Trail hunting ban - would you hunt the "clean boot"?

[BootHunter]

Horsey people - with the talk of an upcoming ban on trail hunting, would you consider joining a clean boot hunt as an alternative?

YANBU - Yes
YANBU - No

IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRAIL HUNTING AND CLEAN BOOT HUNTING THEN GOOGLE IT!

I'm a horse owner but I do not hunt because all there is locally to me is "trail hunting" packs. However, if there was a legitimate bloodhound pack hunting human quarry then I absolutely would join, and I can think of several friends who would too.

I personally feel that this could be a great opportunity for the local hunts to evolve into something that more people want to take part in, and probably the only thing that will stop the whole industry from closing down altogether.

Agree and fox hunting was banned 20 or so years ago
Plenty of time for the fox hounds to die naturally. Clearly they’ve been bred to keep on hunting.
So for those shocked at the idea of ‘killing off entire packs’ there has been plenty of time to stop the breeding
If people don’t want them just as pets they need to stop breeding such large numbers.

In terms of your thread OP I would imagine it would be hard to prevent animals being killed ‘by accident’ in this sport. I don’t however know of any current stats on whether it’s an issue but blood hounds do attack small prey including pets.

So it’s a no from me

Nothing wrong with going out on a hack without any dogs at all

for those thinking foxes aren’t killed in trail hunts
check out drone footage online by hunt saboteurs isn’t happening constantly
and the Coniston hunt were caught digging out a fox and throwing it to the hounds in November

So it’s an absolute NO in using any dogs to hunt

What happens to hounds from previous seasons?

By the start of the autumn a new hunting season is just weeks away, and with it will come cubbing. Huntsmen will train young hounds by having them chase and kill fox cubs. But what of hounds from the previous season? The ones that had begun to slow, or were showing signs of old age?
The hunt shoots them

Darkest secret

In October 2021, Protect the Wild published covert footage from the Duke of Beaufort Hunt’s kennels.
It showed what the group described as “one of the darkest secrets of the hunting world”. The videos show men shooting multiple hounds before carrying them off for disposal in wheelbarrows.
In February 2022, renewable energy company Ecotricity published‘Uncovered: Murdered hunt dogs powering our homes’. It contained undercover footage filmed at the kennels of the Carmathenshire Hunt. Its huntsman Will Pinkney is seen shooting hounds before throwing their bodies into bins. The Hunt Saboteurs Association later revealed the footage captured Pinkney shooting nine hounds in 40 minutes.
These two exposés are the first time that footage of hunts shooting their hounds has reached the public.
Protect the Wild’s ‘The Forgotten Foxhounds’ animation, narrated by Chris Packham and released in 2024, was based on these investigations

article from Protect the Wild

By this logic, where do you envisage all these foxhounds with no ‘role’ living? These are dogs who live in packs, in a kennel, and are not suitable as pets.

Genuine question - why aren't they suitable to live in a house as a pet? I've had ex racer Greyhounds before , they've only lived in kennels with other dogs but they adjust quite well.

Even if for some reason foxhounds are so different that they can't as someone else said they are valuable well bred dogs - the hunts in France, etc will happily have them I'm sure.

See my above post 15:41
Do you think the slow runners get a peaceful end

OP - Clean boot hunting is definitely the way forward. I'm lucky to have a local pack and they are brilliant and very welcoming. I'm surprised that other packs have not evolved already.

Good.

Lovely. 🙄

@PodMom They need a huge amount of exercise. They are used to following a trail over a much greater distance than a greyhound. They are going to get bored and there just won’t be enough homes for them. They are pack animals and behave differently from a greyhound. They respond incredibly well to their names but need very firm handling.

Also greyhounds trickle out of racing. They don’t get kicked out in one fell swoop as the law changes overnight.

All dogs can attack sheep by the way. Bloodhounds aren’t immune from this but it’s a rogue dog like anyone else’s pet that does this.

Yes, the exercise requirements make sense. Hopefully overseas hunts will take them. Shame the hunts have carried on breeding them after fox hunting was banned.

@PodMom They are a recognised breed and are used successfully for trail hunting. Of course they were bred! Who wants to see them die out? A breed with a very very long history and pedigree book. What a shame politics is seeing their demise. They have a perfectly reasonable role in the countryside.

Bred and shot if not good enough ! ?

That’s a disgrace

Fox hounds are used for drag hunting. If drag hunting survives there will still be working fox hounds.

Though if people saw the scars on hunt packs from fighting in kennels and stuff like barbed wire fences during a meet, they might change their minds on whether that would be a good idea.

But we as humans who have decided to kill them do have a choice. It's reprehensible to choose a death by foxhunting in this day and age.

It hasn't been that for decades now though. LONG gone are the days when the farm cob got a day out, and the kids on their scruffy ponies hacked hours to the meet etc.

Euthanising a working animal who is no longer "useful" may not be to your taste but it has been the norm for an overwhelming majority of working animals globally for most of the history of domesticated animals and is still very much the norm in many countries. Much though I don't like it, I couldn't do it and I would much rather they all had happy retirements, I don't think it's reasonable to call it a disgrace.

It’s illegal to shoot a dog in the U.K. unless it’s a danger to other animals

Hunts kill them for being slow
So illegal

I’ll agree to disagree on whether that’s a disgrace or not

100% agree.

This has nothing to do with protecting animals. It's just being vindictive to traditional Tory voters. As someone else mentioned, if Keir is so much on the side of the poor animals, why hasn't he banned halal slaughter?

I’m not sure why you make that assumption. Many farmers aren’t exactly coining it in these days unless they’ve found some lucrative sideline like selling off their land for housing. Lots of kids on ponies near me.

It isn't illegal to kill any domestic animal quickly and cleanly and it's not illegal to shoot a dog you have permission to shoot. I wish I could have my pet animals shot in the brain at very close range, instead of being taken to a vet for a shaved leg and a needle. I have always had my horses shot for the same reason, they know absolutely nothing about it.

In that case, so do the foxes.

Agree but it's animals killed for kosher meat that aren’t even stunned in the U.K.
12% of halal aren’t stunned either but the majority are

I don’t agree with slaughtering animals at all but at the very least we should have laws that require stunning. With checks that the stunning actually works in abattoirs that kill ALL animals including those which aren’t halal and kosher.

Animal Welfare Act 2006

It is illegal to shoot dogs in the U.K.

except as I mentioned if they are a danger to other animals or humans and must be reported to the police.
Hunts don’t report it, they hide it because it’s illegal

. forgot to tag extract re the reasons when it is acceptable

A foxhound therefore being killed because it doesn’t run fast enough is not a reason and the age of fox hounds in hunt packs rarely goes over 6 years.

Yet they can live for 12years

The Countryside Alliance has admitted that around 3,000 hounds are killed each year, while animal welfare organizations calculate the figure to be between approximately 4,942 and 7,302 per year across the UK

Apologies, I was well out of date. How flipping ridiculous that it's legal to euthanase a horse by shooting it in the head but not a dog. It's far more humane than shaving a leg and sticking a needle in it. They shoot it from the back, they don't even see it.

I suspect they're as big a problem in urban areas where you hire people to dispatch them for you.