The following is extracted from AWIS Guide 1:-
Otterhunting.
Ø Hunting:
“An otter is a sufficiently formidable beast of chase, and the terrier that has to tackle him must be a hardy and high-couraged one; no creature, in fact, knows better how to use its teeth than an otter, and the unaccustomed spectator will do well not to try to “tail” or otherwise meddle with one of these animals in the course of the hunt, if he values his fingers. “Tailing” an otter~that is, seizing the beast by his tail and flinging him to the hounds, or turning him, is an operation of extreme nicety, and only old hands know how to achieve it successfully.” (Nature and Sport in Britain. H.A. Bryden. Pub. Grant Richards, 1904. Page 255)
“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)
Ø Political:
“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 was Chairman of the British Field Sports Society at the time] )
“(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)
“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, M.P. 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 No.9 Autumn 1977. Page 1)
¨ [From 1958 to 1963 the 11 otter hunts in England and Wales, according to their own records, killed 1,065 otters between them]