Goodbye to Hounds

Sandstone1 said:
The fact that so many people on this forum are in favour of a ban should tell you a lot..... Will Horse and Hound magazine and forum even exist in the future should trail hunting be banned???
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I would say people who hunt are in the minority on here. The magazine doesn’t publish an awful lot about hunting either. So yes it would survive.
 
H
Sandstone1 said:
Oh, so you mean " Hound exercise" Round here that pretty much means cub hunting..... Why would you want to introduce kids to a "sport" That will no longer be legal??
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Hound exercise is definitely not a smokescreen for cubbing! My daughters have been out numerous times on their ponies and our hunt also has cycle hound exercise sometimes followed by a BBQ.
It's not an early morning jaunt and I can hand on heart say the hounds haven't picked up a scent whenever I have been out.
It's a social occasion and fundraiser, lots of kids on the lead and people who often never hunt enjoying riding on land they don't normally have access to.
 
I'm Dun said:
The problem is the bad hunts are numerous and its very public now. The good hunts really messed up. They needed to come out quickly and HARD on the bad hunts, really draw a line between them. They might have had a chance then. Its too late now sadly and tbh having gone from having family who were masters etc and being pro hunting, I'm anti now. The behaviour of some has ruined it for everyone
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Standards of good legal trail hunting should have come from the top and from the MFHA, but as we all know, the MFHA have failed to protect trail hunting by turning a blind eye and encouraging scrupulous bad hunts.
 
minesadouble said:
H

Hound exercise is definitely not a smokescreen for cubbing! My daughters have been out numerous times on their ponies and our hunt also has cycle hound exercise sometimes followed by a BBQ.
It's not an early morning jaunt and I can hand on heart say the hounds haven't picked up a scent whenever I have been out.
It's a social occasion and fundraiser, lots of kids on the lead and people who often never hunt enjoying riding on land they don't normally have access to.
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It is here. There will be no need to fundraise for hunts that wont be there any more .
 
minesadouble said:
Hound exercise is definitely not a smokescreen for cubbing! My daughters have been out numerous times on their ponies and our hunt also has cycle hound exercise sometimes followed by a BBQ.
It's not an early morning jaunt and I can hand on heart say the hounds haven't picked up a scent whenever I have been out.
It's a social occasion and fundraiser, lots of kids on the lead and people who often never hunt enjoying riding on land they don't normally have access to.
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You speak only for your hunt.
.
 
minesadouble said:
In that case, you speak for your local hunt and I will speak for mine.
They will still need to fundraise if they keep the pack on and simply exercise them 😊
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I very much doubt and hope that " Hound exercise" will not be allowed. Why would you keep a pack on just to exercise them? What would happen should they accidently pick up a scent? You would be back to trail hunting! We will see..... Will farmers allow you on their land just to have a jolly?
 
minesadouble said:
In that case, you speak for your local hunt and I will speak for mine.
They will still need to fundraise if they keep the pack on and simply exercise them 😊
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if you cannot let them work as hounds what is the point of keeping them for exercise. The only reason I can see is to bide time until we have a GE.

If hunts/members are quite happy just to ride along with a pack of hounds why do they need to hunt fox now or why do they even need a trail. It would be no different from an endurance ride, pleasure ride, club ride but you get to take dogs along and have the hassle of controlling them.
 
Sandstone1 said:
I very much doubt and hope that " Hound exercise" will not be allowed. Why would you keep a pack on just to exercise them? What would happen should they accidently pick up a scent? You would be back to trail hunting! We will see..... Will farmers allow you on their land just to have a jolly?
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The purpose of keeping them on would be to preserve the bloodlines. They would still need exercise.

Farmers allow hunts on their land now and it's no longer for pest control reasons. So no change there.

We will see but I certainly won't be holding my breath, I've a feeling that nothing will change in a hurry.

I think the Government has bigger fish to fry.
 
paddy555 said:
if you cannot let them work as hounds what is the point of keeping them for exercise. The only reason I can see is to bide time until we have a GE.

If hunts/members are quite happy just to ride along with a pack of hounds why do they need to hunt fox now or why do they even need a trail. It would be no different from an endurance ride, pleasure ride, club ride but you get to take dogs along and have the hassle of controlling them.
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Hound exercise, where I am, is a very different occasion to Trail Hunting. Most regular hunting folk don't bother with it.
It's a day out for people who are not regular members of the field, or those wanting to give a novice horse a steady experience. Generally no, or minimal jumping and just a few steady canters.
 
AdorableAlice said:
I very much doubt anything will be done with the manifesto promise to ban trail hunting anytime soon. Mr Starmer and his mates are far too busy robbing the poor, taxing the slightly less poor, crucifying the farmers and rural community, preventing small businesses from thriving, cutting local services etc etc.
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All the more reason why they will think that banning an activity widely seen in deprived urban areas as an upper class activity will win them votes?
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I fear with a ban there will be a lot of illegal hunting going on, there are at least 2 around here already, at least with the ‘official’ hunt they let us know when they are around and where they are going whereas the illegal hunts give no notice
 
minesadouble said:
The purpose of keeping them on would be to preserve the bloodlines. They would still need exercise.

Farmers allow hunts on their land now and it's no longer for pest control reasons. So no change there.

We will see but I certainly won't be holding my breath, I've a feeling that nothing will change in a hurry.

I think the Government has bigger fish to fry.
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Why keep a pack of hounds in nasty conditions in kennels just to preserve bloodlines when most people say foxhounds can not be pets? Why would you be preserving blood lines when they no longer have a job? There are fewer and fewer farmers who allow hounds on their land and once hunting properly ends there will be less. Lets not pretend that foxes are not hunted shall we? we all know thats not true. Its all been said before so I am out before I get angry. Yes, the government has other fish to fry but it will be done before the next election.
 
minesadouble said:
Hound exercise, where I am, is a very different occasion to Trail Hunting. Most regular hunting folk don't bother with it.
It's a day out for people who are not regular members of the field, or those wanting to give a novice horse a steady experience. Generally no, or minimal jumping and just a few steady canters.
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Here too - much shorter outing often with bacon sarnies afterwards 😀
 
minesadouble said:
The purpose of keeping them on would be to preserve the bloodlines. They would still need exercise.

Farmers allow hunts on their land now and it's no longer for pest control reasons. So no change there.

We will see but I certainly won't be holding my breath, I've a feeling that nothing will change in a hurry.

I think the Government has bigger fish to fry.
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preserve them for what? if there was no hunting why would they be needed?


minesadouble said:
Hound exercise, where I am, is a very different occasion to Trail Hunting. Most regular hunting folk don't bother with it.
It's a day out for people who are not regular members of the field, or those wanting to give a novice horse a steady experience. Generally no, or minimal jumping and just a few steady canters.
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minesadouble said:
I assume that if hunting is banned we may see a lot more 'hound exercise'. Well that is what I would hope.
For all those years of careful breeding to go to waste would be a travesty.
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so per above quotes if hunting was banned we would see more hound exercise, then most regular hunting folk don't bother with hound exercise

The only conclusion I can see if that to keep hunting folk interested hound exercise would change and become the new "hunting"

(I totally understand cubbing, sorry wrong word hound exercise. I live in the middle of fox hunting country.)
 
minesadouble said:
The purpose of keeping them on would be to preserve the bloodlines. They would still need exercise.

Farmers allow hunts on their land now and it's no longer for pest control reasons. So no change there.

We will see but I certainly won't be holding my breath, I've a feeling that nothing will change in a hurry.

I think the Government has bigger fish to fry.
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But what is the purpose of preserving the bloodlines? What hounds will be bred/used/needed in future?
 
Sandstone1 said:
Why keep a pack of hounds in nasty conditions in kennels just to preserve bloodlines when most people say foxhounds can not be pets? Why would you be preserving blood lines when they no longer have a job? There are fewer and fewer farmers who allow hounds on their land and once hunting properly ends there will be less. Lets not pretend that foxes are not hunted shall we? we all know thats not true. Its all been said before so I am out before I get angry. Yes, the government has other fish to fry but it will be done before the next election.
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Presumably, unless they are immediately destroyed (which as much as I dislike the illegal hunts, I would still feel sad at the thought of young healthy hounds being shot), the hounds currently in existence will still need to be kept/fed/exercised. At the same time I would fear some could exploit this as yet another loophole to abuse and continue hunting. I don't really know what the answer is to be honest 😕
 
minesadouble said:
I think for most people in the UK the fact that pensioners are struggling to heat their homes is a somewhat bigger influence on their vote than the Trail Hunting debate.
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Oh, I don't dispute that. Only that the government could probably push this bill through without a lot of push back, and it would be seen favourably by a lot of voters.
 
lizziebell said:
I would imagine it’ll be for the love of the breed. Majority of dog breeds are no longer bred for their original purpose.
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The majority of dog breeds are bred to be pets. Everyone keeps saying that hounds can't be pets, so surely the only way to maintain the existence of the breed would be to breed them to be more domesticated, which would mean moving away from the existing bloodlines, thus defeating the whole purpose?
 
equinerebel said:
Most have become domesticated pets. Everyone I've ever asked has said that lifestyle is not suited to the vast majority of foxhounds.
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The same could be said for many breeds that still exit. It’s just another ridiculous pro-hunt argument that foxhounds can’t be domesticated pets.
 
Tbh it’s an unjustifiable practice and I speak of this as someone who is entrenched in the hunting world. We will adapt. You know the end is coming when even massive hunts like Belvoir and Cottesmore experience political issues and consider mergers. The demographic has changed, the land has changed, landowners have changed and tbh the justification of it has changed. We can’t hark back to a past and a view that has changed.
I have always been ambivalent about hunting but tbh now find myself disagreeing with it.
 
minesadouble said:
Hound exercise, where I am, is a very different occasion to Trail Hunting. Most regular hunting folk don't bother with it.
It's a day out for people who are not regular members of the field, or those wanting to give a novice horse a steady experience. Generally no, or minimal jumping and just a few steady canters.
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I do wonder how all forms of hound sports will be banned tbh: do you ban having multiple dogs with horses, specific breeds of dogs, a specific number of dogs? If landowners wish to host a party that includes multiple horses/people and multiple dogs of a certain kind, do we really want a government to legislate for that? I am NOT talking about illegal fox hunting but legal trail, drag and bloodhound hunting which I think would be extraordinarily difficult to 'ban' without having unwanted consequences that would probably be unworkable and unpalatable in a democracy. Pirate packs will continue and likely attract the worst kind of people: as hare coursing has done where it was once highly respectable and effectively self regulated (however people may feel about the welfare of the hare) I have never been into coursing or hare hunting but I am aware of the history and evolution of that.

Will farmers/landowners still be allowed to flush a fox with 2 dogs I wonder? How would a ban on that be enforced? My terrier and farm sheepdog hunted the trail of a fox in the gorse and heather a few weeks ago - no chance of the fox getting hurt but it meant he was wary for a few days. I had no intent on hunting and flushing a fox is currently legal (and I was not carrying a gun). How will the police feel about potential legislation to cover everything from that scenario to a full blown drag hunt on private land? Honestly, it is a nonsense to think it possible...
 
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