with Horse and Hound

Our Hunting World

New Threats to Riding to Hounds in the UK

Now that Scotland has successfully banned trail hunting, the Labour Party has promised to follow suit in England and Wales. The fallout from this promise, laid out in its “manifesto” released this summer, has already affected several hunt clubs that hunt on Ministry of Defence land despite there not being any new legislation enacted from the newly elected party. In response, the British Hound Sports Association held a National Trail Hunting Day this month to try to sway public opinion away from supporting a total ban.
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British Trail Hunting Video

The British Hound Sports Association put out an informational video explaining Trail Hunting versus hunting live game (now illegal in the England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).
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British Trail Hunting Explained

The British Hound Sports Association put out an informational video explaining Trail Hunting in response to the Labour Party announcing their intention to follow Scotland in banning trail hunting.
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gray horse jumping fenceline

A Kiwi Hunting Adventure

Kristy Lathrop has been a member of the Fort Leavenworth Hunt in Kansas since she was a junior, where she also whipped-in. Her whole immediate family has colors with Fort Leavenworth, and her mother, Gayle Rue, is an ex-MFH. Last season Kristy helped design an educational platform for her hunt’s juniors to be successful for the junior field hunter championships, and it was impressive.
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Two hunstmen in red coats, on horses with a pack of hounds

The Wicklow Foxhounds meet at Coolgreany County Wicklow

The world-famous Cooley Farm Irish Draughts hunted with the Wicklow Foxhounds in Coolgreany this past month.
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grey horse with rider in red coat with hunt horn and whip

Hunting with Dogs Act in Scotland

On October 3, 2023, Scotland’s “Hunting With Dogs Bill” came into effect. The Bill was passed this January to ban all trail chasing (called a drag hunt in the U.S.) and any hunting with more than two hounds without a special license. This Bill replaces the Protection of Wild Mammals Act that has been in effect in Scotland since 2002. That Act allowed the hunting of foxes to protect livestock and ground-nesting birds or to prevent the spread of disease. The new Bill will affect eight foxhunt clubs and one mink hunt club located in Scotland. Two hunt clubs in Scotland now use bloodhounds as of this season to chase a group of runners (called “clean boot”) and should be unaffected by the Bill.
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Podcast TVH hounds

British Podcast on the Joys and Impact of Foxhunting

Podcast TVH houndsPhoto by Gretchen Pelham.

“On Hunting” is a new podcast out of England where, as we know, mounted foxhunting with hounds has been banned since 2004. Its aim is to change the public’s perception of hunting in an effort to save it. The reasons behind the ban on traditional fox hunting are not based on fact, nor are they in the interest of animal welfare whatsoever, but rather on animal rights groups who have convinced virtue-signaling politicians to take up their cause for money, votes, and power. There is a huge difference between animal welfare and animal rights, as is explained in some episodes.

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BFJan15 185k

Troubling Start to Britain’s Year

BFJan15 185kPhoto by Gretchen Pelham.

The new year is only a few months old, but it has been a long one for foxhunters in Britain. To hit the “high notes”, there have been guilty pleas, protests, arrests, national and celebrity outrage, and an updated Scottish ban on hunting. But the worst is that two hunt clubs have disbanded in the wake.

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TVH 101k 3

The English are coming?

TVH 101k 3Photo By Gretchen Pelham

Anyone who follows foxhunting in England knows that the sport has been under assault for decades. Illegal for 17 years, its successor, trail hunting, took a big blow last year following the hacking of an online meeting of the MFHA.

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Red Fox_MCR-212_2X0A9225.tiff

The Mystery of the Red Fox

Red Fox_MCR-212_2X0A9225.tiffRed Fox (vulpes vulpes)  /   Mike Roberts photo

The genesis of the red fox in North America has long been a rich subject for discussion. DNA studies have furnished answers, revealed genetically distinct types, and led to informed theories about how distinctive alterations to those lines developed as the result of separation and isolation during the Ice Ages.

Liz Kierepka―Senior Research Biologist and Assistant Research Professor at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, North Carolina State University―describes herself as “a wildlife geneticist with broad interests across ecology and evolution.” Dr. Kierepka was interviewed by Laura Oleniacz for The Abstract, a publication of North Carolina State University. Here’s what Foxhunting Life learned.

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