Against Fox Hunting
Arguments Against Fox Hunting
The biggest battles against fox hunting have taken place in Great Britain, the place where the sport was the passion of royalty for centuries. In fact, because of the public decry against fox hunting, the sport was made illegal in Scotland in 2002 and in England and Wales in 2005. Even though it is illegal, the arguments for and against fox hunting are still being publicly aired. And, there are those who are pursuing overturning the laws.
All of the arguments against fox hunting are based upon the fact that fox hunting is cruelty to animals. People believe that it is wrong to obtain pleasure from a practice that causes suffering to an animal when it is totally unnecessary. In Britain, people were also upset over fox hunting because it perpetuated a class structure of the rich and the poor. Fox hunting was the practice of only the rich. Some minor considerations included the safety of those traveling on the roads on hunt days, and the fact that in chasing the fox, the hunters often trespassed on private property without permission.
In Great Britain, foxes were chased by a pack of dogs until they were too tired to go on. Then many foxes would “go to ground,” meaning that they would go into underground holes to lose the dogs and try to find a place of safety. However, the fox hunt did not end there. The hunt included terriers, who then would continue to pursue the fox underground. These battles would go on for some time, even more than one day, and both the fox and the dogs could be badly hurt and/or killed. If the fox was caught by the dogs above ground, it was killed by being bitten continually and very often torn apart by the dogs in view of the hunters.
Fox hunting is still legal in Ireland, and in Australia, where an overpopulation of foxes causes much damage to farmers every year. Foxes are considered vermin and they can be shot at any time of the year. In the United States, Canada, and several other countries, fox hunting is still a legal activity. But there is a big difference in fox hunting in the United States, which significantly separates it from the British version. In the U.S., the focus is on the chase rather than the kill. This means that the fox is not normally killed at all.
The fact that the fox is not killed is probably why U.S. laws have never banned fox hunting. In U.S. fox hunts, when the fox tires and goes to ground, meaning goes underground, the hunt has ended--the fox is no longer pursued, the dogs do not continue the chase underground. Or, if the fox does not go underground, as soon as a fox is tiring and in danger of being caught, the dogs are called off. In the U.S., there are over 150 fox hunts each year, but it is a rare occasion if the fox is caught.
If the sport of fox hunting operated under the same rules in the United States as it had in Great Britain, there is a good possibility there would be an outcry against fox hunting there as well.