Re: Obedient dogs in the UK?



Chris Waigl wrote:
>
> On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 16:59:03 GMT, Tony Cooper typed:
>
> > From today's Orlando Sentinel:
> >
> > LONDON Hunters in scarlet coats leapt onto horses and sounded horns
> > Monday as hounds flew at their heels, pursuing the centuries-old
> > holiday tradition of fox hunting. The post-Christmas hunt look the
> > same as ever, but this year there was a crucial difference: The
> > hounds were under orders not to chase and kill foxes.
> > -----------------
> > [...]
> >
> > I'm at a bit of a loss as to why the dogs accompany the huntsmen if
> > the dogs are ordered not to even chase a fox. Are the dogs just
> > along to provide color and sound? Perhaps to provide a
> > commiserating face lick to a rider that didn't quite clear the
> > jump?
>
> As far as I am aware, the UK (or was it just England?) was the only
> country in Europe where the traditional horseback-hunting still
> included chasing and killing actual animals. To be sure, the sport
> is a mostly from English tradition, so this is understandable. The
> hunts I knew of in Germany crucially involve a pack of trained dogs.
> They follow an artificially laid trail and are recompensed in the
> end. This practise changes the nature of the sport,
>
Yea, it makes it into not actually hunting.


> and lowers its
> effect on the environment,
>
You mean from all those horses stomping about? Because I expect they do
just about the same amount of that when they are on the planned course
as when they are sniggering through a way trail.


--
He and Evie soon fell into a conversation of the "No, I didn't; yes, you
did" type--conversation which, though fascinating to those who are
engaged in it, neither desires nor deserves the attention of others.
-+E.M. Forster, "Howards End"
.