League allegations misrepresent proof
KATHERINE Watson's recent letter Hunting devotees are in the minority, Letters, March 25, refers to allegations of illegal hunting made by the League Against Cruel Sports against the East Devon and Axe Vale Hounds.
The film footage apparently shows the hounds entering a wood. The claim is made that because a rider could not have laid a trail through a wood then the hounds could not have been following a laid trail and this means they are breaking the law.
First, trails can be and are laid through woods — if a rider wishes to lay such a trail they simply get off the horse.
Second, trail hunting includes searching for a trail and not necessarily following it.
In addition to this, no part of the Hunting Act prohibits hounds from being allowed to enter a wood.
Also, there was no fox seen and the courts have ruled that hunting for a fox only becomes a criminal offence when a certain animal has been identified.
The League Against Cruel Sports makes constant allegations that hunts are breaking the law. Almost all these allegations are based on a misrepresentation of the evidence, the law and the hunt's actual activities.
Giles Bradshaw
Rose Ash
Comments
by Will, Mid Devon
Tuesday, April 06 2010, 12:02AM
“My house overlooks a wood on the edge of a very small village. I watched hounds running unsupervised into this wood, which is three fields away from the road on which the huntsmen were riding. After much barking and foraging about by the hounds, I watched a fox run through t5he wood pursued by several of the hounds (still unsupervised). I temporarily lost sight of the fox which emerged from the wood somewhat ahead of the hounds, turning to the right to run up the hill alongside the wood, to be followed a few seconds later by hounds that were now following its trail. Both disappeared over the hill. A few seconds later the fox doubled back and disappeared off in another direction. Some seconds later thre were two shots. The hounds reappeared, evidently following the fox's scent, and only then did I hear the huntsmen's horn calling them in from over the hill. At no time did I see any of the hunstmen, all of whom had evidently stayed at some distance away from the hounds which were completely unsupervised during the events I have described, a period of at least 10 minutes.
I have no idea whether this activity was within the current rules, but I am pretty sure that the owners of the wood - who do not live in the village - will have been unaware that the hounds had chased a fox out of their wood.”