Protect the Wild is launching an exciting new campaign to re-home the hounds! Hunting is on its last legs. To try and save it, the hunting industry is parroting the false narrative that its dogs would have to be put down if the bloodsport were made illegal. But the UK is a nation of dog lovers – and we know that hounds can be happily re-homed in our communities.
We spoke to Lilly, who lives with two ex-hunting hounds. She shared with us how, away from a large hunting pack, the dogs have become beloved members of her family.
Lilly told us:
“My dogs are called Maggie and Negan. I’ve had Negan for eight years, and he came to me via rescue. I have had Maggie had since January of last year. She was found in a ditch starving. She was microchipped, but there were no details of who she belonged to.”
We asked her about Negan’s history and personality. She said:
“I don’t know how Negan survived in a hunt! He has never picked up a scent in the eight years I have had him. He’s a goofy boy. He’s got very bad spondylitis now, likely from hunting. Hounds twist their bodies when they’re hunting, so we think it’s down to that. He’s got cancer as well. He’s a gentle giant! He thinks he’s a poodle in size and walks over my other dogs to sit down, and they all get out of the way for him. He goes to bed at about 8pm, and he spends most of the night with his bum on my pillow!”
She then told us about her younger dog, Maggie:
“Maggie is incredible. I reckon she is about five or six years old. She does sometimes pick up on scents when we’re out walking, but she always finds me again. She wears falconry bells so that she can be heard. She has found a few fox dens but she’ll stand there and do nothing. She lives with cats in our home. In a different environment – where they’re not encouraged to hunt – they lose their hunting instinct. She is terrified of the sound of a hunting horn, and she has got a lot of deep scars on her. The fact that she was left to die on the side of the road says it all. She was house-trained within a week.”
A commodity
Despite hunting industry propaganda that they care about their dogs, hounds live a miserable life in kennels, subjected to abuse and neglect. In 2021, a Hunt Investigation Team exposé, supported by Protect the Wild, revealed harrowing undercover footage. The videos showed Duke of Beaufort Hunt staff shooting four of their hounds in the head in cold blood. This was the first time that the shooting of hounds had been caught on camera – but it was common knowledge among those who monitor hunts that this practice happens regularly.
Lilly said:
“I have monitored quite a few hunts that shoot their hounds and they are just a commodity. They just use them and use them and then shoot them when they’ve got no use for them and if they can’t keep up.”
Protect the Wild has reported extensively on the abuse of hounds – how they are regularly killed by vehicles on roads or by trains on railway tracks. We asked Lilly whether she has witnessed the abuse of hounds. She replied:
“I have seen one dog who was injured and was being dragged behind a horse. The hunt wouldn’t engage with us. Another dog got his leg caught in the fence, and he was dangling. Sabs rescued him. The hunt had 40-plus hounds out the other day – they don’t keep an eye on them. A lot of the time the dogs are so terrified, and if you get one who will come near and you stroke him, the others will all come round for love and attention.”
Rehome the hounds!
We asked Lilly whether she thinks it’s possible to re-home the hunting industry’s hounds. She replied:
“I’ve always said you can re-home them. People are so surprised that you can do this, but no-one has ever had any problems with re-homing them. The dogs don’t need to live in a massive pack. Negan has lived with two other dogs and that’s been enough for him.
A huntsman’s son once told me how the industry tells the lie that they can’t live outside a pack and everyone just believes it, that they’re all meant to be trail hunting. The hunts have had 20 years to retrain their hounds and follow a trail. They CAN retrain them, and the fact that my dogs usually don’t pick up scents shows that they just encourage them to chase animals.”
The best companions
Finally, we asked Lilly whether, because of their backgrounds, they need any more exercise or special care. She replied:
“They don’t need any more exercise than regular dogs. Maggie has two hours per day and Negan has 40 minutes per day because he gets tired easily. They’ve never been destructive in the house. They’ll nick food if you leave it lying around, but they don’t destroy anything! I foster dogs, and I’ve had much more difficult dogs in the house than those two. They’re very good with other humans, too. If people come into the house they’re all over them. On dog walks or in my home I have had no issues.
Negan’s been my companiion for eight years and I love him dearly. And Maggie, her little face when she sees me, is smiling. They’re so affectionate and loyal and it’s so horrible what happens to them with hunts.”
