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Four states—Arkansas, Arizona, South Carolina, and Tennessee—have right-to-hunt referendums on the ballot this year. Kentucky may follow. Such constitutional guarantees have already been passed in nine states: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Not all the legislation has been recent; Vermont passed their amendment in 1777! California and Rhode Island have established constitutional rights to fish, but not to hunt. The right-to-hunt initiatives are spreading now as a result of animal rights pressures against hunting and fishing across the country. Dove hunting has already been banned in Michigan, a state with a million hunters, as a result of HSUS efforts, and bear hunting is under attack by activists in Kentucky and Minnesota. Sportsmen seek to establish their rights in state constitutions before animal rights activists persuade a majority of American citizens that hunting is bad. Animal rights spokespersons pooh-pooh the attempts as unnecessary.September 12, 2010

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has banned the use of enclosures in the hunting of fox or coyote with hounds. The decision, made at a commission meeting on Wednesday, September 1, made permanent the temporary ban instituted in February. The ban is the result of complaints concerning at least one pen owner’s non-compliance with requirements and game laws. Hounds may still be used to chase foxes and coyotes in the open. One such venue is Eglin Air Force Base, where a fox and coyote season for chasing runs from May 15 to August 31. Foxhound training pens are used by many hunts around the country as a part of their puppy training program. The pens are also used by individuals who simply enjoy running their hounds. Foxes (or coyotes) are provided with refuges within the pen to allow them to escape hounds when pressed. There are rules that limit the number of hounds that may be in a pen at any one time. The Florida Commissioners considered possible new rules but decided they would be unenforceable. Jeff Barker’s article in the Panama City News Herald has more.September 12, 2010

Foxhound training pens are used by many hunts around the country as a part of their puppy training program. The pens are also used by individuals who simply enjoy running their hounds. Foxes (or coyotes) are provided with refuges within the pen to allow them to escape hounds when pressed. There are rules that limit the number of hounds that may be in a pen at any one time. Under pressure from animal rights activists and evidence that certain Florida pen owners were breaking state game laws, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shut down all fox pens in February until it could work out new fox pen rules. Two meetings have been held to allow stakeholders to come to a consensus on improved rules. However, of forty-seven proposals considered, only six could be agreed upon by both sides. The Commissioners considered possible new rules but decided they would be unenforceable. They plan to vote this week on whether or not to ban the practice entirely in the state of Florida. (More on Naples News.)August 30, 2010

Horse owners in Alabama and elsewhere have been advised to vaccinate against Eastern Equine Encephalitis. The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries says that six cases of EEE in horses have been found in the state and contiguous counties. Commissioner Ron Sparks said, “Heavy rainfall has made us extremely vulnerable to the spread of mosquito-borne viruses, and we need to protect our livestock and ourselves.” Sparks encouraged horse owners to vaccinate their horses for both EEE and West Nile Virus as soon as possible. For more information in Alabama, contact Dr. Tony Frazier at 334-240-7253. Unusually high levels of EEE infections are being reported in many states this year. With an eighty percent horse mortality rate, horse owners are well advised to vaccinate and to destroy standing water mosquito-breeding sites.August 24, 2010

So far this year, four horses have been diagnosed with West Nile virus in California: in Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Madera Counties. Each of the four horses was either unvaccinated or not vaccinated completely. State officials have renewed calls for all horse owners to vaccinate, warning that outbreaks of the virus are still a risk for horses. “Horse owners should contact their veterinarians as soon as possible to ensure vaccination status is current,” said California State Veterinarian Dr. Richard Breitmeyer. Symptoms of West Nile virus include stumbling, staggering weakness, muscle twitching, and inability to stand. More information may be found at www.cdfa.ca.gov.August 18, 2010

The coalition government in Britain has confirmed its intention to offer Parliament a chance to repeal the Hunting Act by a free vote. After an online petition on the Number 10 Downing Street website called for repeal, the government responded, “The Act has not been a demonstrable success. It is an unnecessary drain on police resources and there have been few prosecutions. “We will put forward a motion before the House of Commons on whether the Act should be repealed and, if the motion is carried, bring forward legislation in due course.” See Abigail Butcher’s item in Horse and Hound for more.

The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has announced plans to sell some of its land in Exmoor to raise funds for a £1 million campaign to defend the hunting ban. This is in response to the coalition government’s promise for a free vote in Parliament on the repeal of the Hunting Act. LACS would place restrictions on the land to prevent hunting or shooting there, no matter the outcome of the vote. Spokespersons for the Countryside Alliance have argued that the Act is flawed and does not work. No date has yet been set for the vote, but according to BBC News, it could come as early as September, when Parliament returns from summer recess.August 14, 2010

The recent horrific incident of an actual fox attack on a pair of young twins in London spawned, according to Chris Atkins and Johnny Howorth, a media hysteria there disproportionate to the extent of the problem. According to Atkins, the reporting, including by the BBC, was irresponsible and misrepresentative, and the reports never stressed that urban fox attacks were rare and that foxes were not dangerous. To expose the “ludicrous media coverage” of the dangers of urban foxes, Atkins and Howorth produced a video satire as “ridiculously silly and Python-esque” as possible. Their video, showing a fox being clubbed to death in a London park, was posted on Facebook and YouTube, resulting in complaints to the police and condemnation by animal rights groups. Atkins apologized to those of the public who were upset by the footage, and assured them that the “dead” fox was actually a stuffed fox, and the live fox shown was actually a pet dog. Part of the video is said to have been used by the BBC in a television report documenting the apparent practice of urban fox killing. The video had since been removed from Facebook and YouTube. “I did not expect so many people to take it seriously,” he said. BBC News has more.

Three hunts face prosecution for incidents which occurred last season that allegedly violated the terms of the Hunting Act of 2004: the Fernie and Sinnington Foxhounds and the Quantock Staghounds. The trials, which are expected to take place this autumn, will be prosecuted based on surveillance evidence provided to prosecutors for the Crown by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). For more details, see Abigail Butcher’s article in Horse and Hound.August 8, 2010

We’re all busy legging up our horses for the upcoming hunting season now. And the summer has been a scorcher. You’ve no doubt become hot and sweaty while exercising your horse, but did you know that horses are much faster than people to become debilitated by the heat? This weather calls for electrolytes.. The Summer Olympics in Atlanta taught us a lot about summer heat and horses. Canadians researchers especially were stimulated to research the problem because their horses were not accustomed to the temperatures they were expecting to encounter. One surprising response they found was that horses feel the heat up to ten times faster than people. The horse not only gets hotter faster, but is more susceptible to the negative effects of heat stress. Professor Michael Lindinger of the University of Guelph was a lead researcher for the Canadian team. “It only takes seventeen minutes of moderate intensity exercise in hot, humid weather to raise a horse’s temperature to dangerous levels,” says Lindinger. The horse sweats to cool his body by evaporation, but the greatest majority of the sweat simply drips off the horse’s body. That sweat is ineffective in the cooling process, yet it carries needed salts from the body. In fact, the salts in horses’ sweat is four times more concentrated than in human sweat. “Those salts have to be replaced,” says Lindinger. “Just giving the horse water will not re-hydrate a dehydrated horse.” An electrolyte solution—water with the correct amount of salts dissolved in it—should be made available to the horse to replace those losses. For more information, read Teresa Pitman’s article in the University of Guelph newsletter.July 29, 2010