Richard F May
Master

Lord Burns,
PO Box 31010
London
SW1H 9ZL

17th February 2000

Dear Lord Burns,

For nearly 100 years my family have had a pack of Beagles. My grandfather, my father, my mother, and now my wife and I, have always counted our most intimate and long standing friends amongst those who hunt with us throughout each winter. Thousands in return have had the opportunity to enjoy the countryside and, thanks to farming friends, have had ready access to private land while following hounds, which is a freedom we appreciate and treasure.

Our hunt diaries meticulously record every hunting day since 1905. As I have been fortunate to be fit enough to hunt hounds for over thirty years, we have unique records of hare hunting and the hare population in East Cheshire.

Surely there is no magic to preserving our wildlife provided we manage their habitat, their food source and their predators. There are those who passively watch wildlife. In today's increasingly industrialised and pressured society positive action is necessary and, as the hare is essentially a game animal, it will thrive if sufficient interested parties are committed to promoting its welfare.

Land management, particularly in upland Britain is undergoing considerable structural change. Extensive sheep farming could well give way to alternative forms of land use involving access, recreation and conservation. Country sports have a real role to play. Grouse shooting acts to conserve heather moorland. Likewise hare hunting provides recreational access and in partnership with the farming community helps to promote hare friendly land management without cost to the public purse.

I believe that hare hunting gives the hare a sporting, social and economic value, providing a real incentive for the hare and its habitat to flourish. So this submission is paradoxically as much for the long-term sustainability of the hare population as for maintaining the traditions of my family's pack of hounds.

Yours sincerely,

RICHARD MAY

4th February 2000

Lord Burns,
PO Box 31010,
London SW1H 9ZL

Dear Lord Burns,

I understand that you are enquiring into the facts behind hunting. I hope that it is in order that I share with you some of my experience in relation to beagling.

For some time now, I have hunted with The Forest & District Beagles, a private pack courtesy of the generosity of Richard May. It has been my responsibility to liaise with the farmers, over whose land we hunt in northeast Cheshire, and ask for their permission to hunt hare.

With very few exceptions, farmers welcome us over the broad mass of open countryside in northeast Cheshire. The farmers, whilst appreciating the presence of hares on the land no way view beagling as a threat to the hare population (no reflection on our huntsman!) Even when ewes are in lamb, such as now, farmers tend to go out of their way to accommodate us - otherwise we would not be able to hunt.

Farmers do not levy any charge for allowing us to hunt and at various stages members of the farming community will join us in our sport. We contribute to the local economy through the cost of maintaining our kennels (a direct spend of ca.£10k pa.) In terms of the indirect economic effect, we benefit the local pubs etc. to the tune of some thousands of pounds. It is likely that our patronage makes the difference between opening and closing for some of the more remote pubs.

I would also note that we are made to feel welcome when we visit farming families, no doubt because farming can be a lonely profession. Hunting offers significant social interaction (opportunities for youngsters to meet and occasionally marry.) I personally would be devastated to lose the opportunity to lose this enriching social experience. I would also note that it makes me particularly bitter to think that this could be lost because of voting pressure of people who have no experience of what we do and why.

I very much hope that you will conclude that the established country way of life is deserved and should be preserved.

Yours sincerely,

H.J.J Rylands

In 1 90S my grandfather, Herbert May, started a pack of beagles to hunt hares in the hills on the western edge of the Peak District. He kennelled hounds at home in Macclesfield and each Saturday used to walk hounds often ten miles to the Meet, hunt all day and then walk home afterwards. Hare hunting was his prime recreation and he continued to keep his hounds through both world wars though with a greatly reduced number. My father took over the hounds in 1951 after my grandfather's death, as did my mother and I in turn when my own father died suddenly in 1966. For ten years my sister looked after our hounds while I travelled home every weekend from London, where I was working as an Articled Clerk, so you can probably understand how much beagling has been part of the fabric of my family's way of life. My daughters are of an age where they appreciate the family tradition as well as the responsibilities and benefits of hunting, the involvement of local farmers, and of our supporters. I believe my daughters should now have the opportunity to maintain those traditions and freedom, though it is their choice whether they wish to do so.

As hounds were walked to each Meet, which my father continued to do until the year before he died, we hunted a relatively concentrated area around Macclesfield and in the hills near Buxton. For the last thirty five years the popularity of hare hunting has lead to invitations to hunt throughout East Cheshire and further afield. The country now covers the area between the M6 east to the Cheshire / Derbyshire border. Few parts of England have such a broad spectrum of landowners and farmers or such a variety of agricultural countryside. South of Manchester is the stockbroker belt of small paddocks and wealthy hobby farmers. To the west are dairy farms. On the hills on the edge of the Peak District lie sheep farms, almost all under serious financial pressure. Hare hunting throughout this variety of countryside has given hundreds of our followers some understanding of the complexity of the agricultural environment, particularly relevant today when farming is subject to such pressure from Europe, from competition and when questions about conservation abound.

Unsurprisingly given a well populated area south of Manchester our beagles have always enjoyed strong support. Before the First World War, even with little transport, the number of followers quickly grew to around fifty. Both my grandfather and father tried not to encourage excessive numbers of followers because the potential damage to the many loose stone walls on each farm might have worried the farmer concerned. The same can be true today. Holiday Meets used to attract over five hundred followers but the attractions of Manchester United and other sports now tend to limit followers to about one hundred at Christmas time.

Beagling is a cerebral sport so, in contrast to fox hunting with its excitement and risk tends to attract the elderly follower with a variety of interests, who comes for fresh air, friendship and exercise. Their attendance tends to be irregular, and socially motivated. A typical following on Saturdays will include many retired, professional people, a number of housewives mixed with local residents who would not easily replace the camaraderie found if hare hunting ceased.

The hare hounds used by Xenophon in 400 BC or hunted by Elizabeth I would have borne little resemblance to today's refined beagle. Selective breeding seeks to develop a hound which is capable of hunting a hare entirely on its own and the epitome of the sport is to watch a pack of hounds uniformly doing the same. On the western slopes of the Pennines the hills up to 1,400 feet are usually cold, wet and exposed to the prevailing wind. Walls are often five feet high and sheep are everywhere. The obstacles today, apart from roads, traffic, barbed wire and agricultural chemicals, provide the supreme test for any hare hound because the hare's scent is so very faint.

We keep about twenty couple of beagles in kennel, all of which are descended over twenty generations in the tail female line from a bitch my grandfather acquired in 1911. These hounds have been refined by selective breeding to have a low scenting ability across land foiled by sheep in the coldest weather. In the show dog world confirmation is all important. Only in the hunting environment following a live quarry can the sporting dog be meticulously bred and the gene pool refined to ensure that scenting ability is paramount and retained for longevity.

Hounds need regular exercise, and to be maintained at a level of fitness and obedience while hunting some distance from their huntsmen. Total reliability is essential amongst sheep or cattle or near obstacles such as roads or railways. With over 70 packs of beagles hunting an average of two days each week over five months, at least three thousand hunting days annually, the infinitesimal number of incidents is a measure of the efficiency involved.

To ensure that efficient management my family has always employed a kennelman who, while not full-time with hounds, would lose his job and accommodation if hare hunting ceased as the beagles are his priority. It is only one job, but it is his job.

The annual cost of funding is approximately £15,000 divided between labour (£8,500), vet, vehicle, kennel costs (£2,000), food (£2,500), and capital expenditure at around £2,000. The food cost is dependent on the support of farmers who supplied nearly 100 casualties last year and local abattoirs so future legislative restrictions could alter the availability or cost significantly. These costs do not include "out of pocket" expenditure whether in travelling, in petrol costs, or socialising at local hostelries. An estimate for individuals will inevitably be a guess but £250 annually (in practice perhaps much more) for each member (say 60 members) would amount to £15,000 spent with local traders.

Income comes from members who contribute £10,000 in subscriptions and the balance required comes through social activities which include farmers' evenings.

As hare numbers are generally recorded in our Hunt Diaries an assessment of the health and sustainability of the population is available. This information was first used by T.A. Coward in his 'Fauna of Cheshire' published in 1910 (Schedule A). Peak District hills with large wet areas of rushes do not support the numbers seen on lowland farms. The year on year assessment of numbers seen each three hour hunting day is rarely less than 3 and more usually 5/6. Occasionally, perhaps five times each year, numbers exceed a dozen but tend to reduce within six months, probably population related, following some form of disease.

From the hunting viewpoint, given the extreme hunting conditions with high walls, and cold wet weather all the odds favour the hare - the most hares ever caught in one season was 16 (1936), with an annual average over the years of less than 10. In recent seasons increases in the sheep population producing poorer scenting conditions have combined so hounds struggle to catch half that number. Those hares caught necessarily tend to be the weaker members of the species. In considering the motivation of those following the Beagles and spending perhaps £30,000 in total each year it is clear that the hunting success of hounds as a pack is well down the list of priorities.

The intimate relationship between farming, the hare's welfare and hunting in Cheshire is best described by setting out the facts in an historical and evolutionary context.

In the middle of the last century East Cheshire was full of numerous farmers mostly tenants of the Derby, Newton and Lyme estates covering some forty thousand acres. Hares as the preserve of the landowner were abundant. Mixed farming with both cattle and sheep provided a beneficial patchwork of cover for protection and grazing for food. Grouse moors on the western edge of the Peak District provided employment for numerous gamekeepers who controlled the fox population so a fair percentage of leverets survived to maturity.

After the Ground Game Act in 1880 the hare population reduced significantly because tenants of the small hill farms viewed a hare as best for the pot. As many walls were built with a dedicated 'smeuse' hole netting hares and poaching was easy. So when my grandfather started beagling although permission was easy to obtain from landowners there were very few hares and his early hunt diaries record a number of blank days.

Being a brewer with a small local brewery, however, my grandfather used to arrange meets of the beagles at local public houses. Throughout each season he provided lunch to entertain farmers, gamekeepers and tenants who gave him permission and preserved hares. The hare population responded. Other incentives included a special train to the Royal Agricultural Show in Bury in 191 1 and to Altrincham the following year. (Schedule B)

These initiatives ensured hares were preserved throughout the hunt country. So in 1925 as a further incentive to preserve hares he inaugurated a sheep dog trial, which became an annual event (Schedule C). Nearly one thousand farmers and friends used to attend each September. After the Second World War our farmers themselves re-established the trial as the Macclesfield Sheep Dog Trials Association and my grandfather and father were in turn President. I have been President for over twenty five years and the trials are now one of the leading trials in the country. As an example of the close relationship between farming and hare hunting in East Cheshire it is interesting that the sole surviving founder member of the Association, father of this year's Open Champion, attended my grandfather's first trial aged seven, as a truant from school.

After the Second World War taxation lead to the sale of the large estates. In 1950 the Derby estate sold fifty farms to its tenant farmers with my father (a lawyer) acting for forty nine of those tenants. Our hunt country became full of owner occupied farms, mostly mixed farms of around one hundred acres, and the vast majority used my father as their solicitor. Every Monday he walked twelve miles to an office at the local sheep and cattle market so was able to ensure that hounds were able to hunt virtually everywhere. Effectively my father had the exclusive right to hunt hares so, in partnership with the farming community, all agricultural conditions ensured an abundant hare population

Fifty years later and East Cheshire has changed dramatically. The one remaining Estate has just five tenant farmers. Each year more farms are sold, divided into a home for a wealthy incomer, perhaps into two horse paddocks, blocks of pasture for grazing or even for building.

The significant change is the demise of dairy and mixed farms. Sheep farms proliferate with a large increase in the sheep flock. Intensive cultivation of the land around each farm, new drainage, reseeding of old grassland and sheep grazing grass closer to the ground than cattle, have all reduced the habitat for hares. With Hill Sheep subsidies likely to continue in the Uplands even when Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance changes, the hare's habitat will continue to be under serious pressure. If hares are to find sufficient cover from predators and a suitable variety of grasses in competition with an increasing sheep flock the sporting incentive and catalyst has never been more essential to develop a hare friendly system of land management.

But land management alone will be insufficient. The spread of suburbia south of Manchester and the trappings of civilisation such as rubbish tips, road casualties and the like provide a ready food source, so the fox population has inexorably increased. An increasing number of casualties amongst the larger hill sheep flock compound the problem. Very few gamekeepers are now employed to control foxes. Certainly there are more individuals happy to prowl the roads at night "lamping", with or without permission, and foxes may be shot - but hares are also fair game and can command a price of about £8 each providing an easy cash return.

Today the brown hare needs its champions and the intimate relationship between hare hunting and farming still provides the foundation. Hare hunting can help to drive the conservation initiative - the farmer depicted in Schedule D whom I have known for over thirty years manages my own small sheep flock. Like him, many farming friends giving me permission to hunt hares are grandsons of farmers who gave permission to my grandfather. I am often asked to take the shooting rights so farmers can refuse others permission. Our communication system between farmer and hunt can alert the police to suspected poaching.

So in spite of the agricultural changes of the last century the partnership between hare hunting and farmers still flourishes (see Schedule E). Though not a comprehensive list of farmers welcoming hounds on over 30,000 acres the brown hare is the beneficiary. The task is considerably harder than ninety years ago and without hare hunting one must question whether anyone will have the incentive or the management network to maintain hare friendly habitat.

Throughout each year members of the Forest & District Beagles are involved in initiatives to record brown hare numbers and to promote its welfare.

a) Hare Counts - in the spring members watch hares in the early evening and record the number of hares seen to build up a year on year record.

b) Hunting days - on every hunting day a count of the number of hares seen is taken and recorded. Hounds provide a more accurate record because the ground is covered more thoroughly than by other research methods and results can be monitored immediately. On one occasion this year it was found that

the hare population had crashed dramatically, the suspect is no longer employed.

The Forest and District Beagles with the other packs of beagles (Royal Rock Beagles and Cheshire Beagles) and the Cheshire Wildlife Trust, Chester College, Warrington Ranger Service, CLA, Cheshire Police and others are lead partners in the Cheshire Brown Hare Biodiversity Action Plan. Our ability to provide real information about the hare population across tracks of the county on a year on year basis is the most accurate record available to collate numbers. The relationship between each pack and its farmers provides the best means available to date to deliver results.

The financial cost borne by the members of the Forest and District Beagles in direct and indirect expenditure is of the order of £30,000. That investment apart from providing an understanding and enjoyment of the countryside for each individual is the means by which some 45 square miles are managed, in part, with the brown hare population in mind. Should the fact that hounds may catch perhaps half a dozen hares annually be treated as a greater concern, or negate the benefits of private investment in practical conservation? Arguably this expenditure of £30,000 is one of the more constructive examples of effective land management available in the conservation area.

The traditions of hare hunting are not sacrosanct, nor is the existence of a family pack of hounds however longstanding. Hounds do catch hares, usually the unfortunate weaker members of the species, but the salient question should be the future welfare and sustainability of the brown hare in a countryside facing agricultural changes and an expanding industrialised society. Hare hunting in recording hare numbers and in promoting an understanding of habitat requirements and a partnership with the farming community ensures a significant net benefit. Without hare hunting providing the means it is unlikely that knowledge, incentive or funding will be available on a consistent basis.

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Uploaded to site 6 June 2000