I go off line for 18 hours and look what happens
Firstly I agree that these kind of practices in the OP is barbaric, and is rooted in the MALE desire to externalise suffering and aggression (fight for a mate)IMO
Joe I think it would be equally true to say if we respected each other more we would respect animals
Rob I don't see the connection between 50 often drunken yobs on horse back with a pack of dogs (the unspeakable hunting the inedible) and country folk culling predators that are preying on their stock especially since the roots are in the feudal system of all the land being owned by the Lord of the Manor a sort of "Droite de Seigneur" (now that was a sport).
Horse meat is actually quiet tasty (my neighbor once had to put down a horse with a broken hip and the alternative to butchery was digging a very big hole) and low in fat.
Having kept and bred Chickens the male birds will fight and try to kill each other, hence the expression "the pecking order" the difference in these events is that they cant run away having established "dominance"
Perhaps there is a market for dried fox meat in the Phills and farmers could get EEC grants for creating habitats.
Personally the only predators I eat are fish, being one myself (not a fish) its why we as mammals have forward facing eyes, to judge distance to pounce
phew glad to have finished this post without adding any more controversy