More sickening details have emerged in the UK about the fate of hounds used in hunting.
A huntsman with the East Essex Hunt revealed this month that hounds are shot and incinerated.
In a Facebook post, huntsman Gary Thorpe wrote: “Hounds just like any other athlete, succumb to wear and tear on the body and can no longer hunt up together with the pack, so what options does that leave us as huntsman? Well, in my case, I will sadly have to euthanase hounds when old age catches up with them.”
“I use a pistol, the same pistol I use to euthanase horses and livestock on a daily basis,” he added.
He went on to outrageously suggest that shooting the dogs is a better option than rehoming them. Claiming that rehoming “isn’t a real option” and that “many hounds wouldn't be happy retired”, he maintained that removing them from the pack of other hounds to a different home “would be a far crueller life than being put to sleep”.
“I will put the hounds down myself in an environment they know and trust, this is no different to me putting down livestock or horses, the important thing is the animals are not put through undue stress,” he stated before going on to reveal that the shot hounds are collected to be incinerated.
He also said that “hounds very rarely ever see a vet”.
Reacting to the post, Hunt Saboteurs Association spokesperson Lee Moon commented that it “confirms what we all already knew - a hunt’s dogs are no more than a tool, a tool that can be disposed of when it is no longer useful” and that “the fact [the huntsman] is willing to talk about it openly on Facebook proves how common place these practices are in the hunting world.”
“For decades the Countryside Alliance, Hunting Office, Masters of Foxhounds Association and various hunts have claimed that hunting hounds are rehomed when they start to slow down - they deny as nonsense that sick hounds are killed and claim to have very regular visits from the vet,” the Hunt Saboteurs Association statement added, pointing to figures from the RSPCA which put the estimated number of hunt hounds killed every year at 10,000.
Read the full Facebook post
https://www.facebook.com/gary.thorpe.31
Read the Hunt Sabs statement
https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/its-a-dogs-life-or-death/
SEE ALSO: Thousands of healthy foxhounds - including pups - are clubbed to death or shot if they're 'unsuitable'
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/thousands-healthy-foxhounds---including-6061265
Hounds used in hunting are also killed here in Ireland. A dog lover who, in the past, phoned a hunt kennel in Galway to ask about buying a retired foxhound was told by kennel staff that dogs no longer fit for hunting are strictly not for sale...because they're put down instead.
The caller was shocked by the kennel staff's attitude. "They told me that hounds that aren't good enough to hunt or that aren't mating anymore are put down and not sold," he said. Not even guaranteeing a good home for a retired hound would save the dogs. "They tried to completely put me off getting a foxhound," he recalled. "They tried to tell me that foxhounds don't make good pets and that they are 'a bit snappy - you have to go in to them with a stick'".
Greyhounds used in racing and coursing may also face the same fate.
As revealed in RTE’s award-winning "Greyhounds running for their lives" documentary, around 6,000 dogs are killed every year simply because they are not fast enough to win. The programme included horrifying scenes of dogs being delivered to a knackery where they were shot in the head and dumped into a skip. One dog was seen writhing on the ground as his merciless owner drove away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYTb2qBjlMM A damning report commissioned by Greyhound Racing Ireland - which it attempted to bury - estimated, for example, that a total of 17,962 greyhounds were culled in 2013, 2014 and 2015 for “failure to produce qualifying times or desired entry level times” and “unacceptable decline in performance”.
In 2015, ICABS uncovered an Irish Coursing Club internal report which callously advised greyhound owners to destroy unwanted greyhounds instead of rehoming them - "Do not give away unwanted greyhounds. It is far better to put them painlessly to sleep."
Entitled "A Summary of Directives, Instructions and Guidance Notes Issued by the Executive Committee of the Irish Coursing Club to Club Secretaries, Control Stewards Judges and Slippers" the report conveys the contempt with which coursers regard greyhounds incapable of winning money for their owners. Dogs "that have run a number of times during the season" without success are branded "no-hopers".
ACTION ALERT
It’s time for the government to act to stop the suffering and death to wildlife and dogs. Join us in calling for a ban on hare coursing, foxhunting and greyhound racing.
Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Green Party, Sinn Fein and the Labour Party to tell them that you want coursing, foxhunting and greyhound racing banned.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin
Leader, Fianna Fail
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie
Phone: +353 (0)1–618 4350 or +353 (0)21-432 0088
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Tanaiste Leo Varadkar
Leader, Fine Gael
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Eamon Ryan
Leader, Green Party
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Mary Lou McDonald TD
Leader, Sinn Fein
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Alan Kelly TD
Leader, Labour Party
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