November 18, 2012
Seven Years Later: Has Britain’s Hunting Act Failed?
That’s the view of Barney White-Spunner, Executive Chairman of the Countryside Alliance. “Hunting remains in good heart…and support is strong,” he wrote in the Alliance’s latest newsletter. After seven years under the law, White-Spunner claims that eighty-six percent of all hunts in England have the same number or more members and most feel higher or at least the same local support as before. The Act failed spectacularly, he said, because it was more of an attack on rural people than an attempt to improve animal welfare. Although members of the Crawley and Horsham Foxhounds were found guilty recently under the Act and were fined, statistics since the Act’s passage show few convictions and much police time wasted. “A damning indictment of the expensive and failed Hunting Act,” said Alice Barnard, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance. The Act’s history has reinvigorated calls from pro-hunters to scrap the “pointless” legislation. Read a more detailed review in Kimberley Middleton’s article in The Argus. Posted November 19, 2012
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For the Joy of It!
Jim Graham photoPhotographer Jim Graham captured an exuberant Bruce Miller—MFH and Field Master of Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds—in a moment that conveys by expression and posture the pure joy of galloping cross country. From Miller’s dainty grip on his stick to the loop in his reins, this is a picture of a confident rider on a trustworthy horse. F. Bruce Miller was the trainer of five-time champion and Hall of Fame steeplechase horse, Lonesome Glory. Miller raced over fences himself, is still an active trainer who has topped the Leading Earners’ list more than once, and is the father of champion jockeys Blythe and Chip Miller. The Cheshire members are celebrating their one hundredth anniversary this year and, as the photo attests, are still enjoying great sport! Posted November 18, 2012
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