Virginia Law Phasing Out ‘Fox Pens’ Vexes All Sides

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

Virginia Law Phasing Out ‘Fox Pens’ Vexes All Sides
By KEN MAGUIRE APRIL 17, 2014

STONY CREEK, Va. — Emerson Poarch Jr., 72, says his father went to his grave incredulous that hunters would pay a fee to run their hounds in a “fox pen.”

The fox hunting tradition Emerson Sr. observed as a Virginia farmer was not so different from that known by George Washington, who on horseback joined his hounds in pursuit of foxes through the countryside near his Mount Vernon estate.

Eventually, rural turned suburban, and homeowners complained about dogs’ trespassing. Roadways replaced forests, resulting in more dogs being struck by vehicles. And now one kind of fox hunting has become a cultural flash point in a state where many feel that rural traditions are under assault and where animal rights sentiments carry more weight than they ever did in the past.

At issue are foxhound training preserves, as they are officially called, which were established as part of an earlier effort to keep the peace. Inside fenced enclosures averaging 200 acres, hounds pursue wild foxes. Sometimes, as might be expected, the hounds catch and kill the foxes, and that is the latest problem.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/us/virginia-law-phasing-out-fox-pens-vexes-all-sides.html?=

[Armadotrasgo]

1. Seems like a bad spot to be a fox.

Do they ever kill coyotes?

[cosmicone]

2. I don't see any "sport" in chasing foxes

on horseback while exhausting them in a chase with well-nourished and numerically superior dogs and then shooting them.

It is animal cruelty.

[7962]

3. Ridiculous. If you want to keep your tradition, then go out in the wilderness, not a pen area.

Its not hunting.

[zonkers]

4. Running around in silly outfits on horseback, chasing a terrified little animal. WTF?

[AngryDem001]

5. Oh, come on now!

Chasing a terrified, defenseless animal while wearing a silly get-up makes you feel like a man!

[Paladin]

7. "The Unspeakable in pursuit of the Inedible."

Oscar Wilde's immortal description of fox hunting.

[sofa king]

6. I think we should look to the Brits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting_Act_2004

The British decided that the practice of fox hunting was so well documented in the nation's history and culture that there was no actual need to hunt foxes anymore.

I've lived in Virginia all of my adult life, as an avid observer of the local flora and fauna. I've seen maybe two or three dozen foxes in all that time, fewer than one a year, the vast majority of them dead by the side of the road or, right around this time of year, alive and acting crazy during the mating season.

I can see foxes being a problem for chicken and rabbit owners--we have chickens in my suburban neighborhood here, it being Virginia and all--but the problem is nothing like the carnage that the exploding deer population has caused on local roads.

I've met a lot of hunters recently--setting up dozens of them with their licenses--but not one of them was a fox hunter. The locals only know of foxes as a mystifyingly elusive creature, a few bad apples of which turn into varmints and prey on human property.