DNA testing.

When it comes to foxes the idea that killing them was anything but for or for money vanishes when you note writer after writer noting how efficient the system of vulpicide was. Adults or cubs each had a price on their heads that encouraged people to kill when they could. Add to this the fur trappers and the organised hunts and it is no surprise that by the late 1600s at the least foxes were being imported to continue hunting 'fun'. 

In the books and articles by the 'great sportsmen' of the 19th century it is noted how the Old fox types were becoming rarer and would soon follow the wolf into extinction. All very sad. So did they try to conserve the Old foxes? No, they continued to hunt them and lament how once gone their fun would be over. There was absolutely no secret in the newspapers, journals and 'sports mens' books they reported how foxes were imported and sent around the country and each "expert" had their own way of conserving these foxes in artificial dens and that meant preventing their game keepers from harming foxes. The foxes were protected and could take as many pheasants as they wanted so that they could be ready for hunting season. A very peculiar type of 'vermin control' (a phrase used only by hunts and supporters and meaning animals that were on the list to hunt). Even today there are artificial fox dens on hunt lands though the pretence of "vermin control" was thrown out a good while ago and they now proudly call it a 'sport'.

There is evidence that there were fox feeders even in the "Golden Age of hunting" (19th century). Pets being killed by fox hounds is nothing new and goes way back in time -as does the killing of small holders fowls. On one occasion the Master of the Hounds Dilworth lost control and a nanny picked a baby out of its cribbed just as the hounds got to it. The repercussions and outrage from the hunting community was loud. That a baby could have been torn to shreds? No, that it may have affected the 'sport'!

Melecide was also a thing for centuries and how badgers actually survived into the 21st century (where they are still being persecuted) has me stumped. Even the famous "sportsmen-naturalists" such as John Colquhoun killed badgers but then let them be, pointing out that they were harmless creatures -he did let his sons kill some for the 'sport' before forbidding any more badger hunts. As far as I am aware there were no imports of badgers but from Scotland and into the north of England regions were cleared on=f them by the late 1700s -again, bounties were paid.

Hares were wiped out as were deer in some areas and...more were imported from Europe which is something you do not read in wildlife books or see in the writings of naturalists simply because they do not carry out the historical research but repeat ad nauseum the same old dogma. Ignorance of history and facts create dogma that means the same ignorance is just accepted. Every British wildlife book you see on a book shelf from the 1920s onward is incorrect in many ways. This is, and has been, proven.

I have found one museum in England that has a specimen of an English wild cat. No Welsh museum has a specimen of its former native wild cat either. What they all have are "Scottish wild cats from around 1900" -hundreds of cats killed for museums that had to conform to a "Museum Type" which naturalists who had studied wild cats in situ declared to not actually be true wild cats. It may well be why the Natural History Museum (London) were downright obstructive on both foxes and wild cats yet asked, on three occasions, what the scope of my work was and the contents (I have the emails).

It is important that everyone, especially the youth of today, learn the facts so that we cannot make the same mistakes -which we are by designating foxes as "common" and unprotected while they die at a rate of up to 100, 000 per year due to shooting, poisoning, snaring and mass killing by cars. It is only via rescues and releases that foxes are still around because without the work carried out by rescues, if orphaned cubs and injured cub/adults were left to die we would now be concerned -or should be concerned about numbers. Foxes are great indicators of the local ecosystem and not just that but they take care of rats and mice and the more natural predation the less use of rodenticides which kill hedgehogs (supposedly a protected species), badgers (supposedly a protected species) as well as pets such as dogs and cats and even birds of various species.

One thing that must never be forgotten (fox fur farming in the UK being another)  is the fact that everyday ordinary people took part in the killing off of these species -wolves, foxes, wild cats and (almost) badgers. For 'fun', for money and very few stood up to protest (historical social aspects I go into in the two books) bur by the early 20th century more and more did protest and prosecutions for animal cruelty and damages caused  were not uncommon. There is absolutely no reason for people to not call for the halting of hunts in all their forms and "tradition" (ie the extermination of species) is no longer valid as an excuse. After all even pheasants for shooting season are imported into the UK now (chalk another extirpation up to 'sportsmen').