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Many hunts in England that have used FaceBook to recruit first-time foxhunters have reported a doubling of interest compared to last year, according to a report in The Guardian by Fiona Harvey. More than one hundred people showed up for opening meet with the  Surrey Union Foxhounds, about seventy-five percent of whom were newcomers according to a spokeswoman for the hunt. “It’s been unbelievably successful,” she said. “We had notices locally, but mostly it was through social media.” Mark Ferguson of the Woodland Pytchley in Northamptonshire said, “Facebook has made a huge difference. It is so much easier, we can get to more and more people.” Youngsters seem to be making up a large portion of the new foxhunters. The Countryside Alliance estimates that at least 45,000 people will take to the field for opening meets this season, up about twenty-five percent from the numbers prior to enactment of the 2004 Hunting Act ban. While there has been talk about the possibility of relaxing some of the restrictions under the Hunting Act, no move has yet been made in Parliament by Prime Minister David Cameron to bring the suggested changes to a vote. Posted November 22, 2013

The Blessing of Hounds ceremony of the Aiken Hounds held at Memorial Gate in the Hitchcock Woods each Thanksgiving Day is an annual tradition in this horse-sport-minded South Carolina town. As with many hunts across the country and abroad, the ceremony represents the start of the formal season. This year Aiken Hunt members will celebrate their one hundredth blessing with an expanded liturgy in the Old English tradition to be delivered by Rev. Grant B. Wiseman, Rector at St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church. The ceremony will start at 11:00 am. As always, the public is invited, and with a larger crowd expected this year, attendees are asked to allow more time for parking and walking to Memorial Gate. The Aiken Hunt Masters are Linda Knox McLean, Larry Byers, and Joey Peace. Posted November 22, 2013

Coyote Population Rising in North Carolina Populating just the western part of North Carolina only ten years ago, coyotes are now said to be in all one hundred counties, according to an article by Michael Charbonneau for the Capitol Broadcasting Company. Nor have coyote sightings there been confined to rural areas. This year, seventeen separate sightings occurred near homes in North Raleigh, downtown in the state’s capital of Raleigh, and at Raleigh-Durham airport where two were killed in October by planes on the runway. One farmer who expects to lose at least five calves to coyotes each year recently lost twenty in one week. Coyotes are not protected in North Carolina and may be trapped or shot depending on where they live. Posted November 21, 2013

On Monday, November 4, a federal appeals court granted an emergency request by animal rights groups to temporarily block the expected reopening of horse slaughter plants in the U.S. After eleven years, horse slaughter was expected to resume as early as this week after a U.S. District judge in New Mexico last Friday threw out a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and other animal protection groups. The lawsuit by HSUS et al alleged that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), responsible for inspection of processing plants, failed to carry out environmental reviews before granting approval to the three companies scheduled to resume slaughter. The district judge in New Mexico dismissed the suit on Friday, clearing the way for horse processing to resume. HSUS et al responded on Monday, in their emergency request to the 10th Circuit, by arguing that an emergency injunction was necessary to prevent environmental harm. A two-judge panel granted the request. The anticipated resumption of horse slaughter was enabled mainly by a General Accounting Office (GAO) report to Congress that their 2006 legislation resulting in the closing of all horse processing plants in this country actually turned out to be detrimental to horse welfare. For more details, click to read Terry Baynes’s Reuters article. Posted November 5, 2013

Leith Symington Griswold, matriarch of a Maryland riding and foxhunting family, died at the age of ninety-seven, on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at her home in Monkton. Her favorite sport was foxhunting, and she hunted not only in Maryland, but in England and Ireland as well. It was in Ireland at Molly Cusack-Smith’s Bermingham House in Tuam, County Galway where I met her and her late husband Benjamin Griswold III. Joan and I stayed there for our hunting holidays, as did the Griswold family, who all hunted enthusiastically. I remember her for her utter charm and self-possession in any situation. Ultimately, Leith and Ben purchased an old rectory in County Tipperary, where she raised roses and pursued her other passion of gardening. She was a founding trustee of the Ladew Topiary Gardens in Maryland and was honored by the Garden Club of America for her work. Leith suffered a riding accident in 1979 and switched her equine attentions to steeplechasing. Her horses won major races including the Maryland Hunt Cup. Leith was the daughter of industrialist/sportsman John Fife Symington and Arabella Hambleton Symington. She graduated from the Bryn Mawr School and attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music. She also attended a school in Rome, spoke French and Italian, and traveled extensively in those countries. Click for Jacques Kelly’s tribute in the Baltimore Sun. Posted November 5, 2013

A surprising multi-party coalition of MPs—Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour, and Plaid Cymru—in sympathy with the plight of farmers suffering livestock losses from foxes are backing Parliamentary proposals to ease one aspect of the Hunting Act. Under the Act as it stands, when a farmer wants foxes on his property killed, only two hounds are allowed to flush the foxes from covert to guns. The proposals under consideration would allow a full pack to be used. Such a change would bring the Act in line with Scotland’s ban. Farmers say that attacks on lambs have been increasing, and claim that the hunting restrictions under the Act are impeding effective pest control. A vote in Parliament will be required, but a new bill will not be needed for the change. Supporters are pressing Environment Secretary Owen Paterson to back the proposals. Although Mr. Paterson is a long-time supporter of lifting the ban, he has not yet made a public commitment. A furious debate is expected. Read John Bingham’s article in The Telegraph for more details. Posted October 14, 2013

Huntsman Nicholas Bycroft of the Crawley and Horsham Foxhounds in West Sussex, England admitted in court last month to illegal foxhunting after being filmed by an animal rights activist. A year ago, three members of the Crawley and Horsham, including the former huntsman, pleaded innocent of contravening the Hunting Act but were found guilty. Evidence against the accused included video clips furnished by an animal rights group. Bycroft was given a year-long conditional discharge, ordered to pay costs of £150 and a victim surcharge of £15. According to the Crawley and Horsham hunt, “Nick Bycroft has taken the decision not to contest the allegation made against him of illegal hunting. “The Crawley and Horsham carries out trail hunting and exempt hunting and from time to time it is inevitable that the hunt will come across a fox. “On this occasion it does seem the hounds did find a fox in cover. The fox was not hunted and was not caught by hounds. “However, the Hunting Act is a draconian and complex law and Mr Bycroft has decided to plead guilty rather than go to trial.” Click for more on this case. In another court case in Somerset, Seavington huntsman David Parker admitted to illegally hunting a fox. The RSPCA is said to have spent £4,200 taking Parker to court, and was criticized for doing so by Parker’s solicitor Jamie Foster. This RSPCA has been on the receiving end of complaints from sportsmen’s groups for sometimes spending vast sums of contributors’ money to prosecute under the Hunting Act. Foster said, “The hounds got on the scent of the fox, but were never in sight of it….The fox escaped and was not harmed. “Instead of trying to stop the hounds from chasing the fox, in a moment of madness David Parker blew his horn and encouraged them on. “In the moral pantheon of criminal law it falls somewhere between littering and not paying for your TV licence. “The RSPCA asked the court for a bill of more than £4,700 to be paid. The court ruled £500 should be paid instead, so they have spent more than £4,200 on a prosecution which should never have been brought. “That money could have been spent helping animals, which is why people donate to the charity, rather than on this unnecessary court case.” Posted October 4, 2013