Wildlife Matters has dedicated several months to closely following the Stag hunters, revealing the distressing reality of Stag Hunting in Britain, a practice that inflicts unnecessary suffering on these majestic creatures.
The 2004 Hunting Act bans hunting wild mammals with a pack of hounds, and it applies to stags as well. According to the law, no animal should ever be pursued with dogs.
There are a couple of specific loopholes in the Act: a mammal can be ‘flushed’ out by a maximum of two hounds and shot, or to relieve it of suffering. For instance, if a stag is found injured, it can be shot to prevent further suffering. Stags can also be killed for Research purposes, but this exemption is often exploited by hunters.
Stag hunters rely on these exemptions and often claim that they’re trail hunting, a practice where hounds follow an artificial scent rather than a genuine stag. This is a common cover used by hunters to continue their activities under the guise of a legal sport.
Recently, large landowners in the Southwest of England, such as the National Trust, have taken a stand by officially banning trail hunting on their land, and Forestry England has suspended it. However, both of these organisations need to step up their efforts to enforce these bans, as I have personally witnessed stag hunting on National Trust land in the Quantocks.
All Red Deer hunting takes place in the South West of England. There are three registered stag hunting packs based in the region.
These are the Devon & Somerset Staghounds that hunt in the Exmoor National Park;
The Quantock Staghounds that hunt throughout the Quantock and Brendon Hills and the
Tiverton Staghounds hunt through the valleys of the Exe, Taw and Torridge rivers.
Red and Roe Deer are the most commonly hunted species, although shooting parties regularly culled the other four species: Fallow, Sika, Reeves muntjac, and Chinese water deer.
Before the Hunting Act of 2004, Hunts in England followed the practice of declaring a closed season, a tradition that dates back to medieval times. This period, known as ‘fence month,’ commonly lasted from June 10th to July 10th, although the dates varied. It’s important to note that several Stag hunts used bows to hunt stags in the UK until this was made illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, marking a significant shift in our approach to wildlife conservation.
“Deer-stalking” is a widely used term by hunters to signify almost all forms of deer shooting, but in Britain, it refers to shooting red deer.
Another quirk of British hunters is “deer hunting,” which historically meant “the sporting pursuit of deer with scent-seeking or stag hounds” by hunters on horseback and foot. As late as the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, stag hunts hunted “carted deer,” a red deer kept in captivity to be hunted.
“Deer-stalking” is a widely used term by hunters to signify almost all forms of deer shooting, but in Britain, it refers to shooting red deer. Another quirk of the British hunters is “deer hunting”, which historically meant “the sporting pursuit of deer with scent-seeking or stag hounds” by hunters on horseback and foot. As late as the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Stag hunts hunted “carted deer”. A carted deer was a red deer kept in captivity to be hunted.
Stag hunts are long and arduous, often taking three to four hours and travelling up to 20km. The pursuit of the deer itself consists of intermittent flights where the deer runs away from hounds at speed, exerting itself until sufficient distance has been built up.
The deer slows down once there is an adequate distance between it and the hounds. The hunters often change to new, fresh hounds and continue with these successive flights until the deer escapes or becomes exhausted.
An exhausted Deer often “stands at bay,” where it turns to face the hounds—prepared to fight—but the hunters shoot the deer at close range, often using a shotgun.
Stag hunts hunt across their area twice a week from early August to the end of April.
After successful prosecutions, all three Stag hunts now hunt with two hounds, considered legal under the Hunting Act.
The “harbourer” chooses the stag to be hunted and then sets out on horseback with the ‘tufters’, older, more experienced staghounds. The tufters will rouse the deer herd and start the chase.
At this point, the stag will outrun the pursuing hounds easily. But, once the stag is separated from the herd and is being followed alone, the job of the “harbourer” is done. It is at this point that Wildlife Matters believes the stag is being hunted illegally and can no longer be considered as being flushed to waiting guns.
Now, in their 4x4s and on the quad and dirt bikes, the hunters and support staff race to positions on the high ground whilst a new pair of hounds begin to pursue the stag. At this point, there will be at least 10, with multiple teams of fresh hounds all in pursuit of a single stag. Using multiple pairs of hounds is known as ‘relaying’ – one of the many ways the hunters continue their blood lust by defying the law.
The Hunting Act definition of the term ‘to flush’ is to use no more than two hounds to flush or spook the stag out into the open to be shot by a waiting gunman.
This most certainly is not what is happening. The hunt will search for a herd of deer, with the supporters driving around the area and calling in when deer are spotted.
The hunters will try to justify their actions by claiming any number of exemptions to the Hunting Act; perhaps the most common is that they only hunt sick or injured animals, but this is not true as they will run the stag for several hours, an ill or injured animal simply could not to that.
Another favourite is that they are undertaking scientific research – a legitimate exemption under the Hunting Act, in fact at one meet this season, when they had killed a young stag, the hunt staff claimed the stag had TB and had to be destroyed, but still cut its throat and let its blood spill over their hands – they are very perverse and seriously deluded people!
In my experience, stag hunts attract some of the most unsavoury characters. Many supporters and followers play a vital role in what is undoubtedly illegal hunting.
The support staff are often the same folk who support the fox and hare hunts. They can be heard making threats in their attempts at intimidation, assaulting Hunt sabs, and criminally damaging cameras, phones, and other equipment. They are particularly keen on slashing vehicle tyres and smashing vehicle windows—I’m sure their mothers knew their uncles far too well!
During the hunt, these support staff will race around in their vehicles, looking for a stag to alert the huntsman. They’ll also attempt to slow down any fleeing stags or turn the stag back towards the hounds by hollering and making as much noise as possible.
The support and field riders will try their utmost to stop the stag from seeking sanctuary on adjoining land that does not allow them to hunt. I’ve seen Deer fencing erected by the hunt staff along the boundaries of sanctuary land to stop the stags and turn them back.
But for me, it’s how they act when the stag collapses from exhaustion; you can see the hunt staff racing to get to the kill.
It’s genuinely horrible witnessing the bloodlust of these sad people as they jump on the collapsed stag, grab hold of his antlers, and sit on him. At the same time, they wait for a gun carrier. Once the gun carrier has shot the stag, they will joyfully cut his throat before they begin to butcher him.
They take the stag’s body parts as trophies! The head with its antlers is the biggest prize, but they will also take the slots—the hooves and the bottom part of the leg. Sometimes, they even remove the teeth for a macabre necklace that serves as a memento of the murder. By tradition, the landowner will be given the stag’s heart.
Deer hunts use a three-stage process of hunting throughout the year. They will start by hunting mature stags in August and continue until the end of October before hunting the hinds (female deer) in November.
Because the females naturally stay in their packs, the hunters cannot chase them as they can a stag, and so will often shoot whole groups of females, completely wiping out sections of the herd. Wild Vension at Christmas is usually a hind from one of these cold-blooded massacres.
At the beginning of March, the young stags have grown enough to provide a chase, and the hunters use them to train their new hounds. They will continue to hunt these young Red Deer bucks until the end of April, but Roe bucks will be hunted well into May each year.
Wildlife Matters Conclusion
Stag hunting today is not for food or, indeed, any necessity. Nobody can convince me that anyone who will keep horses and packs of hounds, employ 10 – 30 people and spend several hours, multiple times a week, chasing a wild animal to exhaustion to shoot it has any other reason than their own; I would say perverted desire to kill another sentient being for fun.
Yet, every week, throughout most of the year, and although illegal, these people go out and chase wild animals to exhaustion before killing them. They are breaking the law by pursuing the stag for extended periods; the law simply permits them to flush a deer with dogs and shoot it.
It must be clear that a group of people on horseback, often dressed in hunting jackets, accompanied by 10- 30 people in 4x4s or on quad bikes with a pack of hounds, are not out conducting scientific research or even undertaking a deer cull at the request of the landowner.
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Further Reading
Stag Hunting – League Against Cruel Sports
The Brutal Reality of Stag Hunting – Protect the Wild
Stag Hunting Exemptions to the Law – Hunt Saboteurs Association