Why Holding Hounds Hostage Is a Weak Hand

Over in Britain, conservative Member of Parliament Mark Pritchard has said the “Trail hunt ban will result in 300 dog deaths in one county” alone.

Oof.

These kinds of arguments are why foxhunting is on a back leg in the UK.

“Let us continue as before, or we'll kill our dogs" is not as good an argument as some folks in the mounted fox-hunting world seem to think it is.

For starters, it sounds like the argument of a sociopath, which adds fuel to the caricature painted by the “antis”.

It does not help that argument has been tried before, most notably when the Greyhound tracks closed.

The problem with the Greyhound argument was that the racing industry had spent 70 years shooting dogs and burying them in ditches, and this was both widely know and well-documented. 

The “adopt a racing Greyhound” program was only created *after* that exposé.

Now that same argument is being trotted out by the mounted hunts, but again there’s a problem; 200 years of so many mounted hunts shooting old foxhounds in the head at around age 7 or 8.  Again, this is well-documented, and well-known.

Are some old foxhounds adopted out?  Sure, but a dog that has been pack-housed in a kennel and never been housebroken and which likely has only a few more years to live, is not seen by most as a perfect pet.  

That said, I have no doubt that a stronger push will be made to rehome some old foxhounds, if only for the optics.

But, to be honest, it’s unlikely there will be a rush to the guns.

The reality that most hunt hounds will continue as hunt hounds, only now they will be following a drag scented with something like aniseed oil, rather than a trail that has been scented with fox urine.

Yep, that’s it.  The difference between “trail hunting” and drag hunting really is that small — the scent on the bumper being dragged by a runner, horse, or quad bike.

Will most trail hunt hounds simply switch over to drag hunting?

I think you can count in it.  

The mounted hunts are mostly about riding horses, dressing up, and socializing. Dogs are part of it, of course, but the fox has always been a bit player.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/country-and-farming/trail-hunt-ban-will-result-in-300-dog-deaths-in-one-county-5498297?