Shrinking countryside forces hunts to merge
HUNTS are merging to survive as senior figures in the sport say that the shrinking countryside will lead to more groups joining forces.
Two Essex hunts will this season become one in a move that they say has made them financially stronger and more able to deal with the challenges that they face.
Countryside groups say that the future of the sport lies in more cooperation and are encouraging others to follow suit, saying that it is the “logical and sensible” thing to do as costs rise and available land disappears.
Lord Mancroft, chairman of the Council of Hunting Associations and chairman of the Master of Foxhounds Association, said: “The countryside is shrinking, partly because of development and the huge increase in traffic and roads and partly because of an increase in shooting. Rather than endlessly going over the same bit of country, it makes sense for hunts to merge or amalgamate to make better use of the country.
“I am trying to encourage them to be more flexible and redraw hunt boundaries because I want people to have as much fun as possible.
“Hunting is the great survivor. Everyone said that it would be stopped by barbed wire and then by roads and railways, but it hasn’t been. It has survived and it remains immensely popular.”
Christopher Padfield MFH is master of the Essex Hunt, which in May this year officially merged with the Essex Farmers and Union Hunt to make the Essex with Farmers and Union Hunt.
In the five seasons that he has been Master, he said he had noticed that their country has changed.
“We need to adapt and it would be foolish for any business or any sport not to
‘‘Life changes and we must adapt. We have done it from a position of strength’
take on board the challenges that we face,” he said.
Changing landscapes are not the only challenges facing the tradition, which has had to adapt in the wake of the 2004 ban and faces regular disruption from saboteurs.
“We have to adapt to the limitations we have to work within,” Mr Padfield said.
“We have made a very viable, fiscally strong hunt. We have a good mastership and I would like to think that we lead from the front and uphold strong standards. The anti-hunting fraternity is just an issue that we have to work alongside and a strong and well run hunt is a good way of working around that parameter.”
While adapting to new laws, hunts have not changed the way that they are run in the past 50 years.
At the same time, costs continue to rise and it is thought that many will follow the lead of Essex.
Mr Padfield said: “You can’t just think, ‘We will be fine’. Life isn’t like that. Life is always changing and it is important to adapt.
“We have done it for positive reasons and we have done it from a position of strength and not weakness and that is important.”
Simon Hart, a Tory MP who is a hunting supporter and former chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said that merging was “fundamental to the future of hunting and the future of hunting’s relationship with the public”.