Boxing Day Meets Revive Conflict in UK
Two-hundred-fifty-thousand foxhunting supporters—both mounted and on foot—were expected to turn out on Thursday, the day after Christmas, for the annual Boxing Day meets across the UK. About 250 hunts participated in foxhunting’s biggest day of the year there.
“The incredible support for hunts has not wavered since the Hunting Act and shows the demand for repeal of this unfair and unworkable act, which was not born of concern for animal welfare, but rather prejudice against those people standing in fields across Yorkshire today,” wrote Ted Bonner, director of campaigns for the Countryside Alliance in The Information Daily.
Despite Chairman Lord Burns’s 2003 pronouncement at the conclusion of the government Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs—that the committee did not find hunting to be cruel—a prohibition on hunting was inevitable. The Hunting Act was passed and became effective in 2004.
Horse Slaughter Plants “Expected” to Open in NM, MO
Horse slaughter plants in New Mexico and Missouri expect to resume processing again in the U.S. in a matter of days. “Expect” is the operating word in this ongoing battle between the opposing views. Horse slaughter plants expected to open back in July of this year after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cleared the […]
Hamilton Fox, ex-MFH, WWII Hero, Dead at 93
Hamilton Phillips Fox, ex-MFH, died at his home on Maryland’s Eastern Shore on November 26, 2013 at age 93. He was a decorated Naval veteran of World War II and enjoyed a distinguished law career in Salisbury, Maryland for nearly fifty years, starting in 1947. He served as MFH of the Wicomico Hunt (MD) for […]
Foxhound Wins Best of Show at National Dog Show
Jewel, the American foxhound barely edged out (according to knowledgeable observers) at Westminster by the affenpinscher last February, was judged Best in Show at the National Dog Show at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. More than 1,500 dogs were entered in the all-breed show. The three-year-old female, GCH Kiarry’s Pandora’s Box (aka Jewel), is the […]
Social Media Brings Out New Foxhunters in England
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 […]
Thanksgiving Day Marks One Hundredth Blessing of Aiken Hounds
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 […]
Coyote Population Rising in North Carolina
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 […]
John Dean Is New Huntsman at Radnor
John Dean has returned to Pennsylvania to become huntsman for the Radnor Hunt. Although he spent his last seven years hunting coyotes in Missouri, Dean is well-known to veteran foxhunters in Pennsylvania. Dean was huntsman for the old West Chester Hunt, an un-recognized pack in that state, and served as professional huntsman for the Wicomico […]
Temporary Injunction Delays Resumption of Horse Slaughter
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 […]
Leith Griswold, Matriarch of Maryland Hunting Family
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 […]