On Boxing Day, Jolyon Maugham tweeted about killing a fox trapped in his hen house with a baseball bat in his garden in central London.
Whilst this barrister should, perhaps, have realised that sharing such information wouldn’t go down well with the Twitterati and that he expressed what occured in a slightly ill-thought out fashion, it is clear that that this leading remain supporter was simply protecting his chickens from a creature that many consider “vermin” (ludicrously councils do not agree with this description).
Maugham – whom it seems was bizarrely wearing his wife’s green kimono during the incident – plainly later realised that if you live out your life on Twitter, you’ll likely be crucified by it too. Other users and the media subsequently thus reacted in outrage and given no doubt many shared Maugham in having post-Christmas Day hangovers, the shitstorm that followed was beyond overblown.
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A tweet too far
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Later, after reporting himself (and being reported also by many others) to the RSPCA – an ineffectual organisation that I found disgracefully willing to do nothing when there was a dog in distress in my neighbourhood last year – Maugham then apologised. By then, however, it was too late and #JolyonTheFoxKiller was trending. The snarling hordes of this sub-world of social media had descended and still now, they are baying for this 48-year-old’s blood.
I’d suggest, instead, that the angry mob get worked up about the RSPCA’s refusal to turn up to deal with truly far worse cases of animal neglect and more importantly still a government that has done little-to-nothing to help the thousands freezing to death on our streets this Christmas. Show your true fury about something that really matters, but, please, Jolyon, next time: make sure you at least get dressed in something other than your wife’s bedroom gear.
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Readers have their say
4 comments
If it had been near any of my birds, I’d have baseball batted it too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He might be a Remoaner but I say #TeamJolyon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KILLL, KILL, KILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Foxes are protected species. They should not be. Reclassify them as vermin please Boris Johnson.
I cannot see what all the fuss is about. We are in the post-Christmas pre-New Year Silly Season plainly. Newspapers are short of things to tittle tattle about. I find foxes very dirty creatures myself. Always rooting through the bins. Disgusting things.
Foxes are not vermin. They have the same right to live on earth as any other animal in our eco system. The only vermin I can see is in the photo shown up on the left. He looks demented. He should have his QC removed pronto. The outrage this moron had caused is for a good reason. To take to Twitter to boast about battering a trapped defenceless gorgeous looking creature to death says an awful lot about a man’s character. It means keep away from crazies like this as they are mentally unbalanced and dangerous. I hope he is prosecuted.