STAG HUNTING [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The writer from Porlock on stag hunting, which he indulges in on foot, makes out a very poor case.
First, he infers that as there is stag hunting there is no 'shooting of stags. Ifaving lived for several years in North Devon I know that stags are shot at with only shot guns, which cause most awful suffering. If stag hunting was abolished, experienced men with rifles would, of course, be employed to kill the deer if they became too numerous,
whether they were in a park or roaming wild across the moors. In any case a law should now be passed to make it illegal for anyone to shoot deer with shot guns.
Secondly, as regards the great decrease of deer in years gone by, when hunting was stopped, the writer infers that this was due to the destruction of deer by incessant shooting. As a matter of fact, I have read that the decrease was due to the ahnost immediate 'reduction in birth rate as the need for preserving the herds was diminished.
Lastly, how can anybody state with knowledge that animals do not fear death as much as men and women do. Rather I suggest that every animal that is hunted knows that it is a case of life or death. This thought then is with them all the time. How horrible God give us another " Audax," who will start a fund for a great deer park in North Devon and
Somerset.—! am, Sir, &c., HORACE ICF-NNEDY. The Rectory, Brent Eleigh, Lavenham.
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