February 14, 2014
RSPCA Ratchets Up the Pressure Against Foxhunters
In what the Western Morning News calls a “game-changer,” the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) will soon be able to intensify its surveillance of foxhunting practices in England. An article by Martin Bell claims that The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has financed the hiring and equipping of ex-armed forces personnel and covert surveillance specialists to replace the volunteers that have been monitoring hunting activities. The LACS believes that these professionals will be able to furnish the RCPCA with better evidence with which to prosecute foxhunters that do not hunt within the law. In his article, Bell removes all doubt—if any doubt ever existed—about what England’s Hunting Act is really about: class hatred. Supporting the role of the RSPCA in prosecuting animal abusers, Bell writes, “It should not make any difference whether the abuser is a crack-cocaine dealer with a maltreated dog in his council flat, or a land-owning toff with a double-barrelled name and a rural mansion who kills foxes illegally.” [Italics ours.] Bell scoffs at any hope that the Hunting Act might be repealed by Parliament. He points out that a recent petition by Members of Parliament to allow sheep farmers to flush a fox with a full pack fizzled out when only 40 out of 650 MPs signed it. Click for more details. Posted February 14, 2014
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Hunting in Somerset (UK)
Slip into the saddle with Megan Corp as she takes her own line over the hedges of Somerset with the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Foxhounds. Wait! Tighten your girth.
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Carlow Famers Foxhounds at Glynn, County Carlow, Ireland
83-year-old Jack Lambert clears a double stone wall with the Carlow Farmers Foxhounds on his purebred Irish Draught hunter. Lambert is a regular visitor to the Genessee Valley Hounds (NY). / Noel Mullins photo
Only the most able riders, the foolhardy, or unsuspecting visitors go to the Carlow Farmers Foxhounds meet at John A’s Pub in Glynn. Only in parts of Galway and North Mayo have I ever seen such a succession of double stone walls that must be jumped clean because they don’t collapse. Many more cannot be jumped clean, but have to be banked. A clever and athletic horse is needed, and a rider who hangs on the reins is doomed!
