Tally Ho!

[perrin]

I don't know of any animal that hunts another for several hours at speed, not very efficient in terms of energy expenditure. Most hunters in the wild stalk and pounce, chase over a short period or wear the animal down at a slower pace over a long period, if they haven't caught it quickly it's a waste of energy to continue pursuing it at signficant speed.

There are signficant welfare issues associated with this type of hunting both for the animals used (horses and dogs) and the animals being hunted (foxes and coyotes), people would do well to remember this and remember that two wrongs (ie 1080) don't make a right.

I know next to nothing about fox hunting so had a quick Google and on Wiki it says

"that the animal rarely endures hours of torment and pursuit by hounds, and research by Oxford University shows that the fox is normally killed after only an average of 17 minutes of chase"

I wonder if that is true or not.

Oxford is known for putting out false study information, so do not believe a word they say. LOL

I think the concern is wikipedia, the citation given was a BBC news article. Google Scholar might turn something up if anyone wants to verify the source.

I think this is the article referred to

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/418681.stm

I wonder what the statistics for injury to horse and hound are.

[SkySoaringMagpie]

If we are broadening the discussion to any hunting with dogs, I think it's a case by case thing that depends on a broader set of criteria than the chase and the kill. I also think there isn't a clear line between recreation and population control.

For example, I'm not super keen on pig hunting partly because of sadistic weekend warriors but also because of the large number of failed piggng scruffers that rescue finds itself cleaning up out of the pounds. That's pushing the costs of the sport onto society without any kind of social contract to do so.

[Aidan3]

I think this is the article referred to

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/418681.stm

Yes, no references there either. Oxford may have never even looked at it, let alone drawn that conclusion. Creative interpretation is rife in the media.

I wonder what the statistics for injury to horse and hound are.

Going out on a limb here, I tend to view some amount of injury as reasonable. If the dog is working and doing something he loves, then some degree of injury is par for the course. Strictly talking about the dogs here, not the horses or the foxes.

[SkySoaringMagpie]

Going out on a limb here, I tend to view some amount of injury as reasonable. If the dog is working and doing something he loves, then some degree of injury is par for the course. Strictly talking about the dogs here, not the horses or the foxes.

When I was at Crufts recently (oh shut up SSM), more than one of the Salukis being shown had missing bits of fur or scars. Here you don't see that in the show ring so much, but over there no-one turned a hair.

Knowing how much the dogs love it, and live for it when they get a chance, I see rips and sprains as reasonable too.

[john.davey.1960]

Oscar Wilde said it all:

"The Unspeakable In Pursuit Of The Uneatable".

[raz]

I know next to nothing about fox hunting so had a quick Google and on Wiki it says

"that the animal rarely endures hours of torment and pursuit by hounds, and research by Oxford University shows that the fox is normally killed after only an average of 17 minutes of chase"

I wonder if that is true or not.

I've only ever been on drags but when a fox gets in the way it's toast pretty quickly

[scrappynsuzie]

I'm more worried about the photo of the horse jumping the wire fence