R. G. Eddy
B Vet Med, FRCVS Veterinary Surgeon and Consultant
Specialist in Cattle Health & Production (Reproduction)
Committee of Inquiry into hunting with dogs
PO Box 31010,
London,
SW1H 9ZL
25th February 2000
Dear Sirs,
I am a veterinary surgeon and have for the last 35 years been involved in farm animal practice in Somerset. I have lived in a rural environment all my life, except the 6 years spent at University and have a deep concern for the maintenance of the rural way of life which is being seriously eroded at the moment.
By and large farmers are excellent custodians of the countryside they have created it and now maintain. There needs to be a balance between the need to farm for food and at the same look after our wild life and environment in general. The balance of our wildlife population has evolved over centuries through the efforts of farmers and others living in the countryside.
The fox population is kept in balance. There is no evidence that it is endangered nor that numbers are becoming excessive. Hunting contributes considerably to maintaining a balanced fox population.
My fear, if fox hunting is banned, is that the population of foxes will decline rapidly. I say this because the fox is easily killed by man and, I believe, many farmers will kill all the foxes on their land. Farmers with sheep, free range poultry, birds such as pheasants will want to eliminate foxes. Even many cattle farmers will want to eliminate foxes. There will be no incentive to maintain a fox population, as the hunts will no longer exist. Many farmers tolerate a moderate fox population to satisfy the needs of the hunts.
If the fox population falls I suspect that government will introduce a protection order to prohibit the killing of foxes which will then result in over population. The consequences of excessive population in any animal species, particularly when the weak are not being culled as happens with hunting, is that disease intervenes and culls some of the population. The danger here is that this disease may be transmissible to man or domestic or farm animals. Mange is already a problem in foxes in many areas and this is frequently transmitted to dogs. Hunts do cull out foxes that become debilitated from mange. But there might be other diseases that become endemic in the fox population e.g Bovine Tuberculosis.
Of course there is no evidence that the above scenario will happen but we do have a model and that is the badger population. It is no coincidence that badger numbers have increased enormously since the badger protection orders were introduced. It is also no coincidence that Bovine TB in badgers and cattle has increased significantly in recent years. I strongly suspect, if badger numbers had been controlled at the levels of the early 1970s, we would not have the high incidence of Bovine TB that exists today. I also believe that if fox numbers were allowed to increase at the same rate as badgers we can expect a disease problem to develop in the fox population. This disease could be mange or Bovine TB or some other disease that we have not yet considered to a problem in foxes.
The fox population is in balance at the moment but if hunting is banned then this balance will be destroyed. I believe that the possibility of a serious disease becoming endemic in the fox population is real if fox numbers increase significantly and there is every possibility that this disease may spill over into our farm or domestic animals.
Yours sincerely,
R. G. Eddy.
Date uploaded to site 30 May 2000