I write this as someone who used to hunt and then became a hunt saboteur after witnessing horrendous cruelty. I am very concerned that hounds will continue to be bred (as they always have been) and that many of those puppies will then be shot in the near future.

For hundreds of years hunts have bred hounds to hunt wild mammals for “sport”. As some of these hounds do not make the grade, they breed more hounds and dispose of those who are not suited to hunting. Many hounds are bred for hound shows where hunts compete for who has the best looking hound notably at Peterborough, Ardingly, Honiton, Builth Wells and the Great Yorkshire show at Harrogate. Those are too old, too injured to go hunting, if there is a surplus, if the hunt closes or amalgamates with another are all at risk. The vast majority of these hounds will be shot as has always been the case and it will not be those at the Hunting Office who have to do this dirty work, or live with the trauma of  shooting dogs in the head en masse.

Hounds are also put at risk during hunting see picture of a Ledbury hound trapped in a slurry pit.

This is the time of year where many hunts will start their breeding programme. With what is going on in the hunting world right now, we the undersigned regard any breeding programme to be a reckless disregard for the lives of the puppies deliberately being brought into the world. Covid 19 and increased urbanisation mean that many hunts will not be in existence in the next few years. Furthermore the recent Hunting Office webinars exposing trail hunting as nothing more than a “smokescreen”, showing the public what we have all known for the last 15 years and the subsequent banning of all hunts from major landowners such as the National Trust and United Utilities now surely means that any breeding this season should NOT take place.

There will soon be many hounds who will be regarded as surplus, they face an early death. Why bring more into existence?

This petition demands that all hunts halt any breeding programme forthwith.