I couldn't agree with you more. My lot have just come back from a short walk over the Downs, and as a unit they must of chased about a dozen rabbits but didn't catch any.

Not only did this exercise their minds by them trying to work out how to catch those pesky little white tailed rabbits, but it also exercised them physically with all that excessive running about.

So even though I was only out for about an hour, they must of all run the equivalent of about five miles, and are now laying on the couch totally knackered.

Being a vegetarian for umpteen years, no I don't like hunting. I also keep rabbits Dogs were designed to chase and hunt, oh yes, but they are mostly spoilt brats who are fed by their owners and do not need to hunt at all... now a starving dog who chases a rabbit and kills it for food, that I have NO problem with

I like lamping, its very skillfull for both dog and handler, its a clean, efficient way of controlling Rabbits too. I am a pro hunter, and enjoy any hunting, BUT, it must be humane and quick, there is a dfference between hunting and "hunting" The proper ones do it for a reason, pest control, food etc.. the play boys do it because they think its cool, its not!

I have to say i've changed my views about this since I became the owner of a gundog. I'm still very much anti-hunting, especially for sport and i've been a veggie for years.

My pointer is from working stock and naturally hunts. Unless I keep him on a lead all the time, I cant stop him. I want to be able to control his instincts and utilise his skills and thats why he's going through his gundog training.

He hunts game birds and rabbits almost everytime we are out, he'll even hunt voles. He has caught a pheasant and killed it in the past, as well as a vole and I have to say there were no marks on these animals. If he caught them and then proceeded to rip them to pieces then I would strongly object to his behaviour but he seems to dispatch them very quickly and "humanely".

I do encourage him to do what he was bred for and I think I owe it to him as his owner to allow him this as oppose to supressing it. I think my views are still in the midst of changing so not sure how I feel about lamping...

It was a similar thing that got us into lamping, Cassie chased after a rabbit in a field and we had no control over her once she had started to run. The bunny went under the gate and Cassie tried to go through it . She had a huge gash under her eye and her face was a mess. As running was so clearly part of her nature i made up my mind to understand it better and try to gain control so this didn't happen again. By using her like this we now have much better control and (touch wood!) there have been no more acidents.

Idem
I like the lurchers when they work, but in holland is it not allowd to hunt whit lurchers

Well on our walk tonight Jess and Jet managed to catch a rabbit each, admittedly the one Jet got 'I think' had mixy, as it was running all over the place and the area around it's eyes was slightly swollen, so I'm guessing that was mixy. But the one Jess got was just pure class as she just chased it down and once she got hold of it, it was dead with a busted neck.

Firstly, I am very much against hunting for sport... how anyone can find killing animals fun is beyond me.

On the topic of dogs hunting. I was unfortunate enough a couple of years ago to see a dog catch a squirrel in a childrens park. The lowlife owners didn't bat an eyelid, luckily my son was asleep in the pushchair at the time because it was an AWFUL sight. Just awful The squirrel was screaming it's head off, the dog was flinging it around all over the place, there was nothing, I mean NOTHING humane about the killing of this squirrel at all. I still to this day feel VERY sick at the thought of it and get tears in my eyes. And the fact that children, could have witnessed this and the owners did nothing....ugh!

You say they don't make a noise when she catches them. I have pet rabbits, the ONLY time one has made a noise is when it's cage mate bit it on the bum VERY hard and took a chunk out of her! Rabbits generally have to be in extreme pain to make noise. Just because the bunnies don't make noise does not mean they are not suffering and scared. More than likely just means she hasn't sunk her teeth in hard enough yet.

Now if your dog was hunting only ill rabbits, they are suffering anyway and I don't see an issue with it as being killed by a dog is at least faster than suffering for however long it is they suffer with mixy, and also helps to stop it spreading. I do however wish it were ONLY highly trained dogs doing the hunting to make it as quick as possible, not every man and his dog saying " Go on Fido, kill the bunny!" and the dog mauls it to bits.

In general I feel hunting is un neccessary. Your dog does not need to hunt. More than likely ( I say this as obviously the dog can't speak for herself so you never can be 100% certain) she does not feel sad if she doesn't. Just being in the right situation makes her WANT to do it. I doubt she sits at home thinking "oooh, I must get my fill of rabbit hunting later!"

And before meat eating is turned on me, yes I eat meat, yes I think the fate the animals suffer is awful. I only buy free range wherever possible so at least the animals are slightly better treated. Would I be willing to go out and kill my own food? No way. I'd be a vegetarian! But the fact is, when I buy it, the animal is already dead, it's life already gone, and there's really no difference between me buying it and the next person walking down the aisle. There will never be a way to stop EVERYONE eating meat so the animals will still be killed in their millions to supply supermarkets. It's not like I'm picking a cow out of a field and saying "kill that one for me!" the animals I buy already had their fate decided.
That being said, I'm starting to teach my 4 year old where meat comes from (not quite HOW, but where) so he can decide for himself if it's cruel and whether he wants to continue eating it. Just because it's my choice to eat meat doesn't mean I won't respect his views on it. He's very sensitive and I wouldn't be at all suprised if he turned out to be a veggie.

Hopefully I put my views across in a non-offensive way, however after witnessing what I did with the dog that day I have become rather opinionated on the subject, so sorry in advance if anything I said comes across as rude! It's just my anger of that day still lingering!

i think a lot of breed of dogs just arent up to hunting anyway - my cav couldnt finish off a baby rat a while back and id put money on the rabbit if she managed to catch it up.
My staff has become switched on to rabbits and the pup GSD always has been and a dog may not need to hunt, but its instincts certainy make it want to hunt and when you see the agitation when they see an animal outside the window that is very very clear.
I have squirrels, rats and crows that are a pain in the a3se in my back garden and i let the dogs out on them and apart from 2 baby rats they havent caight anything yet but im not going to don the black armband when they do. Not owning horses or being a keen gardener I am not bothered about the multitude of rabbits in my gardens or paddocks but I am not goping to restrict a dogs from having acesss to their garden if theres a chance of them killing one of the rabbits. Im also not going to keep them on leads because they want to chase rabbits while out walking, they are following their instincts.

I'm for hunting so long as the dog is trained to do it properly. It's because of a dogs hunting skills that we have a lot of the breeds we do today. Take Dingo, he's a Podengo, which is a sight hound that was bred for hunting rabbits. Even if they've not been trained to do it a Podengo will naturally hunt rabbits, it's the first thing on Dingo's mind when we walk out of the door. It is because of this extremely high prey drive that a lot of sight hounds can't be walked off lead.

People have already said they don't think the hunt is humane but look at the alternative for a lot of rabbits. Myxomatosis which is a horrendous way to die. I would rather a minute in a dogs jaws and then killed quickly to the suffering of this man made disease.

At first, normally the disease is visible by lumps (myxomata) and puffiness around the head and genitals. It then may progress to acute conjunctivitis and possibly blindness; however, this also may be the first indication of the disease. The rabbits become listless, lose appetite, and develop a fever. Secondary bacterial infections occur in most cases which cause pneumonia and purulent inflammation of the lumps. In typical cases where the rabbit has no resistance, death takes an average of 13 days.



Heidi