Cameron, L. C. R., Rod, Pole and Perch: Angling and Otter-hunting Sketches (London, 1928), p. 52 For such people the laceration of an otter's living flesh is an amusing thing. . . 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 President Stephen Coleridge, his successor Lady Cory and several other members did the same. Salt edited the two Humanitarian League journals: Humanity, later renamed The Humanitarian (18951919) and The Humane Review (19001910). CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Indeed, Coulson, Collinson and other campaigners believed that the kill had ill effects on the mental well-being of every person involved. 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 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. 48. 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. 5 It appears to be more about human behaviour than animal suffering. Johnston condemned otter hunting and urged the government to give the mammal legal protection in his 1903 publication British Mammals. Collinson had previously led the Humanitarian League's campaign against flogging and was described by Henry Salt as a young north-countryman, self-taught, and full of native readiness and ingenuity, who at an early age had developed a passion for humanitarian journalism.Footnote The cruelty was not disputed and Bell's defence to the charge showed little remorse. Here Bates presents a very personal and very committed attack on otter hunting in a style of writing quite unlike his own. This approval generated considerable adverse reactions and increased press coverage. 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. Still, if I am ruled out of order I will resume my seat. Hale, Matthew 39 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 artificial membrane that mimics the. Joseph Collinson, The Hunted Otter (1911), p. 19. 23. 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. 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 Although Coleridge's speech was welcomed with loud cheers and rapturous applause, the chairman of the committee was far from impressed by the impromptu inclusion of the subject. With no utilitarian reason for killing, the hunted otter was simply something killed for fun. During the period 1969-72, 89 sea otters were translo-cated to British Columbia; 59 otters were released in Washington in 1969-70. Coleridge, Bell and others argued in articles in Animals Friend magazine and The Humanitarian that this reversal was unconstitutional and illogical.Footnote artificial Smith, Virginia, Bell, Ernest (18511933), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [online]Google Scholar. Afterwards everyone who took part in the orgy was probably ashamed of himself. The sea otter population has rebounded to nearly three thousand individuals 64. The scientist built a tube that was divided by an. 23 As otters were removed during the hunting years, there was a large decrease in the catches of fish species from the eelgrass habitats. of compassion, love, gentleness, and universal benevolence, the Humanitarian League clearly set itself apart from other reform oriented bodies. The Guardian, 9th May 2010. 9, In this paper we consider the ways campaigns against otter hunting were carried out in the period 1900 to 1939. CrossRefGoogle 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. 32. 8. 2. Kean, Hilda, Animal Rights (London, 1998)Google Scholar; confined to otter hunting, they also tried to divide the hunting fraternity by distinguishing the sporting conduct of otter hunters from fox hunters, stag hunters and hare hunters: If the sporting set consider it unsporting to hunt some animals in the breeding season, why does this not apply to otters?Footnote 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. They were killed mostly for their fur, which was desirable 35. For campaigners, the killing of indefensible cubs and protective mothers was the antithesis of fair play, sportsmanship and manliness. 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. He wanted society to step back and reconsider the moral distinction between wild and domestic animals. Ernest Bell, The Barnstaple Cat-Worrying Case, The Animals Friend (1906), 43. 62 The large bold title above the image read, Women being blooded at an otter-hunt.Footnote He saw that miserable little animal was pursued by men with large poles with spikes in their heads, men who would put on a tall hat and go to Church on Sundays, while women disgracing their sex stood by and lent their countenance and encouragement to the brutal proceedings. Perhaps surprisingly, despite four decades of campaigns against the sport, the article does not describe otter hunting as something controversial. In The Times on 13th June 1928 Williamson was described as the finest and most intimate living interpreter of the drama of wildlife. To stress his dissatisfaction, he targets two features specific to the sport, the prolonged duration of the pursuit and spring and summer hunting: To make it pleasant for otters as well as man, otters are hunted not only for a long time, for seven or eight or ten or eleven hours at a stretch, but in spring. Here he labelled otter hunting as the second cruellest blood sport: With the exception of the hare-hunt men and women possibly never sink so low as they do when they join an Otter-Worry. 9. Sir Harry Johnston, British Mammals (1903), p. 140. Otter reintroductions were common during this time. 76. Otters today are faced with habitat loss and food scarcity, apart from killing due to Added to this, the physical characteristics of the otter meant that the final worry, much like the preceding pursuit, could be more prolonged and more of a spectacle than in hunts of other animals. This act of individual defiance was, however, soon silenced by the laughter of the unreceptive audience. When Oregon and the federal government removed families from the area more than 150 years ago, Peter Hatch said, sea otters were still present. 34. When interviewed by the Oxford Times, Mrs Chapman explained We went to Islip because we thought we ought to make a special protest against otter-hunting. 46. The Cheriton Cruelty Case, The Field, 28th October 1905, 768. He did however come to the conclusion that their conduct had been reprehensible.Footnote Offering close proximity and participatory practices of seeing (gazing) and doing (the stickle), any member of an otter hunt could participate in infamous scenes. L. C. R. Cameron, Otters and Otter-Hunting (1908), cited in Collinson, The Hunted Otter, p. 6. Otter hunting presents to him a picturesque scene, with the scarlet-coated, white-breeched men armed with spears, with shaggy hounds, and the landscape set with great marsh marigolds. 86 Mackenzie, John M., The Empire of Nature (Manchester, 1988), p. 33 These public demonstrations shed light on the respectability of the animal welfare movement. 2017. . Syse, Karen Victoria Lykke, Otters as Symbols in the British Environmental Discourse, Landscape Research, 38 (2013), 54052CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The first to second the motion was Ernest Bell who pointed out that otter hunting was just as unsportsmanlike as shooting birds from traps. 20. 19 Williamson, Henry, Tarka the Otter: His Joyful Water-life and Death in the Country of the Two Rivers (London, 1927)Google Scholar; In 1844 Landseer's The Otter Speared polarised opinion about otter hunting which was condemned by many as barbaric. The second letter from An Old Fashioned Sportsman denounced otter hunting on sporting grounds and used the Barnstaple cat-worrying case to strengthen his argument: I belong to an old family of Tory sportsman who have been brought up to view with disgust such amusements as involve the fiendish cruelty and worrying of one poor little animal for many hours by a motley crowd of men, women and even children, some armed with spears. Resting upon his well-notched otter pole and fully clad in hunting attire, he gazes into the distance. 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. In these terms, if fishermen, as the only people with a genuine grievance against otters, did not feel the need to hunt and kill them on the grounds of revenge, then the animal was not a pest. 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. But in the early 2000s, their numbers exploded: From 2002 to 2011, the sea-otter population more 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. during the fur hunting period in the 18th and 19th centuries. The idea of the fairer sex taking part in manly or savage amusements was regularly invoked to shock the public.Footnote The main institutional differences were in their ideals and methods. Douglas Macdonald Hastings, Hunting the Otter, Picture Post, 22nd July 1939, 5256, p. 52. 7. 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. feel thankful that the Masters of the various packs of otter hounds do not share this opinion.Footnote He focussed on several key themes including the hunting of pregnant otters and the demoralising effects of participating in the hunt. These kinds of demonstrations continued throughout the 1930s. Scientists and tribal leaders say reintroducing otters would restore balance to degraded kelp forests, boost fish species, protect shorelines, generate tourist dollars The letter proposed that drag hunting provides all the thrill of the chase without a living victim, and we earnestly request you to consider its adoption in preference to hunting live creatures.Footnote Google Scholar. The fact that otter hunting was singled out suggests that Coleridge felt this particular activity was vulnerable enough to be prohibited. By the twentieth century most otter hunters spoke of the remote and barbarous days of the spear,Footnote 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 68. On 4th April 1928, for instance, several daily newspapers reported that an otter had been stoned to death by fifty working men in Workington. the killing of baby cubs must needs go on, though a grief and pain to all concerned in their ultimate destruction.Footnote George Greenwood, Chapter 1: The Cruelty of Sport, in Henry Salt, ed., Killing for Sport (1914), p. 6. Varndell had mastered the Crowhurst Otter Hounds since 1905, and had missed only four days hunting in thirty-five years.Footnote The image in question fronted the issue released on 22nd July 1939. [23] Griffin, Carl J. 1823. Coulson, Otter Worrying A Protest, The Humanitarian, August 1908, 61. Bates wrote a regular column, Country Life, in The Spectator, and two volumes of nature essays, Through the Woods (1936) and Down the River (1937). 22. Second, he felt that as he had bought the cats they were his own property and third, he argued that it was less cruel to use a cat than a badger as worrying the latter badly injured the dogs.Footnote On rare occasions women were singled out for criticism during this period: Why the educated, rich, or the uneducated for the matter of that, have nothing better of more edifying to do with their time is beyond one's comprehension. Coulson, Otter Worrying A Protest, The Humanitarian, August 1908, 601. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. For Bell, the only difference between an otter and a cat was their legal status. 77. Reflecting on the period, W. H. Rogers of the Cheriton Otter Hounds wrote: Some doubts were expressed as to the propriety of hunting while so many poor fellows were being killed and wounded in the trenches, but the view prevailed that if the Hunt was once dropped it would be very difficult to restart it, and that those who were away would wish us to keep things going against their return.Footnote 74. The sea otter population has rebounded to nearly three thousand individuals A sanctuary was created in Amchitka Island, whose sea otter population grew to outstrip its supply of prey. With no sportsmen involved, the incident gained universal condemnation from otter hunters, members of the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports and the general public. Varndell became huntsman in 1904. 13. During the 82nd Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on 21st May, Stephen Coleridge tapped into this public feeling, and unexpectedly proposed that the committee should prepare a bill to make otter hunting illegal. The incident was widely reported and horrified the public. The hunting and killing of female otters during the breeding season was a recurring theme in anti-hunting literature.

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