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Fox hunting

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For other uses, see Fox hunting (disambiguation).
A fox hunt
A red fox.

Fox hunting is often thought of as a primarily British activity in which trained dogs pursue red fox, followed by human hunters who are usually on horses but sometimes on foot. A traditional equestrian activity, many animal welfare campaigners object to it as a barbaric "blood sport", while proponents and participants view it as a crucial part of rural history in England, vital for conservation, and a method of pest control. In other countries where fox hunting is practiced, including Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia and India, it may be traced back to British influence. At the time of the UK Government's Burns Inquiry[1] in 2000, it was reported that Portugal and Italy each had one fox hunting pack. Hunting also takes place in France. There are many differences between American hunts and their English counterparts.

Animals

The Fox

The fox, or "Tod," as it is known in British sport, is the most crucial participant in a fox hunt. A small, omnivorous predator, the fox is driven from its preferred hiding places, generally known as coverts (pronounced "covers"). In Europe the fox hunted is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). In North America the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) or coyote (Canis latrans) are often substituted, although the gray fox usually trees and is not considered sufficiently "sporting". In India, and in other former British Colonies, the jackal was often the quarry. Most North American packs hunt primarily coyote, and some other animals such as bobcat and cougar are also hunted with by North American packs.


The coyote is faster and wider ranging than the fox, so a much larger hunt territory is required to chase it.

The hounds and other dogs

Fox hunting dogs are more properly referred to as hounds, and those specially bred and trained to assist in fox hunting are known as foxhounds. Mostly scent hounds (trained to pursue the fox based on its scent), most are used for various types of hunting. Greyhounds (a type of sight hound) are used running down hares (called coursing), while harriers are typically used for mounted hare hunting. (The name "harrier" originally comes from the prey animal, and only later is used in other English words such as "harry" or "harass.") Beagles are used for hunting hares on foot (called "beagling") whilst more-or-less purebred English Foxhounds are used for hunting stag, otter or mink. Although it is technically possible to course foxes with sighthounds such as greyhounds or lurchers, to do so is considered unsporting because of the high mortality, and such coursing is mostly done by poachers.

The foxhound is typically of three types: the English, which is the usually seen, smooth coated variant with a bias toward speed, the Welsh, which has a rougher, shaggier, coat and is bred with a regard for its scenting abilities, and the American, which is lighter than English hounds and more capable of scenting in drier conditions. The foxhound is typically a mix of black, brown, and white. The (Irish) Scarteen and (Scottish) Dumfries Hunts are known for having packs of hounds which are entirely 'black and tan'. Each pack is specifically bred for its predominant game, its climate, and its terrain. There are many types of foxhound within the breed. For example, one of the most famous hunts in America, the Red Rock in Reno, Nevada has a tri-colored pack of Walker hounds, originally bred for non-pack hunting in the Southern US, and which can be seen more easily from horseback in the high-desert terrain of the Sierra mountains and foothills. A slower more methodical hunting type is the Pennmarydel hound, bred in the Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware region. This hound is known for its long ears, great scenting capabilities, and melodious voice.

Terriers

Hunting below ground is undertaken using terriers (such as the Fox Terrier). This tends not to take place in America[2].

The Horse

The most prominent hunters ride specially trained horses called field hunters. To train or ride such a horse is extremely difficult; however, casual hunters ride a wide variety of horse and pony types. The only requirements are that a horse be well mannered, have the ability to clear the obstacles, and the stamina to keep up with the hounds. (Hunts in the US and New Zealand typically have a non-jumping group as well as a group that jumps fences.) Fox hunting is the origin of many traditional equestrian sports and sports derived from them, including the steeplechase, National Hunt racing, and hunt seat style in the United States.

Procedure

Fox hunts are the setting for many social rituals, but the hunting itself begins when hounds are put into rough or brushy areas called "coverts", where foxes often lay up during daylight hours or when they hear domestic dogs moving toward them. If the pack manages to pick up the scent of a fox, they will follow it in a "chase" wherein the dogs pursue the fox and the hunters follow, by the most direct route possible. Since this may involve some very athletic skill on the part of horse and rider alike, foxhunting is the origin for steeplechase and other National Hunt racing, as well as other equestrian sports such as hunt seat riding.

The hunt continues until either the fox evades the hounds, "goes to ground" inside of a burrow or is overtaken and usually killed by the hounds. In the case of Scottish hill packs or the gun packs of Wales and some upland areas of England, the fox is flushed to guns. Hunts in the Cumbrian fells and some other upland areas are followed by supporters on foot rather than on horseback.

In the UK, where the fox goes to ground, terriers may be entered into the earth in order to locate the fox so that it can be dug down to and killed. Sometimes, the fox will bolt. In the US, terriers are not used, and once the fox goes to ground, he is left alone.

Because of the change in the law, the kill is no longer emphasised in England.

A number of social rituals used to follow the hunt. One of the most colourful was the act of "blooding." This is a very old ceremony in which the master or huntsman would smear the blood of the fox or coyote onto the cheeks or forehead of a newly initiated hunt follower. Some conjecture that the ceremony goes back to the similarly stylized medieval hunting of the high middle ages. By 2000 the practice had largely been abandoned [3] though some say it continues to this day [4].

Autumn/cub hunting

Between August and October each year, the hunt take the young hounds out "cub hunting". They teach the puppies to hunt while they are teaching the young foxes to run from hounds. In Britain "cubhunting" consists of training the young hounds in hunting by firstly surrounding a covert and then 'drawing' it with the puppies and some more experienced hounds, allowing them to hunt within the surrounded wood. Once the season proper starts (usually from early November), the idea is to drive the fox from the covert and chase it over open countryside.

United States variations

In America, fox hunting is sometimes called fox chasing, because the purpose is not to actually kill the animal but to enjoy the thrill of the chase. The American fox population is well-controlled, partly because of the prevalance of rabies, so hunting is not needed to keep the species in check. This disease is not present in Britain. The rare animal that is killed by an American hunt is usually old or unhealthy. American hunts have also been strong supporters of land conservation to support fox populations, and some even provide dog food for the animals in the winter.[citation needed]

Coyotes have become the primary quarry in American fox hunting. Many of the farmers and ranchers who allow fox hunting on their property do so because coyotes that have been chased by a pack of domestic dogs appear to learn to keep their distance from domestic animals in the future. Those farms and ranches which have allowed fox hunting have seen the number of predations of their livestock by coyotes decrease as a result of the activities of the local hunt.[citation needed]

In the United States, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both kept packs of fox hounds before and after the Revolutionary War. The last U.S. President to hunt was Ronald Reagan, and the last First Lady to do so was Jacqueline Kennedy.

Variation: bloodhounds

In some countries drag hunting is also popular, either instead of or in addition to quarry hunting, in which a scented bag is dragged over a pre-determined course. Bloodhounds are used in some areas to hunt a human runner, the sport of "Hunting the Clean Boot".

Roles

As a social ritual, human participants in a fox hunt often fill specific roles, the most prominent of which is the master, often more than one and then called masters or joint masters. These individuals typically take much of the financial responsibility for the overall management of the sporting activities of the hunt and the care and breeding of the hunt's fox hounds, as well as control and direction of the hunt's paid staff.

  • Master of Fox Hounds (M.F.H.) or Joint Master of Fox Hounds operates the sporting activities of the hunt, maintains the kennels, works with (and sometimes is) the huntsman, and spends the money raised by the hunt club. (Often the master or joint masters are the largest financial of contributors to the hunt.)
  • Honorary Secretaries are volunteers (usually one in America two in the U.K.) who collect the cap (money) from guest riders.
  • A committee may run the "Hunt Supporters Club" to organise fundraising and social events.
  • A kennelman looks after hounds in kennels, assuring that all tasks are completed when pack and staff return from hunting
  • The huntsman is responsible for directing the hounds in the course of the hunt. The Huntsmen usually carries a horn to comunicate to the hounds, followers and whippers in.
  • Whippers-in are assistants to the huntsman. Their main job is to keep the pack all together. Another job of the whippers in is to keep the hounds off deer which are illegal to hunt with a pack in the U.S. To help them to control the pack, they carry hunting lashes which is a whip with a popper on the end.
  • In America many hunts are incorporated and have parallel lines of leadership. As one West Hills Hunt (now West Hills Hounds) master used to say, "The board of directors raises the money. I spend it."

The role of "whipper-in" in hunts has inspired some parliamentary systems (including the Westminster System and the U.S. Congress) to use "whip" for a member who enforces party discipline and ensure the attendance of other members at important votes.

There are also organizations of accredited hunts in North America and the British Isles.

  • The Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) consists of current and past masters of foxhounds. This is the governing body for all foxhound packs and deals with any disputes about boundaries between hunts.

Costume

Mounted hunt followers typically wear traditional hunting costumes. The scarlet coats often worn by huntsmen, masters, whippers-in and other officials are sometimes called "Pinques". These help them stand out from the rest of the field. Various theories about the derivation of this term have been advanced, ranging from the colour of a weathered scarlet coat to the name of a purportedly famous tailor.[5]. Some hunts, including most hare hunts, use green rather than red jackets

Other members of the mounted field follow strict rules of clothing etiquette. For example those under eighteen will wear tweed jackets or ratcatcher all season. Those over eighteen will wear ratcatcher during Autumn hunting from late August until the Opening Meet, normally around November 1st. From the Opening Meet they will switch to regular hunting kit where full subscribers will wear scarlet and the rest black or navy. (In American hunts, only Masters, staff and gentlemen members with colors wear scarlet.) The highest honour is to be awarded the hunt button by the Hunt Master. This means you can then wear the hunt collar (colour varies from hunt to hunt) and buttons with the hunt crest on them. (In America male followers are awarded their "colors," which includes the right to wear a scarlet coat. Female followers are usually awarded "colors" which allow them to wear the collar of the hunt but also often a dark blue coat with brass buttons.)

As of November 2004, there were 318 registered hound packs in England and Wales and 175 registered packs in the United States and Canada. "Registration" was made with the "Masters of Foxhounds Associations" of, respectively, the United Kingdon and North America. Estimates reported by The Guardian noted 8000 jobs depend on the hunt.

History

Using scenthounds to track prey dates back to Assyrian, Babylonian and ancient Egyptian times, and is known as venery. In England, hunting with hounds was popular before the Romans arrived, using the Agassaei breed. The Romans brought their Castorian and Fulpine hound breeds, along with importing the brown hare (the mountain hare is native) and additional species of deer as quarry. Wild boar was also hunted. The Norman hunting traditions were added when William the Conqueror arrived, along with the Gascon and Talbot hounds; indeed, the traditional hunting cry 'tally ho' derives from the Norman French equivalent of 'il est haut' (he is up); ie. the stag has started running. By 1340 the four beasts of venery were the hare, the hart, the wolf and the wild boar. The five beasts of the chase were the buck, the doe, the fox, the marten and the roe.

The earliest known attempt to hunt a fox with hounds was in Norfolk, England, in 1534, where farmers began chasing down foxes with their dogs as pest control. By the end of the seventeenth century many organised packs were hunting both hare and fox, and during the eighteenth century packs specifically for fox hunting were appearing. The passing of the Enclosure Acts from 1760 to 1840 had made hunting deer much more difficult in many areas of the country, as that requires great areas of open land. Also, the new fences made jumping the obstacles separating the fields part of the hunting tradition. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, people began to move out of the country and into towns and cities to find work. Roads, rail and canals split the hunting country, but also made hunting accessible to more people. Shotguns were improved during the nineteenth century and game shooting became more popular. To protect the pheasants for the shooters, gamekeepers culled the foxes almost to extirpation in popular areas, which caused the huntsmen to improve their coverts. Finally the Game Laws were relaxed in 1831 and later abolished, which meant anyone could obtain a permit to take rabbits, hares and gamebirds.

Although viewed as a typically traditional rural British activity, hunting with hounds takes place all over the world. Hunts in the United States, Canada, Ireland and India are legacies of the British Empire to some extent, although some claim that the first pack devoted to hunting only fox was located in the United States. According to the Masters of Foxhounds Association of America (which also covers Canada)[6], Englishman Robert Brooke introduced fox hunting to Maryland, America in 1650 when he imported his horses, hunt servants and a pack of fox hounds. It has also been suggested that he imported 24 red foxes from England[citation needed] (since red fox was not indigenous to North America). In 2006 the Masters of Foxhounds Association of America included 168 registered packs in the US and Canada, and there are many additional farmer (non-recognized) packs.

Many other Greek- and Roman-influenced countries have their own long tradition of hunting with hounds. France and Italy for example, have thriving fox hunts. In Switzerland and Germany, where fox hunting was once popular, the activity has been outlawed, although Germany continues to allow deer to be driven by dogs to guns.

Controversy

The dramatic nature of fox hunting, the allegations of cruelty and its strong associations with tradition and social class have long made it a source of great controversy within the United Kingdom.

Opposing

People may oppose fox hunting for a number of reasons, opposing it through legal means such as fox hunting legislation or hunt monitoring or through illegal means such as the sabotage of the hunt.

Animal cruelty

Some animal welfare activists have long objected to hunting in general but fox hunting in particular as manifestly unfair and unnecessarily cruel to quarry animals, most especially the fox. They argue that fox is not always killed instantly as hunters claim, but is sometimes torn to pieces by hounds, and that even when death is swift the hunt itself causes cruel distress.

Many assert that many hunts are not as "sporting" as hunters claim, and that animals are not always left alone once they have "gone to ground" in their burrows, and have been killed inhumanely or even thrown alive to the hounds, to be torn apart whilst still alive.

They criticise hunts who usually put down their hounds half way through their life (5 or 6 years) after their working life has come to an end.

Necessity

Opponents of fox hunting claim that the activity is not necessary for fox control, arguing that the fox is not a pest species and that hunting does not and cannot make a real difference to fox populations [7]. They compare the number of foxes killed in the hunt to the many more killed on the roads. They also argue that any wildlife management goals of the hunt can be met by simpler and more humane methods such as "lamping" (dazzling a fox with a bright light, then shooting it through the head or neck, depending on what caliber rifle is used) with trained shooters, capture or sterilisation.

They say that, were it the case that fox hunting predominantly kills weak foxes, then it would leave alive those most able to predate on livestock, thereby demonstrating that the hunting was counter to the principles of pest control.

In Australia, where the fox was introduced solely for the purpose of fox hunting in 1855, the European red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a major ecological pest. The Australian Government's Department of the Environment and Heritage concludes "hunting does not seem to have had a significant or lasting impact on fox numbers" [8]. Instead, control of foxes relies heavily on shooting, poisoning and fencing.

Class issues

Punch magazine's "Mr. Briggs" cartoons illustrated issues over fox hunting during the 1850s.

Oscar Wilde once famously referred to "the English country gentleman galloping after a fox" as "the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable". Even before the time of Wilde, much of the criticism of foxhunting has been couched in terms of social class. They argue that while more "working class" blood sports such as cock fighting and badger baiting were long ago outlawed, fox hunting persists.

John Leech had a series of "Mr. Briggs" cartoons in Punch during the 1850's, which illustrated some of these class issues[9]. More recently the British anarchist group Class War has argued explicitly for disruption of fox hunts on class warfare grounds.

Hunt supporters have often claimed that the associated legislation passed in the United Kingdom in 2004 banning hunting with dogs was motivated by a 'class war'.

Trespass

In its submission to the Burns Inquiry, the League Against Cruel Sports presented evidence[10] of over 1,000 cases of trespass by hunts. These included trespass on railway lines and into private gardens. Indeed, accidental trespass could be considered an inevitable facet of hunting, as the hounds themselves do not recognise boundaries they are not allowed to cross, and may therefore follow their quarry wherever it goes unless successfully called off.

Available alternatives

Anti hunting campaigners long urged hunts to retain their tradition and equestrian sport by drag hunting, following an artificial scent. Hunt supporters previously claimed that, in the event of a ban, hunts would not be able to convert and that hounds would have to be put down.[11] In the UK, however, most hunts claim to be following a trail successfully since the Hunting Act came into effect.

Supporting

The most vocal supporters of fox hunting tend to be directly interested, but those who support fox hunting may do so for a variety of reasons.

Economics

The oldest economic defense of fox hunting is that such hunting is necessary to control the population of foxes, lest they prey upon domestic animals such as livestock. Apart from man, foxes have no larger predators to control them.

A more recent argument is that fox hunting is a significant economic activity, providing legal recreation and many jobs for those involved in the hunt and supporting it. Supporters argue that such jobs should not be lost without sufficient cause.

Tradition and social life

Many supporters of British fox hunting recognise it as a distinctive part of British culture generally, the basis of many traditional crafts and a key part of social life in rural areas, an activity and spectacle enjoyed not only by the riders but also by others such as the "unmounted pack" which may follow along on foot or by bicycle.

They point out that the social aspects of hunting reflect the social make-up of the area it takes place in, that the Home Counties packs are very different from those in areas of North Wales and Cumbria where the hunts are very much the activity of farmers and the working class. The Banwen Miners Hunt is sometimes used as an example, though its membership is by no means limited to miners.

Conservation

Foxhunts provide and maintain habitat for foxes and other game, and, in the US, have been leaders in fostering conservation legislation and putting land into conservation easements. It is also argued that hunting with dogs has the advantage of weeding out weaker animals because the strongest and healthiest foxes are those most likely to escape. Therefore, unlike other methods of controlling the fox population, it is argued that hunting with dogs does help keep the fox population healthy and, in this respect, that it resembles natural predation by wild animals. [12]

Animal cruelty comparison

It is argued that while hunting with dogs is cruel, controlling fox numbers by other means is even more cruel. Shooting foxes could cause hours or, in some instances, days of agony for those animals that hide underground having not been killed instantly, while trapping and poisoning also cause considerable distress to the animals concerned. However, they say that, when a fox is hunted with dogs, it is either killed fairly quickly (in a matter of seconds or minutes) or escapes uninjured.

Hunt supporters further say that it is a matter of humanity to kill a few foxes rather than allow them to suffer malnourishment and mange.

Pest control

Despite the fact that foxes are not generally considered as pests, they can cause farmers to lose valuable livestock. A fox could kill a whole group of fifty or so chickens, yet eat only one of them.

Fox hunting regulation

Main article: Fox hunting legislation

Like most hunting, fox hunting is regulated in many countries, with great variation from one to another. In general, hunting laws are designed to regulate what animals may be hunted, in what areas at what time and with what techniques. The Burns Inquiry reported that fox hunting was "not practised or is largely banned" in Spain, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. The Hunting Act 2004 banned (amongst other things) fox hunting with dogs in England and Wales. Scotland has passed similar legislation.

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