Fox Hunting News

A coalition of local government and a private trust will help the abandoned horses at Dunsink, a common grazing ground near Dublin. The Fingal County Council and the Irish Horse Welfare Trust drew up the plans jointly. According to Sharon Newsome, spokeswoman for the trust, there are approximately sixty horses on the 160-acre site at Dunsink. “There is limited grazing and water supplies, and there are a lot of dangers for horses on the site,” she said. The plan will start by providing temporary feeding and watering stations and monitoring the welfare of the horses there. Then in the weeks to come, local horse owners will bring their horses to vet checks for microchipping and the issuance of passports. Unclaimed horses will be taken into care by the Irish Horse Welfare Trust to be rehomed. Horse Sport Ireland, a government-established agency, is sponsoring the passports and microchipping of all the horses. It has been reported that as many as one hundred thousand horses across Ireland are being abandoned as a result of the financial crisis there. Read more details in Sean MacConnell’s article in The Irish Times.January 25, 2011

There are movements stirring to re-open horse processing plants in the U.S. The last remaining processing facility, which was located in Illinois, was closed in 2007 by a federal judge. Although horse processing was not outlawed, Congress, in 2006, curtailed the US Department of Agriculture’s inspection of such plants. Just recently, a Summit of the Horse conference was held in Las Vegas in which strategies for reviving the horse processing industry were presented and discussed. Proponents say it would revive an industry, stabilize prices at the bottom of the horse market, and be a more humane way of dealing with abused and abandoned horses, which are now transported thousands of miles to Canada or Mexico. “Once they’re across the border, we don’t know how they’re being treated. If we process them here, we will do it humanely and the meat will be properly inspected,” says Nebraska Senator Tyson Larson. Larsen spoke at the Las Vegas conference and introduced a bill in his state last week that, if passed, would create a state meat inspection program that could eventually allow Nebraska to ship horsemeat across it’s borders. In the past, some U.S.-processed horsemeat was sold to zoos, but most of it was shipped overseas to markets and restaurants. Read more in Heather Johnson’s article in the North Platte Telegraph.January 16, 2011

England’s Hunting Act will go unchallenged in 2011, despite Prime Minister David Cameron’s earlier pledge for a free vote in Parliament and despite former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s admission this year that passage of the Act was a mistake. Although the government claims there are more pressing issues requiring Parliament’s attention, there is doubt now that the ban could be repealed even if a vote were held in this session. While most Conservatives (Tories) in the last Parliament were pro-hunting, many of the newly elected Conservatives are not. A recently formed campaign group, Conservatives Against Fox Hunting, claims that two- thirds of Conservatives oppose repeal of the ban. Read more in Rosa Prince’s article in The Telegraph.December 27, 2010

The Daily Mail reports that thousands of horses—perhaps as many as one hundred thousand—are being abandoned in Ireland as a result of the financial crisis there. Many are brought by their owners to common grazing grounds, such as Dunsink tip near Dublin, and left to fend for themselves. Some too weak to survive have had to be euthanized by animal welfare workers. To prevent a collapse of the Irish currency, the government has imposed stiff austerity measures that are expected to result in a ten percent reduction in disposable income for the middle class and even deeper cuts for lower income families. This, after boom years when Ireland posted the highest annual GDP in the western world. During those years, workers of all classes were financially able to accumulate more goods. And more horses. Certainly more horses. For a people where the horse has been an integral part of family life since ancient times, certainly more horses. Some lived in the house garden, some in fenced-off building sites, some on common land. And now, many owners can neither feed nor care for them. More details are available at Daily Mail Reporter.December 22, 2010

Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon won the National Book Award for Fiction last month. The book’s title is taken from the name of a horse at a seedy, fictional racetrack in West Virginia. As a novelist, Jaimy Gordon has been championed by a few during her years of obscurity, and was, as the New York Times acknowleges in their review, barely noticed by that august publication at all. The Times admits, however, that “this novel is so assured, exotic and uncategorizable, with such an unlikely provenance, that it arrives as an incontrovertible winner, a bona fide bolt from the blue. The story emerges from that hidden world—the backstretch of the racetrack—unknown to even most horse enthusiasts. It is authoritatively drawn by the author with imaginative characters and inspired dialog. The book is divided into four horseraces, the intrigue deriving not so much from the question of which horse will win but from murkier issues such as the rules of claiming races and the archane culture of the backstretch. Read more in Janet Maslin’s column in the New York Times.December 14, 2010

Huntsman Richard Down of the Quantock Hills staghounds has been convicted for a second time under the Hunting Act. He was convicted for hunting a wild mammal with more than two dogs. Down had three. Down’s first conviction was in 2007 when he was found guilty of chasing deer with hounds. In the five years since the Act came into effect, only four individuals have been convicted for hunting. Down’s latest conviction was based on video footage shot by The League Against Cruel Sports. Down claimed in his defense that he was looking for the stag, and more than two hounds are allowed for that phase of the hunt. Down, an experienced huntsman for twenty-one years, claimed that once the stag was found, he could not stop the hounds. The judge decided that Down could have called them back and fined him 2,920 pounds. For more details, read the BBC News story.

The ballot measure to make hunting a constitutional right was defeated by Arizona voters. Poor communication among pro-hunting groups, confusing language in the legislation, and large expenditures by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) opposing the bill were cited as reasons for the measure’s defeat. A single cash donation by HSUS of $250,000 to the “No on 109” group represented more money than the total dollars raised by proponents of the bill. Even hunters were confused by the language and weren’t certain which way to vote. Sponsors of the bill realize they need to do a better job of communicating in the future. Read Matt Maxon’s article in the Yuma Sun for more.November 16, 2010

Notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s promise of a free vote in Parliament on the repeal of the Hunting Bill, the issue has been eclipsed by the more pressing problems of the British economy. Despite Countryside Alliance head Alice Barnard’s recent statements urging that Prime Minister David Cameron “right a great wrong” by overturning the ban, the Alliance has decided against making the repeal a priority issue at this time. One has to wonder if concern over the economy is just a smoke screen for backing away from the fight to repeal. The Telegraph states “that only a minority of MPs—253 out of 650—are committed to repealing the Act with at least 22 Conservative MPs among more than 300 who would vote against repealing the law.” Even amongst Tories—the constituency most strongly supportive of hunting—support for repeal is dwindling. For more details, read Andrew Hough’s article.

Were he alive today, famous cavalry officer General George Patton would be appalled that a high school student in his old home town could be suspended for riding a horse to school. Hamilton-Wenham High School is, after all, in General Patton’s old hunting country, home to the Myopia Hunt since 1882. High school senior Dan DePaolis asked his parents if he could ride their horse to school for Spirit Week. He dressed as a knight and had a friend and classmate act as his squire. The classmate walked on foot, holding the horse by the bridle, but the trio was allegedly accosted in the school parking lot by the assistant principal. The school official told DePaolis to get off the horse and remove the animal from the school grounds. DePaolis’s father, who was nearby to supervise the boys and the horse asked what the problem was. The assistant principal allegedly said that bringing the horse onto school property was the equivalent of bringing in a loaded firearm. Despite the fact that DePaolis was a good student who had never before been in trouble, he was suspended for two days and his friend was suspended for one day as an accomplice. Neither was allowed to attend the school dance on Halloween weekend. Many in that horsey community have voiced their support for the DePaolis family. See a video of Dan DePaolis on YouTube. Read more details in Sam Trepani’s article in the Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle.November 2, 2010

Irish foxhunters, shattered by legislation earlier this year banning the 154-year-old Ward Union Staghounds, have been holding their collective breath for the next shoe to fall. The Green Party, instrumental in the staghound ban, were pushing additional legislation that would require all dog breeding establishments with five or more breeding bitches to be licensed and open to inspection by government department officials. Effective lobbying, however, by HAI and FACE—multinational pro-hunting groups—has succeeded in securing a number of concessions for hunt kennels. Records of tattoos and microchipping will be kept in a HAI/FACE central database, and license fees specified in the bill will not apply to hunt kennels. Green Party Minister John Gormley had promised exemptions for hunt kennels but did not deliver on an earlier draft of the bill. RISE! (Rural Ireland Says Enough!) was also instrumental in defending hunting against Green Party pressure. More details available in Hounds magazine, October 2010.October 30, 2010