DEER HUNTING PLEASE READ CRUELTY

[THE FUGITIVE]

Thanks go to LEAGUE AGAINST CRUEL SPORTS

Deer hunting is less well known than fox hunting, but while currently only three registered hunts chase red deer with hounds in England, this practice inflicts some of the greatest cruelty wild animals suffer at the hands of people.

On average, deer hunts �" also known as stag hunts - last three hours, and cover 18km. League Against Cruel Sports investigators witness deer hunts on a regular basis around our sanctuary at Baronsdown, and have filmed deer fleeing onto our ‘safe’ land.

When staghunts have been challenged about their behaviour, they have claimed they were undertaking exempt hunting, as the Hunting Act 2004 has a list of exemptions where hunting with dogs are allowed. Currently the exemption the staghunts claim the most is that they are undertaking ‘research and observation’, despite the fact we believe this is just a cover for illegal hunting. A League investigation shows what this ‘research’ looks like.

THE CRUELTY OF DEER HUNTING

Professor Patrick Bateson, Britain’s pre-eminent animal behaviour scientist, published a study in 1997 on the welfare of hunted deer and the results shocked everyone, including him. Reflecting on his findings in The Times he wrote:

Red deer are not equipped with sweat glands in their bodies. They overheat when chased and their muscle fibre type is not adapted for endurance running(…) However, even these initial conclusions scarcely prepared me for the astonishing changes in the physiology of the hunted deer(…) In short, many of the physiological changes are seriously maladaptive and would not be expected to occur normally. The pattern of the data suggests that the hunted animals are extremely frightened as they try to escape.
The members of the Government’s Burns Inquiry committee agreed, stating: “There seems to be a large measure of agreement among the scientists that, at least during the last 20 minutes or so of the hunt, the deer is likely to suffer as glycogen depletion sets in”.


WHAT HAPPENS IN A DEER HUNT?

There are three registered stag hunting packs based in the south west of England which hunt the Red deer during deer hunting season. Roe deer are also hunted by at least two unregistered buckhound packs in the south west of England.

Deer are hunted on horseback using a pack of hounds. The length and duration of the hunt can vary considerably. The pursuit could last less than an hour or last all day. On average the overall time of the actual hunt is around 3 hours and a distance of 18km.

The pursuit of the deer itself consists of intermittent flights where the deer runs away from the hounds at speed, exerting itself maximally, until sufficient distance has been built up between it and the hounds after which the deer would slow down or even lie down. A series of these successive flights continues until the deer escapes or becomes exhausted. In the latter case the stag would then stop avoiding the hounds and would "stand at bay" where it would turn and face the hounds. Hinds also stop and may also hide by lying down in suitable cover.

The deer is then shot, usually with a shotgun, at close range. The carcass is then butchered and the entrails are given to the hounds. This is known as the 'carve up'. The hooves known as 'slots' and the teeth are given out or sold as 'trophies' to hunt supporters. The heart is normally given to the landowners of the land where the stag was killed, the head with its antlers is given to the Masters of the hunt as a trophy, and the rest of the body will be later skinned and butchered into joints which will be distributed to farmers and landowners over whose land the deer run.

The League believes that deer hunting inflicts severe cruelty on the chased animals, and that hunting continues in spite of the ban. The Hunting Act should be strengthened and the ‘research and observation’ exemption removed to prevent deer and stags being chased for sport.
HOW CAN I HELP STOP DEER HUNTING?

Contact your MP and ask them to urge their party to keep and strengthen the deer (stag) hunting ban
Join one of our supporter groups to help us raise awareness that stag hunting still takes place
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[THE FUGITIVE]

Any form of hunting animals is certainly cruel and it is barbaric cavemen who decide if a animal should live or die.
Let us look at facts BRITISH WILDLIFE DOES NOT BELONG TO LANDOWNERS this is true animals are allowed to roam by law and in fact every BRITISH PERSON DESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEE BRITISH WILDLIFE
We do not live in the 14th century we HAVE SUPERMARKETS WITH FARMED MEAT we do not need to hunt animals for meat or so called sport and why it is even called a sport i will never know --a sport is a term used for something that requires skill learning and athletic knowledge not hunting --we have farmers raising animals for food so why kill wild ones --i am vegetarian but i believe everyone should have a right to have a choice regarding eating meat so i dont tell people to go veggie but i certainly do tell people NOT TO HUNT
I as a BRITISH PERSON have a right to be able to see animals running wild enjoying there life and i get very annoyed at people taking that right from me --i have seen some really sick sights like a vixen and cub dug out the cubs head was put on a seat on a public walkway the vixen after dogs had torn her was left at the side of the walkway and im saddened that humans can act this way and wonder for the sanity of these people and certainly i would question if they could treat animals like this would they treat children like this
Animals have to hunt for food they cannot go to supermarkets they are solely reliant on the countryside so it is normal for a fox to kill what he can -do you know though in a foxes lifetime usually 5-6 years he will kill 3000 rats so is he really doing a bad job no he is doing a marvelous job its mans interferance that causes rat plagues
We are human and to me that means humane to others it means cruelty if it means humane to you NEVER EVER HUNT

[THE FUGITIVE]

If we look at things correct we are ANIMALS sharing this planet with other animals so why do we presume we are superior to everything that moves
For instance a dog can smell and find a criminal for sometimes a mile away while a pigeon can fly thousands of miles back to the same spot it lives or was released also a cheetah can run at 70 miles per hour while a monkey can climb the highest tree and then hang with his tail --ALL THINGS WE CANNOT DO --SO WE ARE NOT SUPERIOR AT ALL
We simply share a planet and although we can build things that no other animal can build other animals can do things that we can only dream of so we are not superior never will be and never have been
So why do we think it fair to kill anything that moves its simple we are the cruelest animal that has ever walked on this planet although some people like myself are vegetarian and do not believe in killing others derive great enjoyment from doing terrible acts of cruelty and then worse still they call themselves human
If you considered yourself human then you have to consider yourself humane if that is the case then you would not hurt another animal including of course humans but man been the terrible creature he is kills for war kills for sport and kills for fun he is the only living animal that MASS KILLS
Gone are the days when we needed to hunt just for food we are civilised and have supermarkets that sells us food we do not need to kill we only choose to do so so when people hunt foxes or deer with hounds they are people that are not human and have forgot how to love a fellow animal including even humans they are simply sad pricks who have a blood lust
You can tell by my wording i am a passionate animal lover i have truly loved animals since i was a young boy im a old guy now but still get pleasure from going to the countryside to see things there but sadly i see less and less as idiots take more and more animals out of the countryside until one day there will be nothing left
What will they hunt then dont forget they are not human they need there blood lust they will start killing cats dogs and then the old sick disabled humans they are killers and no different to child killers who kill defenceless children they kill defenceless animals they should be tried for murder but laws protect them WHY simple most of your aristocrasy hunts