STAG HUNTING '
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The conscience of England has been aroused by the- undoubted cruelty of wild stag hunting. The cruelty consists in this : that a wild and timid animal is pursued by hounds, sometimes for hours, all the time in deadly fear. When hounds have got it at bay the huntsmen cut its throat.
This means, as in the case of a bullock, that it takes some minutes to lose consciousness and the pain must be very great. The Huntsman might at least dispatch it with a humane killer, which brings certain and instant death.
As regards the carted stag, as a young officer I often followed the Mid-Kent stag hunt, and no cruelty is involved. To begin with, the stag lives practically at the kennels and is quite used to hounds. I have myself seen a stag when well ahead of hounds stop for a moment to nibble grass and drink from a ditch, which shows that it is not frightened. When he has had enough he turns to bay. Hounds surround it, bay at it, wagging their tails, and the deer does not .seem particularly perturbed. It is then put back into its travelling van, taken home, and feeds quite heartily. Blood sports, after all, are the recreation of a childish humanity !—I am, Sir, &c.,
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