Hunting with hounds not 'wildlife management'
JAMES Barrington claims that hunting by scenting hounds is a natural and humane method of wildlife management that is selective and leaves no wounded survivors ("Is it time to think again on the Hunting Act?", Opinions, November 2).
With regard to hare-hunting, nothing could be further from the truth.
The fox is the hare's main predator but an adult hare is 50% faster and can easily outrun him in a fair chase.
If a hare sees a fox first she will advertise her presence by rising up on her hind legs – conveying the message that a chase is pointless. Most fox predation is on leverets.
But scenting hounds are bred for stamina, not speed, and are able to wear the hare down to exhaustion during a chase which is artificially extended to provide entertainment for those who participate.
Hares which are able to escape the hounds can suffer and die later from a condition known as stress myopathy. Hares carry a number of pathogenic organisms which normally cause them no harm but, under the influence of stress, the immune system is compromised and the organisms multiply to cause severe clinical disease.
Hunting with hounds has nothing to do with legitimate "wildlife management". It is typical of the blood sports fraternity to apply this euphemism to their barbarity.
Rodney Hale
Founder – Hare Preservation Trust
Glastonbury
Comments
by misterviv
Friday, November 11 2011, 1:56PM
“Collin's dictionary definition of 'Cruel':- "Deliberately causing pain or anguish".
Anyone who kills for entertainment is retarded.
If you took one of your pets to the vets and was told it had a terminal condition and should be put down for it's own good, would you chose the normal injection method or,
if the vet said "would you mind if we gave the creature to a bunch of lads to shoot it with airguns or beat it with baseball bats, to cut down on your treatment bill?", you'd ,I hope, make the humane choice.
Raising a glass and making a toast to a forthcoming visceral death is beyond barbarism, regardless of your empathy with the creature in question.
Still, the argument is up against centuries of this barbarism, so I don't suppose anything will change, until in a few years time reality TV has us watching live hunting and execution of convicted prisoners with a phone in 'thumbs down' for the victim.
Sickening,sad and sadistic.”