LETTER: Hunt has sparked a lively debate
This is incorrect. The Burns Report, Section 2:22, states, “Sometimes the hounds will come across a fox and kill it immediately, before it has chance to flee. In other cases,the hounds will follow at a distance.”
(There then follows details of circumstances prior to the kill, concluding with): “If the hounds are successful in their pursuit, they will get close enough to the fox to see it and will than catch it up, kill and usually tear at the carcase. The length of the chase may vary considerably, from a few minutes to well over an hour or even longer, but the average is some 15 to 20 minutes. The distance covered may be anything up to six or seven miles, in a circular or twisting line.”
Maybe, as Mr Marshall suggests, most people don’t care one way or the other but the subject is certainly causing lively debate in Sussex Express Letters.
Beryl Wilkins,
Bishops Drive, Lewes