Hunting is a good excuse for a hard day's exercise. Bell argued that it offered an insightful glimpse into the mind of the sporting man,Footnote 66. 69 1. 65. About Otter-Hunting, Cruel Sports, July 1928, 85. Brutality of Otter-Hunting, Cruel Sports, June 1928, 74. Justice for the Animals, Otter-Hunting, Cruel Sports, October 1929, 128. The Humanitarian League was dissolved in 1919, and the main organisation to campaign against otter hunting became the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports, founded in 1924. . This carry on as normal sentiment was initially broadly endorsed, but could not be sustained by all. Each image is accompanied with a caption and a paragraph explaining the scene. . . . Their aim, to enforce the principle that it is iniquitous to inflict avoidable suffering on any sentient being, was tied to both the criminal law and prison system, and the prevention of cruelty to animals. Google Scholar. A true man would kill fierce animals with as little pain as possible, while those he destroys for food, or raiment, he will destroy mercifully. The Hawkstone Otter Hounds disbanded in 1914, putting down most of their hounds. 37, The first malpractice to be exposed in otter hunting itself was an incident that occurred on the River Tweed on 6th July 1907. The National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports sought to enlist the support of well-known individuals, including the journalist and author H. E. Bates (19051974) who became a mainstream country writer. The object of this society was to create a sound public opinion on the destruction of wild animals throughout the British Empire, especially Africa, and establish game reserves.Footnote For Johnston, otter hunters were not cruel they were simply misinformed. 18. Bates wrote this chapter on the basis that he liked otters but, despite living within a mile of a river valley, had never seen one in the wild. Now, Dr. Estes said, more than 90 percent of those otters are gone. At least 23 million Amazonian animals, including the otters, were hunted for their hides from 1904 to 1969. My object is only to insure that this Institution shall fulfil the great purpose for which it was founded.Footnote The national profile of otter hunting was raised in July 1905 when the press reported an incident that became known as the Barnstaple cat-worrying case. The following year he became joint Master with Mrs Mildred Cheesman who had been celebrated as the first lady master of otter hounds in the Daily Mail in 1905, as discussed earlier in this paper. The 1911 pamphlet attempted to shed light on the overall death roll of otter hunting. 30 But Bristow-Noble emphasised that we should. Ernest Bell, The Barnstaple Cat-Worrying Case, The Animals Friend (1906), 43. Throughout the essay he applies the term to a number of situations to discredit the idea that animals are killed for public safety, natural history, protection of farmers or sporting exercise.Footnote [23] The large bold title above the image read, Women being blooded at an otter-hunt.Footnote . Cruel Sports magazine readily employed this strategy. WebA scientist designed an experiment to test an. Joseph Collinson argued that a deplorable feature of this sport is that its followers include all sorts and conditions of people: ministers of religion with their wives, young men and young women, sometimes even boys and girls. Donald, Diana, Picturing Animals in Britain 17501850 (New Haven and London, 2007), pp. something like twelve thousand otters have been killed in England for the purpose of fun. 79. Correspondence. WebIn 1741, Russians began hunting sea otters. Holding an extreme and uncompromising policy, it developed more dynamic methods in an attempt to gain both publicity and prohibition. 41. 52. Some of the recurring questions included: Have we reached such a pitch of humaneness in our treatment of wild animals that no further legislation is desired? and What made it more desirable for individuals, rather than Societies, to promote such legislation? These questions got no response from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the putative otter hunting bill became for many just another means to criticise its inadequacy and hypocrisy. In 1923 he diverted his attention to blood sports. And even we English whose behaviour in the country is notoriously crazy must have an excuse for wading through rivers in grey bowler hats, blue jackets and white flannel breeches. About the Otter, Cruel Sports, June 1928, 73. Covering two pages (812), it was retitled Sport and the Otter.. When the otter reached temporary sanctuary in a holt twenty men got on to the bank and endeavoured by jumping and other means to force the earth down into the unfortunate animal's hiding place until worn out by fatigue and fright surrounded by men and dogs the otter became as easy prey to its enemies. . The Spirit of Otter-Hunting, Cruel Sports, August 1939, 62. 26 By Zulma Cary. 35 64. The Trust recently secured the first ongoing class licence to capture and transport live Eurasian otters trapped in well-fenced fisheries in England. Pain, too, like fun, is a word of many meanings and it is not surprising, perhaps, that for many people the two things are synonymous. See inside.. Published online by Cambridge University Press: He wanted society to step back and reconsider the moral distinction between wild and domestic animals. Walter Cheesman and Mildred Cheesman, Diaries of the Crowhurst Otter Hounds, 1904, Unpublished, East Sussex Record Office, Reference AMS5788/3/1, p. 3. Glorying over being blooded at an Otter Hunt, Cruel Sports, 1928 p. 85. He declared that Coleridge was entirely out of order in discussing this matter now, adding that he was not speaking of the merits of the subject, but only say it is out of order now. Coleridge replied that: If at your Annual meeting such a motion as that is out of order, then I say this great Society will stultify itself if it does not hear me. In a series of vignettes, Bates fondly describes the rivers, the creatures, the trees, the flowers, the buildings and the people that make up the watery landscape. By setting this against contemporary instances he insinuates the unchanging attitudes of otter hunters over the centuries. In the Aleutian Islands, a massive and unexpected disappearance of sea otters has occurred since the 1980s. The cause of the decline is not known, although the observed pattern of disappearances is consistent with a rise in orca predation. Sea otters give live birth. British Sporting Art, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle. Prior to the maritime fur trade which began in the late eighteenth century, sea otters ranged from Japan, north through the Aleutian Islands and down the Pacific coast of North America to Baja California (Barabash-Nikiforov 1947). Johnston's opinion of the otter and motivation for its protection were also quite unusual. An anonymous informant writing in The Humanitarian in August 1908, for instance, questioned the unwomanly conduct of the ladies in the field: The conduct of the women is beyond me to describe. The first publication solely concerned with exposing the cruelties of otter hunting was Joseph Collinson's 1911 The Hunted Otter, a twenty-four page booklet in Ernest Bell's A. 58. Ruskin's critique of the painting did little to diminish the popularity of Landseer's art in the nineteenth century and hunts, hunters and otter hunting increased substantially in popularity, reaching a peak in the Edwardian period.Footnote Throughout the 1920s and 1930s however verbal disapproval was replaced with more subtle visual rebukes. He is remembered today for his monumental two-volume Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages (191921); for his natural history collections now held at Kew, the British Museum, and London Zoo; and for his identification of the okapi (Okapi johnstoni) in the Congo in 1901.Footnote Scientists and tribal leaders say reintroducing otters would restore balance to degraded kelp forests, boost fish species, protect shorelines, generate tourist dollars The League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sport, Annual Report (London, 1926). Otter hunting involves the harrying of females heavy with young, the destruction of mothers in milk, the lingering starvation of a number of suckling cubs, and a heavy death roll and the the aggregate of animal suffering caused is necessarily great.Footnote 33. The League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports based itself on the radical elements of the Humanitarian League. earlier attempts at concealment were also exposed. socially, much of society still subscribed to the Victorian notion of womanhood. To reinforce this point Bates goes on to outline the enjoyable aspects of the sport. 21 The RSPCA and its Objects, The Animal World, July 1906, 154. This act of individual defiance was, however, soon silenced by the laughter of the unreceptive audience. Now, what nonsense this is!Footnote This idea is reinforced by the fact that the two members of the audience who stood to offer their support were both members of the Humanitarian League. Downing, Graham, The Hounds of Spring. This weekly magazine, first published on 1st October 1938, was a pioneering outlet for British photojournalism. From The Field for 18th June 1910 came a report that: Too many bitches are killed at this time of the year (June), the dog otters making themselves very scarce. The idea of introducing a slaughter limit helps to explain why his case for protecting the otter did not play a part in the rhetoric of the Humanitarian League or the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports. Hounds Feather as They Search the River Banks; (10) Followers Take to the Water; (11) This Is the Kill; (12) The Whip Holds Up the Trophy. Raymond, Graham Should Otters be Hunted?, Madame, 9th September 1905, 515, cited in Cheesman and Cheesman, Diaries of the Crowhurst Otter Hounds, p. 44. Again this article was accompanied with a striking photograph of several ladies holding banners (Figure 3). 60. If the mere presence of women was condemned, then the role they played in, and joy they gained from, the death of the otter was shocking. Sea urchins are voracious grazers of kelp. Rogers, W. H., Records of the Cheriton Otter Hounds (Taunton, 1925), p. 225 In this case, which was brought by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Master of the Cheriton Otter Hounds, Mr Walter Lorraine Bell, and three of its members were found guilty of charges relating to cruelty to cats. When Oregon and the federal government removed families from the area more than 150 years ago, Peter Hatch said, sea otters were still present. 71. He also pointed out that Geoffrey Hill of Hawkstone had killed 544 otters between 1870 and 1884, and that William Collier of Culmstock had also accounted for 144 between 1879 and 1884. 2017. 7. Instead, it tells the reader that the otter is hunted partly because it is tradition to do so; partly because he provides excellent sport, and partly because it is still necessary to regulate his kind.Footnote He uses heavy irony to get his point across: Fun is a curious word. Master of Crowhurst Otter Hounds, Picture Post, 22nd July 1939, Volume 4, Number 3. . In just a few decades, this bustling civilization has withered into a ghost town. Otherwise inaccessible wild and watery landscapes could also be explored: in otter hunting, the hounds, the invigorating air of the early morning, and the superb beauty of England's valleys and dales constitute the chief attractions. The sea otter population has rebounded to nearly three thousand individuals Johnston condemned otter hunting and urged the government to give the mammal legal protection in his 1903 publication British Mammals. Humanitarian, April 1918, 100, cited by } As otters were removed during the hunting years, there was a large decrease in the catches of fish species from the eelgrass habitats. Members of the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports were also outraged by this murderous behaviour and equally critical of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but they had a slightly different response to the event. President Stephen Coleridge, his successor Lady Cory and several other members did the same. WebThe otters were then protected by the international fur seal treaty, which banned sea otter hunting. Sea otter conservation began in the early 20th century, when the sea otter was nearly extinct due to large-scale commercial hunting. The sea otter was once abundant in a wide arc across the North Pacific ocean, from northern Japan to Alaska to Mexico. UKWOT has In his opinion everyone had a right to enjoy this animal in its natural surroundings, not just otter hunters. . For almost 40 years, the otters in southeast Alaska scrapped by. But in the early 2000s, their numbers exploded: From 2002 to 2011, the sea-otter population more She argued that Otter-hunting is an incredibly vile sport, because it is deliberately carried on in the breeding season and was amazed that a larger number of influential people do not feel it their duty to make active protests against these things. Moreover, otters are not hunted by fishermen, but by people whose notions of fun are to go out and kill something.Footnote 58. An incredibly vile sport: Campaigns against Otter School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele University, ST5 5BG, UKD.Allen@keele.ac.uk, School of Geography, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UKCharles.Watkins@nottingham.ac.uk, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956793315000175, The Monarch of the Glen: Landseer in the Highlands, A Delightful Sport with peculiar claims: The Specificities of Otterhunting, 18501939, Our Hunting Fathers: Field Sports in England after 1850, Wild Things: Nature and the Social Imagination, Otters as Symbols in the British Environmental Discourse, Records of the Culmstock Otterhounds, c. 17901957, Tally-Ho: Fifty Years of Sporting Reminiscences, The Smooth Cool Men of Science: The Feminist and Socialist Response to Vivisection, Feathered Women and Persecuted Birds: The Struggle against the Plumage Trade, c. 18601922, Some inhuman wretch: Animal Maiming and the Ambivalent Relationship between Rural Workers and Animals, The Hounds of Spring. They were joined by English and American hunters in the latter part of the century, and uncontrolled hunting continued until 1799. 3.84. It appears to be more about human behaviour than animal suffering. By the mid-1960s, Amchitka Island was being used a site for nuclear testing, which eventually killed many sea otters in the area. . He sat on the governing bodies of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the National Canine Defence League, the Cat's Protection League, the Pit-Ponies Protection Society, and the Animals Friend Society.Footnote The war had a dramatic effect on otter hunting and campaigns against the sport, although individual hunts dealt with the hostilities in their own ways. of the hunting fraternity. At this time the main justification for killing otters was the damage they did to fish stocks. As to the quickness of the kill, campaigners pointed to the duration of separate hunts as evidence to the contrary. . At dawn she withdrew to the river, where she was again hunted, but after several hours pursuit managed to escape. Each of these examples shows how a certain body of evidence, produced by otter hunters to promote their sport, was used by campaigners to argue their case against it. . 13. Unlike the working men who may have regretted the spontaneous event, sportsmen not only celebrated their own form of killing; they had created organisations that expected it to occur on a regular basis. 18, The first published call for the protection of otters came from Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston (18581927) who has been described as one of the main instigators of the scramble for Africa on the ground and considered himself a naturalist above all else.Footnote Here we explore the plausibility of this mechanism, using information on sea otters, kelp forests, and the recent extinction of Steller's sea cows from the Commander Islands. Demonstration at a Meet of the Bucks Otter Hounds. Still, if I am ruled out of order I will resume my seat. Following its publication, the book received widespread publicity when Williamson was awarded the Hawthornden Prize in June 1928. 70. This fun was one of the reasons why it is so difficult for me, and for that matter anybody else, to get a sight of an otter.Footnote WebThe otters were then protected by the international fur seal treaty, which banned sea otter hunting. The evidence seems clear enough.Footnote 88 Leeds Women Protest at an Otter Hunt, Cruel Sports, August 1935. In the minds of campaigners it not only looked ridiculous, it was unacceptable. 34. It also shows that people other than animal welfarists and sportsmen were concerned with the hunted otter. In 1901 Coulson had written that: Some of the clergy revel in it the very men who pose afterwards as the expounders of high morality.Footnote In 1965, sea otters were translocated from Amchitka Island (Aleutian Islands) to the outer coast of southeastern Alaska and by the early 1990's, small numbers of sea otters were documented at the mouth of Glacier Bay. The otter is as good an excuse as the next one; and, after all, the beast usually escapes.Footnote 31. The Guardian reported that the grisly content of the painting was the reason why it was taken off permanent display by its owners the Laing Gallery in Newcastle.Footnote 74. The recent exposure in Devonshire, where a master of otter hounds was sentenced to imprisonment. . In 2010 a painting normally considered too upsetting for modern tastes which while impressive was also undeniably gruesome was displayed at an exhibition of British sporting art at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle. . The scientist built a tube that was divided by an. A sanctuary was created in Amchitka Island, whose sea otter population grew to outstrip its supply of prey. Addressing the issue in Cruel Sports, a member with the pseudonym Wansfell could not see how it was fair to hold the Workington roughs up to obloquy without doing the same to devotees of organised otter hunting. The League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports also publicised isolated malpractices to strengthen their argument. The aesthetic quality of animals was also important to him. 68 [22] In 1957 the treaty was finally re-drafted to account for the population changes in the various locations of sea otters. Opponents, on the other hand, were offended by this inclusivity. 51. 1847Google Scholar; He was also a member of the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports and an unwavering opponent of otter hunting. . 80 30. 28. . 31 The latter formed a pack of Otter Hounds in Llandinam, Wales, bearing his name in 1906. Alongside the written article, twelve pictures are used to provide a step by step visual account of a day's hunting with the Crowhurst Otter Hounds. Ernest Bell, The RSPCA, The Animals Friend (1906), 169170; Reverend Joseph Stratton, The Abdication of the R.S.P.C.A., The Humanitarian, August 1906, 59. In 1929, there was a picture of a middle-aged woman and a teenage girl being blooded by the Joint Masters of the Wye Valley Otter Hounds in front of a crowd of smiling spectators.