SUBSTITUTES FOR HUNTING [To the Editor' of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—In your issue of May 2nd " Lover of Riding " discusses the subject, but I find that he (or she) is only looking for a. substitute as a sport. As a " Lover of Animals," this interests me but little. What does interest me is the question whether any substitute for hunting is available by which the numbers of deer, foxes, &c., could be kept within bounds by any method involving less suffering than hunting. Here, in the New Forest, I have made enquiries as to how the numbers of these deer are kept in check, and I obtained an account from a man who had seen it done. Owing to the nature of the country a rifle cannot be used, so the deer are shot with buckshot. Nov buckshot is not suitable for killing so large an animal as a red deer, and the result is that more deer are wounded than are killed outright ; and, be it remembered, were deer-hunting made illegal, it would be illegal to follow up even a wounded deer with hounds. I have satisfied myself that in the New Forest hunting is more humane than shooting.
I went to the Devon and Somerset country and had a hunt with those hounds on the 11th ult., when they met at Cuzzicombe Post. I had a look at the country, and found it to consist of hills and valleys, of woods of varying density, and of farm buildings and grassland where cattle are grazed. In such a country rifle shooting would be out of the question, so buckshot would again have to be used, and the result would entail great suffering. Now, as to the actual hunting—with fallow deer hounds pull them down, and they are then -ery quickly killed by the hunt staff.
Now as to what I saw in the West Country. I confess that I went there thinking that with red deer, who turn to bay, a firearm should always be used to despatch the deer. 1 was struck, as a hunting man, by the tremendous efficiency of the hounds and the hunt staff. As to the final scene —when hounds ran up to their stag—I happened to be on the spot, so I quickly tied my horse to a tree and went to see for myself. To my amazement, after what I had heard from the anti-hunters, the stag was already stone dead, killed with the huntsman's knife. A 'firearm, by the time it had been brought into play, would have taken longer. Some people suggest snaring as being more humane than hunting or shooting, so here is one experience of mine. I have seen hounds catch a buek that luid had -one foot torn completely off in a snare, but that had got aWity; Lack to the woods to linger on in this wretched maimed condition. After
what I have seen here and in the West Country I have no hesitation in saying that hunting is far the most humane way of killing deer in England, though in Scotland conditions are different and stalking can be carried out efficiently.— Aldermoor, Lyndhurst, Hants.
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