I don't frequent the trapping thread too often, but I caught the title of this post in the main thread and it interested me.
I'd like to throw my support behind houndsmen, as I own beagles that I want to track hare. I'm probably sticking my neck out there for some abuse, but I do believe that one can conduct and ethical hunt with hounds. I can appreciate the reasons that it is illegal to hunt big game with hounds, but for varmint species I don't think that it should be a problem,
I have heard that the success ratio for rabbit hunting is about 20-40%, that is that of every 10 rabbits that the hound tracks, only a few get shot, either because the hound finds another scent track or the shooter can't get a clean shot. Though it improves your odds of getting your quarry, it is not as guaranteed as many believe and on top of that when hunting for these varmint species there is usually a boatload of these animals in the same area, so the hounds are quite susceptible to tracking multiple quarries. The reason I love Beagling as much as I do has more to do enjoying a day out with my hounds, then banging off a few hare or whatever. If they tracked a hudred rabbits and I got none, I'd still be happy; equally I would be happy if they tracked nothing and there were a hudred rabbits all around (though I'd have to question myself as a handler, or if they were sick or somthing!!). I imagine other houndmen have similar reasons for using hounds in their hunt, whether sight or scent hounds and rabbit or coyote etc.
Something that is critical to ethical hunting with hounds, is the ability to control your hounds and call them off when you have decided against shooting the animal, for whatever reason (usually because hound is too close...but could be because you let a few go out of fair chase principle if you want to make a case for that). I practice whistle training almost every day with my hounds for this reason. Similar ideas apply to sight hounds that are used for coyotes and such.
And I totally disagree with the idea of running down coyotes with a truck, let alone any other species. Just my personal opinion, don't know the rules on this, but that is very unethical.
|