22. In the latter, the fox has some chance of escape but in the former the otter's chances of escape are clearly much less. 03 March 2016. Even if she is prevented from doing so, she will hang about the place where they are, and perhaps be killed wet when the cubs, too, will perish.Footnote In 1928, it showed a cheerful young woman glorying over being blooded at an otter-hunt (Figure 4).Footnote 74 They were killed mostly for their fur, which was desirable 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 79. 72. 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. Figure 4. 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. It also shows that people other than animal welfarists and sportsmen were concerned with the hunted otter. Ernest Bell noted in the Animals Friend journal soon after the prosecution that it was quite right that the press should express horror at such barbarity but questioned whether the deliberate worrying of otters for amusement was any less cruel or reprehensible than the worrying of cats.Footnote Now, Dr. Estes said, more than 90 percent of those otters are gone. Glorying over being blooded at an Otter Hunt, Cruel Sports, 1928 p. 85. Mr Collier's Otter Hounds were the last to abandon the spear in 1884, as his field did not care to see so gallant a beast suffer such an end.Footnote Google Scholar. 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. The small caption reads: OTTER-HUNTING. This act of individual defiance was, however, soon silenced by the laughter of the unreceptive audience. 61 Johnston's opinion of the otter and motivation for its protection were also quite unusual. Moreover, the intimacy of otter hunting meant that not only are they present at these infamous scenes, but, like the huntsmen, are worked up to the wildest pitch of excitement and moreover join in the final worry and the performance of the obsequies, when the spoils of the chase are distributed.Footnote 80 during the fur hunting period in the 18th and 19th centuries. 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. At dawn she withdrew to the river, where she was again hunted, but after several hours pursuit managed to escape. 29. Moore-Colyer, R. J., Feathered Women and Persecuted Birds: The Struggle against the Plumage Trade, c. 18601922, Rural History, 11 (2000), 5773 In the case of an organised hunt, the followers deliberately engage in a series of barbaric acts, skilfully camouflaged by all the trappings of an elaborate ritual. British Sporting Art, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle. 45 69 He reported that around 450 otters were killed every year which meant that in my short life of thirty years. 30 This was the month when the Barnstaple cat-worrying case was in the public eye. By planting a seed of doubt into the minds of readers over the accuracy of hunting reports, it also implied that otter hunters could not be trusted. 88 Oliver, Roland, Johnston, Sir Henry Hamilton (18581927), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [online]Google Scholar. John Mackenzie points out that Landseer did not decry human participation in the raw cruelty of the natural world. 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. 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). It has many meanings and perhaps I misconstrue it? 64. are not infrequently killed, even in the summer months, and then, of course, the whole litter is destroyed. 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. 60. When urchin populations spiked in response, the reefs held their ground. Pring, Geoffrey, Records of the Culmstock Otterhounds, c. 17901957 (Exeter, 1958), p. 35 66. Correspondence. 52. Varndell had mastered the Crowhurst Otter Hounds since 1905, and had missed only four days hunting in thirty-five years.Footnote Cameron, L. C. R., Rod, Pole and Perch: Angling and Otter-hunting Sketches (London, 1928), p. 52 The aesthetic quality of animals was also important to him. In order to share these principles with the public, the League adopted a strategy that involved open meetings, lobbying of influential individuals, letter writing campaigns to newspapers and magazines and the production of pamphlets, monthly journals and other scholarly publications.Footnote The painting is currently in store at the Laing Gallery, Newcastle http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/laing-art-gallery/collections.html. 26 Newcastle Daily Journal, 29th May 1914, cited at http://www.henrysalt.co.uk/friends/colonel-coulson. Large hunting efforts were under way with the help of a massive ship in the water. Otter hunters were of course proud of this fact; it was one of the many peculiarities that set it apart from other field sports. Summer hunting across rugged river valleys offered strenuous physical exertion in the sun, whilst facilitating a picnic and a paddle. "useRatesEcommerce": false Ernest Bell, The Barnstaple Cat-Worrying Case, The Animals Friend (1906), 43. It is a brutal, demoralising amusement. Here, the criticism of otter hunting seems to be directed more at the spectator's reaction to the prolonged death-agony, than the actual experience which the animal is going through. About Otter-Hunting, Cruel Sports, July 1928, 85. 62 During the summer months its pages were sprinkled with photographs of women and girls being blooded at otter hunts. Now, Dr. Estes said, more than 90 percent of those otters are gone. In just a few decades, this bustling civilization has withered into a ghost town. You can travel down 10 miles of coastline and never see an animal, he said. The loss is more than cosmetic. In the Aleutians delicate seascape, otters hold the entire ecosystem together. 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 regular otter hunter deliberately indulges in cruelty without the saving grace of feeling shame on the contrary, the returning cars and local tap rooms ring with the complacent boastings of the lords and ladies of creation.Footnote This opposition to the Bill was surprisingly effective. The letter argued that no reasonable excuse can be found for such conduct, misnamed sport which was morally wrong and barbaric. These snaps, which had been taken by otter hunters, were lifted from local newspapers then republished with evocative captions. A high proportion of the League were women. Walter Cheesman and Mildred Cheesman, Diaries of the Crowhurst Otter Hounds, 1904, Unpublished, East Sussex Record Office, Reference AMS5788/3/1, p. 3. . But Bristow-Noble emphasised that we should. 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. He wanted society to step back and reconsider the moral distinction between wild and domestic animals. 74. This paper examines the arguments and methods used in different anti-otter hunting campaigns 19001939 by organisations such as the Humanitarian League, the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports and the National Association for the Abolition of Cruel Sports. The Master of the Wye Valley Otter Hounds, on the other hand, styled himself as a utilitarian, hunting through the war not for sport, but in order to keep down the head of otters in the interests of the fisheries.Footnote But what matter? The passage not only stresses the moral inconsistency of the public, it also underlines the hypocrisy of sportsmen. Although its founder Edward Hulton was a Conservative, the publication was politically left leaning and its editors Stefan Lorent and Tom Hopkinson took an anti-fascist stance. The committee concluded that the promotion of legislation and especially of controversial legislation, is not desirable at present and should instead be undertaken as far as possible by individuals.Footnote 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 Indeed, Coulson, Collinson and other campaigners believed that the kill had ill effects on the mental well-being of every person involved. Sir Harry Johnston, British Mammals (1903), p. 140. 47 . with exception of the three spurious sports of carted-stag hunting, rabbit coursing and shooting pigeons from traps.Footnote 2. At least 23 million Amazonian animals, including the otters, were hunted for their hides from 1904 to 1969. 50. 35. Consequently everyone can watch, and most do watch, the end and people collect from far and near and watch in cold blood for minutes together the frantic death-agony of the brave little animal who has never done injury to anyone assembled. Coulson, Otter Worrying A Protest, The Humanitarian, August 1908, 601. Again this article was accompanied with a striking photograph of several ladies holding banners (Figure 3). He was a founder member in 1903 of the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire and an opponent of big game hunting. 65. Coulson later complained that clergy, more generally, did little to criticise otter hunting: Seldom do we hear from the pulpit any protests against acts of cowardice and cruelty that would shame savages. 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. Sea otters were hunted to near extinction during the maritime fur trade of the 1700s and 1800s. When urchin populations spiked in response, the reefs held their ground. "During the fur trade, Clathromorphum persisted through centuries where urchins presumably abounded," Rasher said. "However, the situation has drastically changed this time around. The 1911 pamphlet attempted to shed light on the overall death roll of otter hunting. Rather than defend its sentient or sporting qualities, he was much more concerned with its aesthetic role in the landscape. 1. otter rescue plan that worked too The Trust recently secured the first ongoing class licence to capture and transport live Eurasian otters trapped in well-fenced fisheries in England. 75. For Bates, such suffering could not be enjoyable for the sufferer and should not be enjoyable for onlookers. Kean, Hilda, Animal Rights (London, 1998)Google Scholar; He met his future wife Ida Hibbert at an otter hunt, and proposed to her at a hunt ball. For Bell, the only difference between an otter and a cat was their legal status. 44 This in a sense gave the League the moral high ground. Hastings (190982) became a leading war reporter for Picture Post. He argued that if the government cared for the preservation of beauty in England, the otter would long ago have been placed on the protected list, and would not have been subjected to the undiscriminating attacks of sportsmen.Footnote shot but they felt that many otters were preserved for hunting, a shameful blot on our civilisation. Afterwards everyone who took part in the orgy was probably ashamed of himself. The sea otter population has rebounded to nearly three thousand individuals The Masters of Otterhounds Association was formed on 9th February 1910. 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. 25. When the Otters Vanished, Everything Else Started to Rivers are then lovely with kingcup and ladysmock, meadows are starred and belled with daisy and cowslip, and, above all, the female otter is in cub. Raymond, Graham The Cheriton Cruelty Case, The Field, 28th October 1905, 768. 45. for torturing cats to death, should show the public the lengths to which cowards will go when once they begin to gratify blood-lust.Footnote He had seen a Master of a pack last summer throw a man into the river for striking at an otter with a walking stick.Footnote 32. It also shows just how much the mere thought of otter hunting could unsettle an individual. As with the Barnstaple cat-worrying case of 1905, attention was redirected from the actual killing to the animal in question. and provided further evidence of the barbarous spirit engendered by indulgence in blood sports.Footnote These public demonstrations shed light on the respectability of the animal welfare movement. In 1923 he diverted his attention to blood sports. Some inhuman wretch: Animal Maiming and the Ambivalent Relationship between Rural Workers and Animals, Rural History, 25 (2014), 13360CrossRefGoogle Scholar. 36, The third, by Lady Florence Dixie, took the opportunity to publicise the Humanitarian League's work on blood sports. 52. Exploitation of otters . The following year Bell and his followers formed the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports. 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. Staged at Colchester's North Railway Station, on this occasion members of the Colchester Working Group were the chief agitators and the Eastern Counties Otter Hounds the agitated. 12 In the same year Amos organised the Leeds Rodeo Protest Committee which successfully scotched several attempts to import and establish rodeo in England. Google Scholar. . young and thoughtful. The Daily Mail, for instance, received several telegrams from masters of otter hounds opposing Coleridge's criticism and justifying their sport. In February 1918 the Representation of the People Act gave all women over the age of thirty the right to vote. [After a pause.] Although Collinson made a point of exposing these figures, he did not comment on them in any way. Coulson compared the death of the fox with the death of the otter to emphasise the cruelty of the latter. 68. Williamson dedicated Tarka the Otter to William Rogers. Writing in the Morning Leader, Colonel Coulson described how an otter, which had been hunted for seven hours, was struck and killed by a blow from a metal-shod stick wielded by an otter hunter in a boat. Leeds Women Protest at an Otter Hunt, Cruel Sports, August 1935, 59. Figure 5. WebOregons sea otters disappeared in flash of destruction, as one small part of an ocean-spanning fur boom driven by demand for their lush pelts. 57 In 1901 he also contributed a four page paper, The Otter Worry, to the League's sixty-three page pamphlet British Blood Sports: Let us go out and kill something. 14364Google Scholar; The latter formed a pack of Otter Hounds in Llandinam, Wales, bearing his name in 1906. Once all of them are out, plug up the hole and it is as simple as that. River otters love fish, frogs, crayfishes, crabs, and other aquatic invertebrate 28. Loss of sea otters accelerating the effects of climate In August 1935 Cruel Sports reported that a group of women from the Leeds branch had protested against the Kendal and District Otter Hounds in July. WebNo hunting (except waterfowl) during removed only by the user. . Ernest Bell, Cat Worrying by Sportsmen, The Animals Friend (1905), 1823. 62. It was the only organisation that called for the legal protection of otters at the beginning of the twentieth century.Footnote It argued that if it were necessary, otters should be cleanly killed, i.e. 11:59 Exit Sea otters are native to the western coast . . Hostname: page-component-75b8448494-knlg2 . 78. 30. In his view, otters were more visible than fish and therefore their lives were more valuable: the time has come when active steps should be taken to promote the preservation of the otter, a creature far more beautiful, wonderful and obvious than any fish.Footnote 90. They were then handed leaflets. On 4th April 1928, for instance, several daily newspapers reported that an otter had been stoned to death by fifty working men in Workington.
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