What is the future for the working lurcher?
By Penny Taylor.
I THANK my stars I was born long before the hunting ban came into being, just as I’m glad I was able to enjoy my lurchers to the full while my body was still able to withstand the rigours of endless days spent walking the fens, or nights spent trudging through rain with a lamp and a dog.
What pains me most these days is not my legs or back, but the misinformation I see regarding hunting with dogs, specifically lurchers. I realise most rescue centres are rabidly anti-hunting, but to class all who work their lurchers as cruel, negligent or downright abusive towards their animals is a lie of the greatest magnitude.
What pains me, too, is that the negative aspect of any form of hunting is always bandied about on the media, whereas the positive side is only ever seen on certain Facebook pages and in magazines such as this, The Countryman’s Weekly.
The problem is that we who work our dogs have learned to keep our heads down in the face of almost universal condemnation by the general public. Today, where veganism has become a selling point for almost anything (including some makes of clothing!), the idea that someone could deliberately kill an animal for the purpose of procuring food, or as a means of pest control, is abhorrent to an increasing number of people.
