Fox Hunting News

The Aiken Hounds, founded in 1914, are making plans for their centennial celebration next year. In the late nineteenth century, the South Carolina town was becoming a favorite wintering place for wealthy families from the northeast. Thomas Hitchcock, Sr. and William C. Whitney established the Aiken Winter Colony there and were joined by Astors, Bostwicks, Harrimans, Vanderbilts, other notable families, many of whom had equestrian interests in racing, polo, and hunting.   To this day the Aiken Hounds continue to hunt the drag through the Hitchcock Woods, the largest privately-owned urban forest in the nation. Situated at the very edge of the old village, the Hitchcock Woods Foundation maintains the tract, now encompassing more than two thousand acres, for the enjoyment of all. Foxhunting as an institution is ingrained in the fabric of the community to this day, and the Aiken Hounds has played a central role in the city’s history and culture for the last hundred years. The hunt’s annual Opening Meet, Blessing of the Hounds, and Stirrup Cup in the Hitchcock Woods at Memorial Gate was selected by the Huffington Post as one of the country’s Ten Terrific Thanksgiving Traditions. A book commemorating the hunt’s one-hundredth anniversary is planned for release in 2016 to coincide with the one-hundredth anniversary of the Aiken Horse Show in the Woods. Photographs and stories are currently being collected. Posted March 26, 2013

Virginia state game regulators recommended new regulations for the operation of foxhound training preserves. The proposed new regulations satisfied pen owners and disappointed animal rights activists. After a period of public comment, a final vote will be held by the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries in June. The recommendations apply to nearly forty preserves in Virginia, and if passed would require improvements such as rounded fence corners, improved escape routes and structures, and acclimation periods for new foxes. The moratorium sought by animal rights groups was considered but not included in the recommendations. However the board did call for the elimination of cash prizes in foxhound competitions. Davy Hackett, president of the Virginia Foxhound Training Preserve Owners Association, said the recommendations were a “common sense effort” to improve the operation of preserves, according to an Associated Press story by Steve Szkotak. Posted March 22, 2013

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