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I finally got around to reading the November issue of Earth Dog - Running Dog magazine. As always, some good, informative, and interesting articles, but particularly amusing to see the title of Dave Sleight's piece on poachers and pretenders. The piece was about the lifting of bunnies and pheasants from professionally keepered estates, but I got to wondering what a serious running dog man like Sleight would make of Americans in Penny loafers showing up to chase plastic bags next to gravel parking lots. Sure it's fun for dog and owner alike, but is it "work" under any definition that a true working dog man might salute? I suspect not.
Other articles in the November issue of the magazine are on lamping rabbits, coursing fox and deer, and of course there's always a piece or two on terrier work in the U.K.
Right. Apparently the ban in the U.K. is such an effective deterrent for pretenders that it has become a global excuse for those who have never hunted to stay at home.
As for real working dog folks, they can be found in field, forest and fen, in the U.K., in the U.S. and the world over, same as always. No laws need be broken. You do, however, have to get off the couch!
Those interested in ordering Earth Dog - Running Dog (an excellent Christmas present!) can sign up here. Those who are interested in digging their dogs in the U.S. can learn a bit about that here.
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5 comments:
I thought you were "done" with this discussion, Patrick. Just can't let it go, huh ?
"Coursing" foxes with fast sighthounds isn't particularly sporting, because the foxes aren't fast enough. Perhaps that's only important if you believe in the concept of fair chase.
As to whether some hunting with some dogs is banned in the UK, I suggest you ask any of the hunts that have been prosecuted on allegations of violations of the HUNTING Act, or ask the Countryside Alliance what they're doing spending all that money fighting the hunting and hare coursing ban. Or does it only matter if the type of hunting with dogs you choose to do is banned ?
John Parker
Look at that -- it's John Parker back again, LOL. Not a hunting man, I gather. His favorite past time seems to be posting pictures of dogs from long ago and far away.
As for fox hunting in the UK with FOXHOUNDS (not greyhounds or lurchers), the field that rides out three times a week in the U.K. has never been larger. As the headline in The Telegram trumpets: “Record number turn out at Boxing Day hunts after Tories admit defeat on ban." >> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/countryside/9766289/Record-number-turn-out-at-Boxing-Day-hunts-after-Tories-admit-defeat-on-ban.html
But never mind. John is an American FANTASY courser. We have the same romantic types in the world of digging. These are the folks who can conjugate old pedigrees like the begats section of the Bible, but if you ask them about a day in field, forest, or fen, it's a parade of excuses, one after another. They don’t even own a shovel, much less a locator collar. I've written about all that before >> http://www.terrierman.com/fantasydiggers.htm
Fantasy is pretty common in the world of dogs and hawks. We have pageantry hawkers who never take their bird off a creance, but who never miss the opportunity to dress up for a Renaissance Fair. We also have fantasy football, fantasy baseball, and fantasy sailors who never leave a bar stool. And, of course, we have the fantasy folks who post pictures of old oil paintings. Nothing wrong with it, but let's not sell “skim milk as cream” and call fantasy reality.
And no, John, it's not a new point I am making just for you, LOL. >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2005/11/skim-milk-as-cream.html
Of course, if the shoe fits, lace that thing up and race around away with it. We are done with you here.
Look at all of the allowed exemptions for hunting with dogs clearly listed in the Hunting Act (2004). It's amazing what one can learn by simply reading the law.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/37/schedule/1
Yep.
You learn even more if you are talking to the folks in the UK who are working within and outside the law.
Of course, that conversation only happens when you actually HUNT.
Pretenders are not treated warmly in the real world of working dogs in the UK.
Imagine a "Barbie Collie" pretender in your world in Scotland or Wales, and you have an idea :)
Most of the mounted hunts in the UK have run without incident, and there have been very, very few prosecutions of any kind, successful or not, for the same reason there are almost no prosecutions for hares -- dogs run free and they do not always read the play book. Everyone knows that. When prosecutions are triggered, they tend to be for badger digging which has been illegal for a long time (though God knows why it is still illegal since the state is now gassing and shooting thousands of them to control disease).
Hunting laws in the UK are very different from those in the US, and always have been. Pretenders are the same all over, however, and it's the same kind of people no matter whether it's sheep dogs, terriers, running dogs, pulling dogs, hawks, horses, baseball, or football. The people who live to hunt the dogs are a different breed and they are the ones who keep the fires alive not the pretenders. The pretenders can buy a dog, but can they really work it? Do they? The nonsense stops when the tailgate drops. That's always true with the dogs.
You mean HUNTING as in to put meat on one’s table or the reduction of nuisance animals as opposed to "hunting" to assess the instincts of ones dogs.
Analogous to herding livestock as a means to manage the livestock (move from one location to another) vs herding livestock (move through a prescribed course) as a means to assess the instincts of ones dogs.
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