ANIMAL WELFARE INFORMATION SERVICE
NEWS BULLETIN 24
May 2007
The AWIS exists to provide factual information about the abuse of animals. The abuse is bad enough but is it not compounded when, years later, there is denial that it ever even occurred? If it is denied it could all too easily be repeated. Our opponents are adept at rewriting history. A recent example was mailed in that I must correct. In this bulletin I am going to focus on one small issue. It concerns that most ancient of bloodsports: otterhunting. We could equally highlight a topic from factory farming or vivisection.
Mink and Otters
Both these mammals live in our river systems. Otters Lutra lutra are natives to these islands. For hundreds of years they were hunted and killed for sport with packs of dogs. The mink currently here are an imported species. They are not even the European mink Mustela lutreola; the ones currently at large in our rivers are North American mink Mustela vison. They were brought to Britain by the fur trade in 1929 and exploited in ranch farms. There were escapes from poorly managed farms and after the Second World War when there was a downturn in the fur trade many were simply released to the wild by the farmers, a practice that is not recommended.
J.H.F. Stevenson of Peregrine Fur Farm, Moretonhampstead, Devon wrote in Mink in Britain in 1957: “A guard fence surrounding the pens has a dual purpose. To prevent an escaped mink getting right away, and to keep dogs and other unauthorised visitors away from the stock. While the loss of an escaped mink is bad enough, it is frequently followed by heavy claims for damages from enraged poultry keepers whose birds have been killed by ‘a black shiny animal like a ferret’.”
G.F. Raeburn writing under the caption “Blood lust of the wild mink” in the Aberdeen Evening Express 7/8/1982 made the following observation on the decline in mink farming after 1945: “as the years passed many of the mink farms found themselves in financial difficulties, and the owners of some of them simply liberated their surviving stock.”
These mink successfully colonised our rivers and were able to take advantage of the decline in otter numbers. This decline was due to pollution of our waterways (organochlorine insecticides such as dieldrin and aldrin were introduced in 1955), urbanisation of our river systems and continued hunting and killing for sport when the species was under pressure. It is now believed that hunting had a more significant impact on otters than first thought. In the late 1950s killing otters with hounds beyond the sustainable yield produced an unnaturally young population and young mammals are known to be more sensitive to the likes of dieldrin.
Mink initially colonised the areas around the fur farms they came from but the hunts soon found that they were a useful alternative quarry to the disappearing otters. Not every mink that was hunted by hounds was killed. Many that escaped were moved further away. Hunting with hounds was thus a most effective means of spreading mink the length and breadth of Britain.
The otter was driven to the brink of extinction. The species was saved firstly by the efforts of the anti-hunting lobby in Parliament to secure some protection for the species and secondly by the actions of the likes of the Otter Trust who bred the species in captivity and released them into the wild to re-stock the wild population. Otters are much larger than mink and will dominate in any head to head confrontation. Mink weigh up to 1.5kg; otters from 5.5kg to 16kg.
A supporter recently sent me the following extract from the 2004 book Endangered Species written by Michael Clayton a hunting enthusiast and former editor of Horse and Hound:-
“Scott Henderson approved otter hunting with reservations, but the sport was to be abandoned voluntarily by otter hunters from an entirely correct sporting perspective: the quarry species was not sustainable; a cull was not appropriate.
Not due to hunting, but to man’s toxic pollution of rivers, otters were becoming extinct in England and Wales in the 1960s. Urban pollution poisoned otters; rural use of rivers for chemical sheep dips in some cases made otters infertile. Led by Capt. Ronnie Wallace, one of the leading Masters of Otter Hounds (Hawkstone 1946-68) as well as of Foxhounds, the sport of otter hunting with hounds voluntarily closed down, or switched to mink hunting, well before otters were made a protected species in 1978.”
This is some re-writing of history. I became active in animal welfare in 1971. As a young hunt saboteur in the early 1970s I joined others to struggle to protect otters from otter hunters. I recall all too well the ferocious battles in the field and in Parliament to secure legal protection for otters from hunting. Protection for the otter had to be clawed through the House of Commons in the face of diehard opposition from the bloodsports brigade and all their usual allies. It is true that some of the time some otter hunts switched to hunting mink before the otter was protected but there was just one reason for that. It was not that they were sympathetic to the otter but rather that they couldn’t find any to kill. The mink was regarded as a very poor alternative quarry. Whereas an adult otter could stand up well before hounds and provide anything up to nine hours of entertainment before succumbing to exhaustion the mink gave far less fun, soon disappearing down a hole or running up a tree. [The Field July 10th 1869 reported the killing of a 24lbs otter by the Carlisle Otterhounds after a hunt lasting 9½ hours] But hunters craved for some summer bloodsport to fill the gap between the ending of one hunting season in April and the start of another in August. If they couldn’t find otters because they had killed so many then it had to be mink. Where there were few mink as in East Anglia then it was coypu. If there had been no mink and no coypu then the suspicion was that they would have hunted rats. Far fetched? It is precisely what some summer hunts claim to be doing now, since the Hunting Act 2004.
It is time to take a look at the facts concerning the interface between otter and minkhunting.
History
The decline of the otter was noted by naturalists from the 1950s onwards. How did the otterhunting hierarchy react? For a start they carried on hunting and killing otters. From 1958 to 1963 the 11 otter hunts in England and Wales, according to their own records, killed 1,065 otters between them. Then their allies in the hunting media denied there was a problem. Here is an extract from an editorial about otterhunting entitled “Hounds of Summer” in “The Shooting Times and Country Magazine” 14/5/1964:-
“Nor should the notion be allowed to gain ground that the otter is a rare creature. It has always had its “ups and downs” if one may judge by old records, rather in the same way as the partridge, though with longer cycles. In this year of scientific destruction it is possible, almost certain, that some have perished from the poisons that are poured on to the land, but there are still many of its kind.”
Similarly the following is taken from an editorial in Shooting Times & Country Magazine 8/9/1966:-
“Exaggerated rumours are creeping into the Press in respect of the otter. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph of August 29, “The wild otter may well become extinct in Britain unless resolute action is taken now to protect it from persecution, says the League Against Cruel Sports.” If it is meant to suggest that the few otterhound packs in this country are in any way menacing the otter population of Great Britain, this statement is patently nonsense. But is there, in fact, any worthwhile evidence to suggest any serious decline in the population of an animal which, almost wholly nocturnal in its habits, is probably commoner than is generally supposed? To say that the otter is in danger of extinction is claptrap.”
When it became increasingly obvious that the otter was declining towards extinction it is true that some hunts, who found very few otters anyway, claimed to be only trying to locate otters, not hunt them. But some hunts were determined to still kill otters. The following is from the Eastern Counties Otter Hunt, a pack that the Queen subscribed to until 1965:-
“Dear Member,
The going is tough, but that is nothing new in our daily lives........What can you do? Well you can double your support of this hunt by coming out more days than you ordinarily would, by supporting the social functions, and giving generously to the cap which we will take this year for the BFSS Fighting Fund. You can demonstrate that you are proud and unashamed of your sport. Hunters and Otter hunters in particular have been conservationists for longer than most can remember and long before conservation became a weapon of those who wish to stop our pleasure.
We have got a jolly good little pack of hounds with this years puppies of our own breeding being entered for the first time since 1968. Please help me to find water for them to hunt.......
Help me to kill a few otters this season and I think that next year we will shake the pessimists by showing just how many there are about. We have been keeping a low profile for too many years now, and there is nothing quite like a pack of hounds that is catching otters, to show sport every day we go out. I am taking steps to bring this about, belated perhaps, but I realise that successful hunts don’t just happen, they are made by their members and masters................Good hunting Charles Corner”
(“Message from the Master” by Charles Corner, Master Eastern Counties Otterhounds [1974-76], Spring 1976)
Political
The Charles Corner plea proves the determination of otter hunters to kill their quarry as late as 1976 and their friends in Parliament were just as determined to protect and keep otterhunting. Some amongst the hunting fraternity feared that their leaders in the British Field Sports Society (now the Countryside Alliance) would abandon otterhunting in the face of public sympathy for otters. But they need have had no such worries as the following letter of reassurance to a hunter, written in 1976 proves:-
“CONFIDENTIAL Otterhunting
Thank you so much for your letter of 31st October and for giving me your own personal views in confidence at the same time alerting me to the rumours which you say are circulating among otter hunters in Wales.
Any rumour that the BFSS is planning “to sacrifice otterhunting to save other sports” is quite untrue. It is both unfounded and uncharacteristic............
Speaking personally, I would never give up a field sport without using every devise to protect and retain it. We expect to have quite a battle on otterhunting in the next session of Parliament and we shall have to play that as best we can, depending in what way it comes up........” (Letter signed MRK to a Master of Foxhounds in Oswestry, dated 8th November 1976 [Marcus Richard Kimball MP was Chairman of the British Field Sports Society at the time])
Bloodsports fanatics were determined to hang on to otterhunting as the following internal minute proves:-
“(j) Otterhunting Committee
The Chairman reported that efforts to protect the otter were likely to be made in Parliament. The BFSS would oppose any legislation directed at otter hunting.” (British Field Sports Society. Minutes of the Meeting of the Main Committee held on 9th December 1976 at 11.30a.m. in the House of Commons, London S.W.1. Page 6)
Not that the hunters made any secret then for their support for otterhunting:-
“Let me warn you that if any attempt is made to add the Otter to the list of protected animals, my friends and I in Parliament will argue every clause in the Bill over and over again and add every other animal and extraneous reforms so that the proposal will eventually be talked out.” (Marcus Kimball, MP for Gainsborough [now Lord Kimball] and at the time Chairman of the BFSS talking at the Otter Conference held by the Joint Otter Group 22/6/1977 reported in HOWL (magazine of the Hunt Saboteurs Association) No.9 Autumn 1977. Page 1)
Despite all the bluster and threat from the bloodsports brigade the otter achieved a degree of protection in 1978 when it was placed on Schedule 1 of the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act (1975) and it became illegal to kill the animal. Significantly it was not illegal to hunt the otter and this anomaly allowed the alternative summer houndsport of minkhunting and in East Anglia coypuhunting to flourish. The hunts merely changed names and the same people hunted the same rivers from the same meets with the same dogs but they assured the nation that they were hunting mink or coypu, not otters. Minkhunting did little but spread the species further afield. Coypuhunting disrupted genuine efforts to control this introduced species. Both pastimes further imperilled the otter.
The arrival of the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act should have secured even greater protection for the otter. It became an offence to disturb the known resting or breeding place of an otter but in practice no-one paid much heed and the summer hunts were allowed to do more or less as they liked for 20 years and more. I think with hindsight this error on our part was because the otter was so rare that in the early 1980s there really was little prospect of proving that a hunt had knowingly disturbed otters resting or breeding places. However with the return of the otter we should have picked up on this opportunity for a legal challenge to minkhunting.
The Threat to Otters today
Against all the odds otters have made a comeback in our rivers; so much so that we have started to see letters in the pro-hunting media complaining about the ‘damage caused to fisheries’ by otters. This is the precursor to the plea for otter control and then the plea for hunting. 150 years ago there were letters to the hunting media claiming that otters killed salmon and trout and needed to be controlled. It was nonsense then and is nonsense now. The otter, like any predator, is lazy and prefers the slower moving fish such as pike and eels. As such otters should be welcomed by those with an interest in fisheries.
The 2004 Hunting Act should have finally finished off any further prospect for tormenting otters with packs of dogs but there are problems. Firstly many hunters vowed to ignore the Act and go to prison if necessary. Well many are ignoring the Act but the prospect of prison is a long way off. Secondly minkhunters are attempting to dodge around the Act by “legal” hunting. Whether they claim to be hunting a drag, exercising their hounds or hunting rats the only certainty is that by running hounds and terriers along riverbanks they are threatening the otter. The final problem for otters is that the Conservative leader, David Cameron MP, has promised that when a Conservative Government is re-elected a priority will be repeal of the Hunting Act. That will pave the way for a full scale summer onslaught on our riverbanks. And who knows if there are sufficient otters about the hunters might even get their dream ticket of a return to full blown otterhunting? And the Queen might renew her subscription to fully turn the clock back. How retro can we get in the abuse of our wildlife? This might all appear just a nightmare scenario but it is a real threat. We must never drop our guard because our opponents, those who delight in abusing animals, don’t change and never give up. However we can and must counter their efforts.
In the short term we need to press firstly for the laws to be upheld to protect our wildlife. For otters this means enforcing the 2004 Hunting Act and the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. We need to identify where otters are common and notify the respective hunts and police forces. Hunts can plead ignorance until a recorded delivery letter is sent to both them and their local police pointing out that otters frequent the very rivers where they plan their “legal” hunting. (Mercifully otters are now to be found in most of our rivers).
Secondly we must to counter the political threat. The Conservative hierarchy need to be told that it might be a dream of their wealthy backers to bring back hunting but in any election it is votes that count and most Conservative voters simply don’t want to see the return of the likes of hare coursing and staghunting, let alone racking up the threat to otters. It is not modern and certainly not ‘green’ to torment wildlife for fun. Finally, please, as several of our supporters have done already, use the facts about this subject to write letters to your local media. Please counter attempts to vilify mink. It is not their fault that some misguided souls saw their coats as fashionable. Back in 1982 Dr. John Birks writing in the RSPCA Today made clear that the threat from mink in Britain is exaggerated. In the long term the best way to control and reduce the mink population is to ensure a healthy otter population. The best way to catch mink is with live cage traps so that any otters inadvertently caught can be released unharmed. As for the trapped mink in the absence of any secure sanctuaries for them, or any wealthy benefactor able to pay for them to be returned for controlled release to their native North America, there is only humane destruction.
In our times it is sadly trendy and young for some to view fur as ‘green’ and ‘natural’. I can only implore anyone making this mistake to take a look at the whole sorry sordid history of mink in Britain. It is nearly 80 years of suffering; too high a price for fashion surely?
LEGACIES
For anyone considering remembering the vital work informative of the AWIS in their will I respectfully suggest using the following form of bequest:
“I bequeath unto the Animal Welfare Information Service of P.O. Box 8, Halesworth, Suffolk, IP19 0JL, the sum of .............................. free of tax and I direct that the receipt of an authorised officer of the group shall be a good and sufficient discharge of such legacy.”
That is it for another bulletin. This one is unusual in size and content but I hope that you will find the information that it contains useful. Extra copies of this bulletin are available if required plus of course you are welcome to photocopy this. Your continued support is vital. Thank you. There is so much work for us to do. Hopefully the summer will be better than the last few days which have seen high winds and rain. Our next bulletin will be written in November. Mike Huskisson. May 2007
A.W.I.S., PO BOX 8, HALESWORTH, SUFFOLK. IP19 0JL Tel.:- 01986 782280
Web site: www.acigawis.freeserve.co.uk E-mail: mike@acigawis.freeserve.co.uk