[G UK]

Sorry, I've just had a read through the link that Chris provided and all I can say is its nicely worded and submitted excrement that is highly biased to the single point of view through emphasis and omission neither of which is scientifically incorrect (just frowned upon).

It's a loaded paper, highlighting the word Natural on all the Natural Fight & Flight phrases was nice but the same could have been typed for somebody tracking human quarry. Also the nicely highlighted fragments supporting his standpoint a lot of which I have quoted below was also nice.

Intro/Rationale

The submission starts with the premise that there is an accepted need to control the rural fox population,

Fair enough.

The natural death of such a wild animal will occur by starvation, disease or injury, none of which can be described as humane.

True

Secondly, if fox numbers are not controlled there will be progressive and increasing predation on vulnerable farm animals and wildlife.

True, except farm animals can and should be protected from predation.

Natural biological control of fox numbers and the other quarry species will not occur until lack of nutrition, due to overpopulation, and probably disease are so extreme as to suppress reproductive activity.

True. This is a fact of life and happens daily to the human population as well as all animals. Replace "fox numbers and the other quarry species" with "any species" and you still get a true and factual statement

Fox hunting may be conveniently considered under three headings:

Autumn hunting, sometimes known as cub hunting
Full season or winter hunting
Terrier culling or digging out

Ding Ding Ding the report has just cocked up. This report details these types of hunting only which incidentally means it only touches on other methods of fox control

Autumn Hunting

...some of which may have been injured by the less attractive methods of culling listed below. Approximately 50% of foxes killed by a hunt during the calendar year will be during the period of autumn hunting.

See later for the "less attractive" apparently

the hunt rarely lasts more than 10 minutes and often is shorter.

No evidence given, I will leave this as a given for further quotes of this type.

For the fox the first, longer pursuit phase of the hunt, is a period of heightened activity in which all the natural responses of fight or flight are brought into operation. The animals cannot therefore be considered to be under any unnatural stress at this time.

So the fox running for its life is natural and therefore is humane

Decision on the Kill is deferred to a "See Below"

Winter Hunting

Winter hunting, a day long activity, contributes to the control of the fox population throughout the season,

The average time for the hunt is around 20 minutes but clearly this will vary depending on: the nature of the terrain, the scent on the day, the vigour and cunning of the quarry and the skill and training of the hounds and huntsmen. Longer hunts may occur but they often involve a sequence of different foxes. The majority of foxes (up to 85%) will evade capture by the hounds. Some of these will go to ground and, if requested by the farmer or landowner, they will be dug out and shot by the licensed hunt terrier men (see below).

So a number of the majority of these foxes go to ground and if the farmer wants are shot anyway. Anybody think of tracking dogs with scent hounds and a shotgun in the first place!?!

Again, it cannot be considered to be a period of unnatural stress to the fox. An indication of the degree of control that the fox exerts on the situation, during this first phase is evidenced by the wide variety of evasion tactics it will employ to avoid capture, many of which are carried out at a leisurely pace after the initial flight. Hunted foxes may also perform a variety of natural functions such as urination and defaecation during the pursuit phase of a hunt, some have even been observed to kill the occasional chicken

All animals have a flight reflex so hunting all animals is good? If I came hunting you I would think that you would display all of these points. Saying something does something to avoid dieing when you try and kill it is not a defence that it is not cruel.

the short final phase of the hunt, usually less than 2 minutes, will involve stress but this, in physiological terms, will be no more than that experienced by the extended athlete or racehorse. The animal is not hunted to the point of exhaustion rather to the point when still running hard it is overhauled by the fitter and more durable hounds and again often because the fox makes a tactical mistake.

So, being killed is no more than being knackered after a run, care to test that?

Next its not hunted to exhaustion, only until the endurance trained hounds can over-run it. How exactly do they know its not exhausted - No Evidence Given

The kill occurs as a swift, almost instantaneous, procedure made possible by the considerable power weight advantage the hound has over the fox. The powerful exercise-induced analgesic actions of centrally released endorphins and encephalins, generated during the hunt, will mitigate or eliminate any pain.

So evidence of quick death is nothing but apparently if a fox is knackered it does not feel pain.

The kill and cause of death

Neither wild nor domestic animals appear to have any premonition of death.

Heavily debatable. No Evidence is given in the paper.

What follows is an extensive description of how other animals behave in a slaughterhouse!?! How exactly has what is going to happen to the animals made it back to the fields? Telepathy?. Also do they know what the blood means?

Post mortem evidence submitted to the Inquiry included 2 cases commissioned by the Inquiry and a further 13 submitted by two veterinary practitioners, one from mid Wales (Jones 2000) and the other from Buckinghamshire (Baskerville 2000). Cause of death in 10 of the 15 cases was diagnosed as cervical dislocation and fracture while the remaining 5 foxes died from massive trauma to the thorax and abdomen. In either event one may conclude, as did the Committee of Inquiry, that death was almost instantaneous.

So admitted to only two vets submitting cases. In 2/3 cases by cervical dislocation which takes how long? (No Evidence) versus 1/3 having there throats/abdomens ripped out which is almost instantaneous apparently.

Further have been excluded because hounds have been stopped from mking a quick kill apparently.

Terrier culling or Digging

While the fox is underground, where it was born and raised, there is no reason to presume it suffers any more distress than that of the heightened activity of the hunt. Indeed having gained the sanctuary of the earth, the heightened activity may even subside. And while the entry of the terrier may act to maintain the state of heightened activity the confrontation between the two equally sized animals is not one of aggression but rather a stand off, holding situation.

Not suprising.

Even when the fox is located by digging and the terrier extracted, the fox does not show signs of severe distress or fear as might be evidenced by involuntary urination or defaecation. Rather it appears remarkably calm and secure in its partially exposed hole where it is immediately killed humanely by a close range shot to the head.

So a fox that had gone to ground and was being dug out and would know it was being dug out still was more calm than a normally hunted fox.

Other methods only appear to have had passing analysis

Shooting

The government’s preferred method for fox control, is also widely used for culling deer and hare. However, shooting is intrinsically unsafe and inevitably produces a percentage of animals that are wounded. Shooting can only be as certain and quick as death by hounds when a close or point blank shot is applied directly to the cranium,

No Evidence. What is the Percentage? What is it with other animals? A gun will miss just as do hounds minus the trauma (See Winter Hunting)

. But, in considering the humane aspects of wildlife management, it is important to have in mind that wild animals are at their most distressed when trapped or harassed in an environment that is strange and alien to them. Thus, whereas a domestic animal might accept the confinement of a cage, for a wild animal it can be a cause of acute distress even physiological shock, particularly when approached by man (Wise 1999).

As opposed to the pursuit? It could be argued that being trapped reactions are just as "natural" as the pursuit reactions.

Partly because of the expense of the equipment and partly due to the extreme wariness of the rural fox for man made contraptions, cage trapping is not a practical method of catching foxes or hares but it is used for mink. And although the law requires that cage traps are inspected every 24 hours, this is clearly open to error and abuse, with consequent suffering of the trapped animal, particularly if the frequency of success may be as low as 1 catch per 100 days.

So down side has been heavily reported reported (not done for hunting with dogs). Cost and the fact people will not follow the rules are the major concerns with this type of hunting.

Rest of the paper is covered in my previous post on this subject.