Loose Hounds

[knightrider]

Curious what the hunt would like folks to do when we find a loose or multiple loose hounds that have clearly strayed from the hunt?

I live right next to hunting territory and had several riders looking for hounds that they lost come through my property and trot down the road. About a half hour I had a hound in my yard and pastures with my crazed horses who couldnt’ handle the excitement. I grabbed the hound and threw him in a stall because my horses were pretty nutso and he was in their path. The hound jumped out the window of my stall and took off, but I’m curious what is protocol?

I thought I was supposed to leave him alone, however, because he was clearly not protecting his best interests and my horses have never seen any portion of a hunt ride through their property I was afraid they would hurt him.

I think they got him becuase the truck went to my neighbors house and picked up the remaining hounds there…hopefully anyway they got him.

[Beverley]

Easiest thing is to call the specific hunt’s Master or huntsman and ask what they want you to do. But in general, in my experience it’s preferable if you ‘can’ lock them up so they can’t escape and call the kennels. At a minimum, a call to kennels saying you’ve seen hounds would always be appreciated. If you want to be nominated for sainthood, throwing hound(s) in an escape-proof vehicle and returning them to kennels would be very, very, very much appreciated.

PSA to hunts, when I was honorary sec/treas and honorary whipper-in, at the beginning of each season we used to drive the country and leave fliers in mailboxes as a friendly alert to landowners and residents in hunt country. The fliers gave the number of kennels, had a picture of a foxhound, and asked people to call kennels if they ever saw one or more hounds without the usual supervision of a hunt in progress. In this day and age, you could probably include not just kennel ‘land line’ but Master and/or huntsman cell phone numbers for faster receipt of news. Nice to know when kenneling hounds at the meet after hunting that Farmer Brown saw the couple you’re missing at ‘x’ location an hour ago.

[jawa]

Our hounds wear either a colored plastic collar with a name and phone number attached, and or a tracking collar.

Another hunt I belong to has the chain collars with name and phone number on them.

We have had a few slip their collars, but rarely.

[Beverley]

[QUOTE=jawa;6707691]
Our hounds wear either a colored plastic collar with a name and phone number attached, and or a tracking collar.

Another hunt I belong to has the chain collars with name and phone number on them.

We have had a few slip their collars, but rarely.[/QUOTE]

And collars are great- but don’t underestimate the desire of some to remove collars and steal your hound. Which is why ear tattoos are still a good thing.

Back in the day, theft was a serious problem, both hunters desiring a nice hound and scalawags who would steal dogs of all types and sell them to labs for research. They’d go so far as to amputate an ear with a tattoo on it. So you can’t be too careful.

I will add to my prior PSA that annual education of animal shelters is also a good thing- take them a picture of a foxhound AND a picture of an ear tattoo. I retrieved one of our good hounds from the Fairfax County Animal Shelter, which they had advertised in the classifieds as a ‘found beagle.’ Phoned them to check and they said, gee, yes, really big beagle. I asked them to check out the ear tattoo and that was enough for me to grab a leash and head on over.