The fate of hounds
From Miss Ann Grain Sir: I refer to your article by Robert GoreLangton ('It's a job for a dog', 21 September) and particularly his reference to the number of hounds which will, according to his source, 'face a one-way trip to the vet' if hunting is banned.
I would like to draw readers' attention to the following. First, the hunts already admit to shooting between 3,000 and 5,000 hounds each year when they are no longer fast enough to catch a fox, at half their lifeexpectancy. Any hunting Bill would receive royal assent only in 2004, so the hunts, which claim to be so concerned for the welfare of their hounds, would by then already have shot between 6,000 and 10,000 hounds — half the total of 20,000.
Second, if the hunts cared about the welfare of their hounds and their future, they would suspend breeding programmes now. This would further reduce numbers by 2004. The 10,000 left once the hunts have shot those not fast enough, plus a suspension of the breeding programme, would leave a few thousand hounds, which could go drag-hunting instead.
As for horses, there are about 950,000 in the UK and about 6 per cent of these are kept primarily as hunting horses. Faced with a ban on hunting, the RSPCA believes (as did the government's Burns inquiry) that many horse-owners will either take up alternative equestrian activities or increase their participation in them. Drag-hunting is likely to become an increasingly popular alternative to live-quarry hunting.
It is also likely that the disposal of hunting horses will be a gradual process over the first few years following a ban, rather than a sudden influx of horses on to the market. It is likely that some horse-owners will simply decide not to replace horses at the end of their working lives.
Ann Grain
Head of Press, RSPCA, Southwater, Horsham, West Sussex
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