Sir, – Your festive picture of a St Stephen’s Day fox hunt (Home News, December 26th 27th) calls to mind Oscar Wilde’s reference to this bloodsport as the “unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable”. Not that I feel altogether comfortable with this description, bearing in mind that the writer was not alluding to the cruel nature of the pastime but rather to his distaste for a particular social milieu or set of attitudes that he found distasteful.
I see nothing wrong with any aspect of what is captured in your paper’s photograph of a hunt, as I have no objection to people riding horses, or galloping across country behind packs of hounds, or indeed to the colourful pageantry of the hunt itself.
What I and many other Irish people oppose is hunts hounding a wild dog – the fox – to exhaustion and death for “sport”. Or the blooding of novice hounds on fox cubs. Or the use of spades, terriers, and poles wrapped with barbed wire to unearth foxes that have sought refuge underground. One can enjoy almost every aspect of the traditional hunting experience, including the wonderful pomp and ceremony, by chasing an artificial scent or “drag”. The experience is almost identical, but minus the terror and distress inflicted on a hunted animal.
Drag hunting provides an ideal alternative to live animal baiting. In contrast with its bloody and shameful “country cousin”, this equestrian pursuit might be termed “the truly sporting in full pursuit of the uncatchable”. – Yours, etc,