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The League Against Cruel Sports (LAS) has announced its intention to use unmanned drones with video cameras to bolster their prosecutions in court against illegal hunting in England. A spokesman said they would provide the evidence to police. The LAS claims that the airspace above private property is free and open to their surveillance. They plan to use the services of ShadowView, a non-profit company that provides surveillance by remote-controlled aircraft. The Hunting Act went into effect in England and Wales in 2005, making it illegal to hunt the fox with a pack of hounds. To comply with the law, hunts putting a pack of hounds into the field must lay a drag. Foxhunters claim that the law is unworkable because hounds may come across the line of a live fox and give chase. When that happens, the prosecution must prove that the huntsman and staff intended to hunt the fox in order to gain a conviction. Intent has been so difficult to prove in court that police have been loathe to bring charges and waste the courts’ time. The LAS believes that aerial videos will help provide the needed proof. The LAS announcement has raised questions of privacy. Click to read the complete BBC article. Posted March 18, 2013

Horse processing is likely to resume in the U.S. after six years without the availability of domestic slaughtering facilities. The last horse slaughtering plant in the U.S. closed in 2007 when Congress forbad the USDA from inspecting horse meat for human consumption. Since then, horses destined for European and other foreign food markets have been shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. Now Valley Meat Company in California expects to open, in Roswell, New Mexico, the first horse processing plant since the closures. USDA inspection and approval is required before slaughtering can take place in any processing plant. In 2011, four years after Congress banned inspections, they removed their ban after the General Accounting Office— Congress’s objective and apolitical investigative arm—bluntly reported that the unintended consequence of Congress’s intrusion into the horse slaughter debate had actually harmed the welfare of the unwanted horse population. Since the ban was lifted there has been talk in several states about opening such plants. Last fall, Valley Meat Company sued the USDA for inaction on their request for inspections, and the agency is now expected to approve their request. According to a New York Times article, the Obama administration is urging Congress to reinstate the ban. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has petitioned the Agriculture Department and the FDA to delay approval of any horse slaughter facilities because of concerns about the presence of drugs that might have been administered to the horses. Posted March 9, 2013

The Blue Ridge Hunt point-to-point races scheduled for Saturday, March 9 have been postponed until Sunday, April 21 due to the heavy snowfall in the Shenandoah Valley. Posted March 6, 2013

A group of students—foxhunting enthusiasts—at Greater Exeter University in the UK decided to introduce their non-hunting friends to the sport. They elected an MFH, appointed one of their members to be the fox, and fixed the time and place of the meet at one side of the campus. Any student with a bicycle was encouraged to join the hunt. After a short speech on hunting etiquette, the fox was off and the chase was on. “With much holloaing, tally-hoing, and some questionable tunes from my hunting horn, we followed him round campus and caught him just outside our favourite pub,” explained Tobias Lawes, the group’s “MFH.” The group plans to organize an Urban Country Sports Society, with donations going to the Countryside Alliance. Click for more details in Amy Mathieson’s article in Horse and Hound magazine. Posted February 25, 2013

Yetserday the Virginia Senate passed Senate Bill 1280 which prohibits competitions in fox or coyote pens. This will affect foxhound field trials that use such enclosures for their sport. The bill also limits the number of dogs allowed in an enclosure to no more than five per acre. The bill does not curtail the use of pens as training enclosures by individuals or hunt clubs. Click for more information as published by Virginia’s Legislative Information System. Posted February 6, 2013

Two farms in New Jersey—one in Gladstone, the other in Pompton Plains—are under quarantine for exposure to the neurologic form of equine herpes virus-1. A horse from the Gladstone farm that had attended a horse show in Newburgh, New York tested positive to the virus. After tracing the movements of the infected horse, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture determined that eleven horses in that state had been exposed. None, however, have tested positive. The infected horse is being treated and is said to be recovering at a veterinary quarantine facility Oldwick, New Jersey. Horses in New York State, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania have or may have been exposed, but none have tested positive as yet. The two Connecticut horses are in quarantine. For more details, see Megan Brincks’ January 25, 2013 article in The Chronicle of the Horse. Posted February 6, 2013

The traditional “Night of the Foxes” took place in Upper Styria, Austria over the last weekend in January, 2012. The tradition endures there as a way of controlling the fox population, balancing the natural environment, and protecting small game. Although details were sparse in the Austrian Times article, the hunting method seems to involve the staking out of an area by participating individuals overnight while the foxes are out and active. The hunter must keep absolutely still and quiet so as not to alert his quarry, and he shoots it if it comes within range. Success is said to require skill and experience. The morning after, the hunters’ trophies are proudly laid out for the townspeople to see and admire. The ceremony includes horn blowers in traditional Austrian attire celebrating the hunters’ achievements on their horns. Successful hunters are awarded fir branches, which they stick in their hat bands. Nineteen foxes were taken with one hunter accounting for three. Sounds more like our turkey hunting than foxhunting! Posted February 4, 2013

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has instituted a new program—Animal Disease Traceability Program (ADTP)—to allow livestock (including horses) to be traced in the event of a disease outbreak. ADTP will apply to all interstate transport. How this traceability program will impact the Equine Interstate Event Permit (EIEP) program devised by states in the Southeast to ease the flow of interstate horse traffic is not addressed. The USDA traceability program requires horses to have an Interstate Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (ICVI) or other document acceptable to the states involved, but doesn’t specifically address the new EIEP. The ADTP will be administered by the states with federal support. It goes into effect on March 11, 2013, but a transition period is anticipated to allow transporters to get used to the new rules. Posted January 27, 2013