staghounds
The Lunesdale and Oxenholme Staghounds
Not your ordinary fell foot pack!Don’t bother looking this one up in Baily’s! (Not to be confused with the Lunesdale Foxhounds.) The Lunesdale and Oxenholme Staghounds concluded its sporting operations upon the outbreak of World War II. The hunt was an anachronism in the Lakeland fells of northern England, and its history, as related by Ron Black in a just published fifty-eight page booklet, taught me something of carted stag hunting that I found sufficiently fascinating to relate here.
UK Huntsman First to Garner Two Convictions Under the Hunting Act
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.
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