Hunting hounds pose ‘significant’ risk

[THE FUGITIVE]

REPORTED BY LEAGUE AGAINST CRUEL SPORTS

Posted 7th January, 2018

Hunting hounds pose a significant risk of passing infectious diseases to humans, particularly children, and there is ‘overwhelming’ evidence that hunting hounds pose a huge risk to the health of farm animals â€" and thus the livelihood of farmers â€" according to the most comprehensive study ever written on the spreading of disease by hunting hounds.

The independent report, commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports, is an analysis of over a thousand published pieces of evidence in the public domain. Key findings include:

Hounds used for hunting carry numerous infectious diseases which can be spread to humans, particularly children, at events such as the Boxing Day hunt parades and country shows. These diseases are known to hospitalise and sometimes kill people.
While domestic dogs can also spread diseases, the risk from hunting hounds is far greater due to them being fed potentially diseased ‘fallen stock’ (carcasses of farm animals); a lack of standard veterinary precautions taken by hunts which are normal for pet owners; and the movement of hounds which regularly travel across farms and farmland, potentially carrying multiple diseases but without any biosecurity precautions.
Hunting hounds are fed hundreds of thousands of carcasses of dead farm animals every year, even though a significant proportion of these will be diseased. While it is legal to feed disease-free fallen stock to hounds, EU Regulations make it illegal to feed animals on fallen stock that died from a disease that could infect animals and/or humans. So each animal needs to be examined post mortem to establish the cause of death before it is fed to hounds. Hunts routinely flout this Regulation.
Diseases spread by hunting hounds to farm animals contribute to a substantial number of infections each year, costing the livestock and farming industries ‘millions’, as hunts regularly ignore ‘biosecurity’ measures which are designed to prevent disease spreading.
At least 4000 hunt hounds are euthanised by hunts each year, many around 6-10 years old, often because they are too ill to keep up with the rest of the pack. Studies suggest many of these will have diseases but post mortems are rarely done. Breeding new hounds is cheaper than proper veterinary care, so diseased hounds are killed rather than cured.

CATASTROPHIC FOR FARMERS

Accumulated evidence in the study suggests overwhelmingly that hunting with hounds maintains and/or spreads several livestock parasites and pathogens that have a major economic impact on British farmers.

Hunts are a major biosecurity risk as they not only contravene all basic biosecurity measures during a day’s hunting, with large numbers of horses, dogs, people and vehicles moving between farms and across farmland without implementing any of the recommended biosecurity advice, but they also cover 70% of rural areas in England and Wales.

Unlike pet dogs, packs of hounds pose a particular risk to livestock farmers because: (i) they are fed on fallen stock that have contracted a number of parasites and diseases; (ii) their poor veterinary care and inadequate vaccination and worming programmes; and (iii) they are out of sight of, and often a long way from, the huntsman, when hunting, so it is impossible to collect their faeces, to keep them away from livestock and vegetable crops, or to prevent them drinking from water troughs. Fouling of water supplies is a particular concern for minkhounds, which routinely hunt in streams, rivers and lakes.

Chris Pitt, Deputy Director of Campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports, said:

“A year ago it was discovered that a pack of hunting hounds had contracted bovine TB. Given that bTB is a risk to livestock and people, we felt that a thorough investigation into the potential of hounds carrying and sharing disease needed to be carried out. The results are shocking and show that the problem is far wider than just bTB.

“The problem is not with dogs generally, because while all dogs can potentially spread disease, the way hunting hounds are looked after means they are a particular risk for several reasons. They are fed raw and potentially diseased carcasses of fallen livestock, they regularly travel across farmland where they can pick up and spread disease, and they are often not given the same level of veterinary treatment that pet dogs will get. The result is that these dogs are suffering, and in turn they can cause illness and suffering to other animals and people.

“The evidence is overwhelming that hunting poses a huge risk to the health of farm animals. We’ve currently got thousands of badgers being killed to try and stop bTB, even though there’s no real evidence that they have any major impact on the disease. Meanwhile hunting packs are riding roughshod from farm to farm, travelling around the country and even abroad to different events, with no real biosecurity measures in place. If my livelihood depended on having healthy livestock, I wouldn’t be letting hunts anywhere near my land.

“Farmers may think that the hunts are doing them a favour by taking away their fallen stock, but they are getting a raw deal. If stock are diseased, then the hounds will potentially pick that disease up and literally drop it back onto the farm â€" so the livestock will once again get sick. It’s a vicious circle which could be costing the farmers a fortune, not to mention inflicting painful diseases on their animals. It looks like hunts are abusing the trust of the farmers because they don’t want to pay to properly feed their dogs or adequately vaccinate them, so they are saving money but it’s the farmers who are paying.

“When bTB was found in hunting hounds, the response from the farming industry and the government was to ignore it. That can’t happen again. We need an independent inquiry into the health risks of hunting hounds to both humans and livestock because otherwise this will be just swept under the carpet and the problem will continue. Hunts should be banned immediately from feeding fallen stock to their hounds, and they need to be releasing far more information about their hounds’ condition â€" if pet dog owners are under scrutiny to ensure their dogs are healthy, then so should the hunts.

“Looking at all the evidence available, we can’t avoid the conclusion that there is a significant risk of hunting hounds spreading infectious diseases to humans. The risk is mainly to those with immature or weakened immune systems, which can include children, elderly people or people who are already sick. This problem needs to be taken seriously."


WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

An independent inquiry about the current health risk to other animals and humans of hunting activities should be instigated immediately.
Enforcement of current animal and public health regulations that apply to hunts to prevent them being ignored.
An immediate ban on hunts being allowed to feed fallen stock to their hounds. This has been recognised as posing a significant disease risk for half a century and an end to using raw flesh and offal to feed hounds is long overdue.
Far more information about infectious diseases in hounds should be made public, including routine post mortems of hounds culled from packs. Hunts avoid examination by keeping this information secret, while exploiting loopholes in regulations meaning their dogs endure less scrutiny than the average dog owner would endure.
The immediate release of full details surrounding the Kimblewick bTB outbreak, the worst outbreak of bTB in UK dogs ever recorded. FOI requests for information on the outbreak have so far been refused.
Hunts must follow the basic biosecurity advice issued by all farming groups to protect both livestock and hounds.
The study, Hunting with hounds and the spread of disease, by Professor Stephen Harris, BSc PhD DSc and Dr Jo Dorning, BSc PhD, is available online.

FUGITIVES VIEW badgers have for many years been blamed for TB in cattle and it was thought badgers actually suckled cows in fields at night F00KING RUBBISH most cows are reared in barns and never see a field and those that do are brought indoors at night it is now evident that other things cause TB such as above and dirty farmer practices but it is too late for the thousands of badgers that have been culled