Country Life
By IAN NIALL
THE local hunt had its final meet of the season a little over a week ago, and at the same time details of the number of foxes killed by farmers with shot- guns in the adjoining county appeared in my paper. I am doubtful that either of these is a good way of keeping down the fox. Forgetting the actual riders to hounds who, in spite of controversy and emotionalism, contribute little or nothing to the fox's end, hunting by hounds can rarely account for enough foxes to rank as a practical way of destroy- ing them. The shotgun, on the other hand, can be a decidedly cruel weapon when used on larger animals, and not every fox shooter, as I can testify, is either calm or skilled enough to hold his fire on anything so elusive as an old dog fox. If those who go after foxes in company were really concerned with doing the job effectively they would, I think, use gas. Poison is barbaric and as bad as peppering the animal with shot that won't necessarily kill it cleanly or quickly. It isn't hard to locate a fox's earth, and they could be gassed with greater ease than rabbits. I don't know how many foxes the hunt had to its credit at the end of the season, but shooters accounted for something like 140 in one small area. Knowing the breed, I suspect that, like the old mole- catcher; they finished the year privately hoping that they hadn't been 100 per cent. successful in their efforts to exterminate their quarry.
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