Fox hunting

Foxhunting is a sport consisting of riders on horseback and a pack of hounds chasing an animal, usually a fox. The traditional foxhunt began in England, where the fox was regarded as a nuisance because it killed farm animals, such as poultry. The hounds were often permitted to violently kill the fox at the end of the hunt. If the fox was able to dive into an underground burrow to escape the hounds, small terriers were sent to attack the animal as staff dug it out.

The sport was primarily enjoyed by the wealthy and titled class as a social event. Foxhunting was also popular among the upper classes in colonial America, where the first recorded foxhunt took place in 1650. Enthusiasts in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also embraced the sport.

Animal rights activists protested foxhunts during the late twentieth century. They succeeded in banning the use of dogs to kill wild animals in Scotland in 2002 and England and Wales in 2004, although this did not stop the hunts. Modern foxhunting is popular with members of varied economic and social classes.

Background

Hounds have been used to hunt animals for thousands of years. Some hounds were bred and trained to track prey by scent. These scent hounds were used in Europe to hunt deer and hare. Foxhunting with hounds in England dates to at least the fifteenth century.

A number of laws in England allowed large fields and common lands to be divided for farms. This change in habitat led to a decrease in the deer population. Foxhunts became more popular through the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as deer became increasingly scarce. Several breeders produced hounds that were well suited to the sport.

The height of foxhunting's popularity arrived in the early twentieth century. The Master of Foxhounds Association organized frequent hunts, and the quality of horses and hounds was refined through breeding practices and training. Soon, however, the sport faced some challenges. The rural areas were increasingly developed by smallholders, or family farms. The barriers such as barbed wire fences used to protect farms hindered hunts. People began to oppose the hunts on grounds of cruelty to the foxes. Hunt organizers adapted by holding hunts during the winter, from November to April, to avoid interfering with agriculture.

Overview

A person known as the master conducts the hunt and is the ultimate authority of a hunt. Participants are traditionally involved through the master's invitation, even when they are paying to do so. Hounds hunt in matched pairs, called couples, in packs of between forty and sixty animals. The master may control the pack, but usually this duty falls to the master's senior employee, called the huntsman. The huntsman, who is the person who hunts the hounds, controls the pack with a horn and vocal calls, called cheers. In the hierarchy of the hunt, the master is first, followed by the huntsman, although in the field, the huntsman's lead usually takes priority. A few other workers, the whippers-in, help to control the pack, and all participants in the field must yield the right of way to them.

Traditional kit, or dress, for a foxhunt is a scarlet coat worn over a white cravat. The coats are often called Pinks, after the tailor, Thomas Pink, who designed them. The scarlet coat is worn by only the master, huntsman, and whippers-in—who wear black velvet caps—and the followers of highest standing—who wear top hats. Women in modern hunts often wear black velvet caps, and many modern foxhunt participants wear black velvet safety helmets. The other participants, called followers, wear black coats and either top hats or bowlers. The number of buttons of the hunt on one's jacket indicates status in the hunt. Some among the nobility wear traditional family hunting colors, rather than scarlet or black, during ancestral hunts.

The hunt begins with a meet, when the master greets the followers. A member of the hunt traditionally acts as host, serving some refreshments before the hunt begins. The master orders the huntsman to find a fox, and the hounds are released. When the pack and huntsman find the quarry, the followers are alerted by the cry of hounds, the sound of the horn, and the call "Tally-ho!" The followers trail the huntsman and pack on horseback. When a member of the hunt spies the fox, he or she cries out "Holloa!"

In a traditional hunt, the pack kills the fox. The master collects the animal's tail (brush), head (mask), and feet (pads), which the master may give to followers deserving of recognition of merit. The rest of the animal is tossed to the hounds, which rip it apart.

Hunting using a scent trail rather than a live animal is known as drag hunting. A runner dips a rag in a specially scented mixture, and then drags it along the ground in a wooded area about twenty minutes before the foxhounds are released. In some cases, bloodhounds are used to simply follow the scent of a human runner and no chemical scent trail is laid. The whippers-in are responsible for controlling the pack and preventing it from following the scent of a live animal, including foxes and deer. Although hunting live animals was outlawed, many rural foxhunts continued to target live quarry. By law, any hunt that does target a live fox must shoot it and may not allow the hounds to kill it.

Activists opposed to foxhunting organized in 1963 when they formed the Hunt Saboteurs' Association (HSA). Activists, often referred to as sabs, work to disrupt hunts through activities known as sabbing. They may try to confuse the hounds by blowing hunting horns and disrupting the scent trail by spraying scented oil on the ground. They also video record hunts to catch illegal activity. Some activists have been killed in attempts to stop hunts, and members of the hunting parties have been killed and injured. While hunting advocates say foxhunting is necessary to protect livestock, anti-hunting groups claim hunting groups raise and release foxes purely for sport.

The sport has been adapted to suit the conditions of other countries in modern times. For example, hunts in the United States and Canada generally focus on the chase, and do not kill the quarry. For this reason, they are often called fox chases. Foxes are uncommon in much of North America; therefore, many clubs organize coyote hunts instead. Coyotes present a bigger challenge than foxes due to their size, strength, and speed. In some parts of the United States, hunt clubs chase bears, bobcats, or rabbits.

Bibliography

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Carr, Rebecca. "Master of the Hunt." Elysian, 20 Feb. 2017, readelysian.com/articles/master-of-the-hunt/. Accessed 1 June 2017.

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