18 February 2000.
Brian Caffarey,
Secretary, Committee Of Enquiry Into Hunting With Dogs.
I received notification only today regarding submissions to the Enquiry. I will therefore, if I may, restrict my evidence to a specific form of hunting which I have some knowledge of, that is the fox destruction packs which operate here in Wales.
Fox destruction packs consist of a group of men and children, usually numbering around twenty or twenty five, but sometimes as many as forty to sixty and a pack of fox hounds controlled by a huntsman. Most of the participants are armed with rifles and shotguns, this includes the children. The hounds are used to flush out the quarry which is then shot at by the followers. The largest of these hunts is the, Hafod based near Llanwrda, Llandovery. When they travel to a meet they will be joined by local hunters.
I, personally have seen these fox destruction packs in action, I also have many eye-witness accounts of their activities. They by no means confine themselves to shooting foxes. As they progress through a wood or across a field they shots will, literally, be taken at anything that moves. Three years ago I was asked, by a dairy farmer to collect an injured fox cub which had sought shelter in a barn. The farmer told me that he did not allow any hunt onto his land, but had on one occasion watched as two parties of hunters shot at each other across a valley. He had later found many dead birds in his woods.
I have also been told on many occasions about confrontations between the hunters and landowners. These men, armed and invariable dressed in camouflage clothing are an intimidating and indeed to some a frightening sight. I know of men and lone women who have been sworn at and threatened, no-hunting signs which have been destroyed and fences and hedges which have been trampled down. The, seemingly, standard reaction from the police, when a complaint is made, is, " there is nothing we can do, they will have gone by the time we get there"
From what I have seen the activities of fox destruction packs impart no benefit to the rural economy. There is not even the traditional stirrup cup at the local pub.
Foxes play a vital role in many ecosystems. particulary regarding their predation on rodents. After the Benelux countries had carried out a mass extermination of foxes they found that the spread of rabies greatly excelerated and were forced to, artificially, re-build their fox populations. According to MAFF less than 1% of lamb deaths are because of fox predation. The vast majority of lambs die because of bad husbandry. It can be true, however, that a particular farm can have a specific problem, perhaps with just a single fox. One farmer in Wales, rather than resort to killing the fox, found a novel solution. He put a Llama in with his sheep and it protected them from the fox. Dr. MacDonald of Oxford University after studying the effects of hunting on fox populations for ten years concluded that the more intensely they are hunted the more the fox will compensate for their losses. Hunting plays no role in controlling populations, far more animals are killed on the roads than by hunts. Animal populations are shaped by environmental means, extremes in weather and the availability of food.
Since the end of World War Two the countryside has been changed dramaticlly. Thousands of miles of hedgerows have been removed, ancient woodlands have been felled, water meadows and ponds filled in and wetlands drained. All this change has occured despite the fact that hunting has continued unabated. We have seen recent moves by Government to restructure farming subsidies, to make them, ' eco-friendly', encouraging landowners to conserve natural resources like ponds and woods and hedgerows.
The threat by the hunting fraternity to destroy the countryside should hunting be banned should, in my opinion at least, not be taken to seriously.
I believe that the real reason people kill animals is that they enjoy doing so, there are no economic, environmental or ecological arguments to support the hunting and killing of, fox, deer, mink, hare or any other species. Not only will the banning of hunting with dogs benefit the victims and the countryside in general, it will also benefit the hunters and even more important their children. In each and every one of the school massacres in the United States in recent years the children who opened fire on their fellow students, their teachers and family had a history of killing or torturing animals, as did the student who shot and killed his classmates in Germany last year.
Date uploaded to site 30 May 2000