. H. E. Bates, Otters and Men (1938), p. 1. John Mackenzie points out that Landseer did not decry human participation in the raw cruelty of the natural world. Otter hunting was a minor field sport in Britain but in the early years of the twentieth century a lively campaign to ban it was orchestrated by several individuals and . 58. 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. The otter is impaled on a barbed hunting spear and is about to be flung down for the hounds. Ormond, Richard The otter is as good an excuse as the next one; and, after all, the beast usually escapes.Footnote They were joined by English and American hunters in the latter part of the century, and uncontrolled hunting continued until 1799. Johnston condemned otter hunting and urged the government to give the mammal legal protection in his 1903 publication British Mammals. 8. When urchin populations spiked in response, the reefs held their ground. 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 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. During the summer months its pages were sprinkled with photographs of women and girls being blooded at otter hunts. 27 Cameron, L. C. R., Rod, Pole and Perch: Angling and Otter-hunting Sketches (London, 1928), p. 52 Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1906 Annual Report (1906), p. 127. The following year, the Fur Seal Treaty was signed and although the The sea otter population has rebounded to nearly three thousand individuals 33 Yet although Johnston was not directly involved, his argument brought into prominence the campaign for the otter. 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. 84. 71. Glorying over being blooded at an Otter Hunt, http://www.henrysalt.co.uk/friends/colonel-coulson. Rogers, William, Records of the Cheriton Otter Hounds (Taunton, 1925)Google Scholar. Reverend H. C. G. Matthew, Coleridge, Stephen William Buchanan (18541936), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). Vivisection, the slaughter of animals for food, the fur and feather fashion trade, and blood sports were all targeted.Footnote 336, p. 34. Salt, Henry, Humanitarianism (London, 1891), p. 3 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. One of the first men of influence to join the Humanitarian League was Colonel William Lisle Blenkinsopp Coulson (18411911). 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. In fact, this member felt that the latter was worse than the former: In the one case a crowd of men became infected with a sudden attack of blood lust, and were carried away by the excitement of the moment to the temporary exclusion of all feelings of humanity. 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. The Cheriton Cruelty Case, The Field, 28th October 1905, 768. This carry on as normal sentiment was initially broadly endorsed, but could not be sustained by all. WebAll the otters that are in there might leave to get away from the smell. He reported that in certain otter hunting regions such as Wales, Devonshire, and Sussex, the otter was being rapidly extinguished by the actions of unreflecting, red-faced, well-meaning, church going, rate-paying persons on the plea that it eats salmon or trout. Ibid., p. 20. 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 When, however, other members of the Hunt were moved to action by the scandal,Footnote He agrees that the otter lives on fish, but so also do herons and wild duck and pike and kingfishers and cats and men and women. It was not until July 1928 that the age was lowered to twenty-one. Demonstrations at a Meet of the Bucks Otter Hounds, Cruel Sports, June 1931, 51. are not infrequently killed, even in the summer months, and then, of course, the whole litter is destroyed. 5. The principles of this League echoed those of its predecessor, that it was iniquitous to inflict suffering, either directly or indirectly, upon sentient animals for the purpose of sport.Footnote Large hunting efforts were under way with the help of a massive ship in the water. In just a few decades, this bustling civilization has withered into a ghost town. . The Humanitarian League's strategy was that whenever an article mentioning otter hunting appeared in a newspaper or magazine, League members would bombard that publication with letters of protest. This allowed broader questions to be raised by the publisher and campaigner Ernest Bell (18511933). 6 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 Rogers, W. H., Records of the Cheriton Otter Hounds (Taunton, 1925), p. 225 Considering Johnston's establishment position and his enthusiasm for hunting in the Empire, this was a powerful request. For Bates, such suffering could not be enjoyable for the sufferer and should not be enjoyable for onlookers. Allen, Daniel, The Hunted Otter in Britain, 18301939, in Middleton, K. and Pooley, S., eds, Wild Things: Nature and the Social Imagination (Cambridge, 2013)Google Scholar; (Cheers.) . and broadly disregarded spearing as one of the blood-thirsty methods used by our forefathers.Footnote earlier attempts at concealment were also exposed. . Render date: 2023-05-01T08:20:46.153Z The group's membership steadily grew from over 300 in 1925, to over 2000 in 1929, and 3000 in 1938. He uses heavy irony to get his point across: Fun is a curious word. The painting was commissioned as a commemorative portrait of his pack of otter hounds by Lord Aberdeen (17841860), then foreign secretary and later to become prime minister. Diana Donald argues, however, that the resulting canvas, six and a half feet high, had no precedent in British sporting art in the way it combined archaic pageantry and brutal actuality with the hunter twisting the spear so the otter does not immediately fall to the hounds. Stephen Coleridge was the second son of Lord Chief Justice of England, John Duke Coleridge, and great nephew of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. . 76, There is a real sense that women should have had the emotional authority to know better.Footnote 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. In 1939 another iconic image came out on the front cover of the Picture Post (Figure 5). My object is only to insure that this Institution shall fulfil the great purpose for which it was founded.Footnote 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. Has data issue: false . phospholipid bilayer of a cell. 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. Mr Rose of the Eastern Counties Otter Hounds described the proposed Bill as most unfair and ridiculous and argued that otter hunting was grossly misrepresented: Long spiked poles are never used for the purposes suggested, but for assisting followers across ditches, rivers and fences. In Alaska, 467 sea otters were translo-cated to several locations from 1965 to 1969. 67. Men, women and children could all actively participate together in this sport. 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. 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 UKWOT has For campaigners, the killing of indefensible cubs and protective mothers was the antithesis of fair play, sportsmanship and manliness. In women and children it induced behaviour that was not in keeping with certain ideas about gender and youth. 50. 2956Google Scholar; Is there no legislation which would enable, say, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to get upon the track of the Workington murderers and make them suffer? 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 WebIn 1741, Russians began hunting sea otters. Sport and the Otter, Cruel Sports, June 1929, 812; this had first appeared in The Western Mail, 1st June 1929. 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 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 He is astonished that the law of this country still allows this rotten and most bloody exhibition of behaviour and that such repugnant bloodiness survives in a so-called civilised age and country.Footnote 25. 64. The History of the Eastern Counties Otter Hounds, Rod, Pole and Perch: Angling and Otter-hunting Sketches, Putting Animals into Politics: The Labour Party and Hunting in the First Half of the Twentieth Century, A blow to the men in Pink: The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Opposition to Hunting in the Twentieth Century, Tarka the Otter: His Joyful Water-life and Death in the Country of the Two Rivers, The Otter Speared, Portrait of the Earl of Aberdeen's Otterhounds, or the Otter Hunt, http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/laing-art-gallery/collections.html. The Picture Post styles otter hunting as just another peculiar pastime the notoriously crazy English enjoy in the countryside. 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. Douglas Macdonald Hastings, Hunting the Otter, Picture Post, 22nd July 1939, 5256, p. 52. 69 In these terms the iconic image of Varndell could be seen as positively publicising the face of otter hunting. The Master of the Crowhurst Otter Hounds surveys a line of Country. With this in mind Johnston seemed to overlook the behaviour of otter hunters and instead placed blame on anglers: Salmon is produced in such enormous abundance in North America and Norway, and is so very unlikely (owing to its habit of resorting to the sea) to become exterminated in British waters by the otter, that it would be a shame if this remarkable aquatic weasel. 62. Which of the following observations would provide the strongest 14 Rather than defend its sentient or sporting qualities, he was much more concerned with its aesthetic role in the landscape. One of the main reasons Bates spoke out against otter hunting was that he felt that a small minority had reduced his chances of seeing the otter. 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. Allen, Daniel, A Delightful Sport with peculiar claims: The Specificities of Otterhunting, 18501939, in Hoyle, R. W., ed., Our Hunting Fathers: Field Sports in England after 1850 (Lancaster, 2007), pp. . 15. 88 The Spirit of Otter-Hunting, Cruel Sports, August 1939, 62. Nothing daunted, she returned at nightfall to the yard and once more endeavoured to free her cub, but with no better result than before. The photograph was taken by Felix Man, who had been an active photojournalist since 1929, had emigrated from Germany to London in 1934 and was chief photographer for Picture Post from 1938 to 1945.Footnote 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 From the late 1890s Coulson had also launched a prolific letter writing campaign against otter hunting in local, regional and national newspapers. 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 30 Big game hunter Sir Henry Seton-Karr and otter hunter Mr David Davies, Member of Parliament, were among its sixty-one ordinary members.Footnote Syse, Karen Victoria Lykke, Otters as Symbols in the British Environmental Discourse, Landscape Research, 38 (2013), 54052CrossRefGoogle Scholar. 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 By placing value on the life of the animal, it was not the act of killing that was condemned, but rather the killers reaction to such an act. 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. 74 With fox hunting, he argued, few perhaps ever see the death, and it is over almost in an instant but, owing to his strength and cat-like tenacity of life, the otter fights long and dies hard. The sea otter population has rebounded to nearly three thousand individuals . 45. By setting this against contemporary instances he insinuates the unchanging attitudes of otter hunters over the centuries. As the otter hunters arrived at the meet, the first thing they saw was a line of demonstrators with banners bearing the words Abolish the Shameful Sport of Otter-hunting and Stand up for the Helpless. The candid words of Reverend E. W. L. Davies in his 1886 chapter on The Otter and his Ways helped to reinforce this point: Bitch-otters yielding milk. The fifteen hunts in existence in 1880 had grown to twenty-two by 1910.Footnote 6. 61. Downing, Graham, The Hounds of Spring. Scientists and tribal leaders say reintroducing otters would restore balance to degraded kelp forests, boost fish species, protect shorelines, generate tourist dollars 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 60. 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. 70 The underlying motivation for these very specific criticisms is a much broader belief that all living beings feel pain and suffer. The hunting and killing of female otters during the breeding season was a recurring theme in anti-hunting literature. Hale, Matthew 32. Total loading time: 0 Call a professional pest removal expert He argued that if the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals did not oppose otter hunting then it is quite certain that some similar Society will do so to the utter shame of our Society here.Footnote 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. Daily Mail, 23rd May 1906, cited in 44 something like twelve thousand otters have been killed in England for the purpose of fun. The belief that any sentient being deserved protection from ill-treatment generated a comprehensive list of animal related activities marked for legislative change. When Oregon and the federal government removed families from the area more than 150 years ago, Peter Hatch said, sea otters were still present. 11 1 George Greenwood made a similar observation in the 1914 publication, Killing for Sport: Men and, good heavens! Large numbers of sea cows occurred in the Commander Islands at the time of their discovery by Europeans in 1741. It was the only organisation that called for the legal protection of otters at the beginning of the twentieth century.Footnote Google Scholar. First, he insisted that cats had been used, as he could not always get hold of a badger. 46. In August 1938 the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports gained permission to reprint the chapter in leaflet form. 88. Although celebrated by reviewers in the Illustrated London News and Athenaeum, the subsequent engraving failed to sell well and John Ruskin argued in 1846 that Landseer before he gives us any more writhing otters, or yelping packs should consider whether such a scene was worthy of contemplation.Footnote young and thoughtful. He focussed on several key themes including the hunting of pregnant otters and the demoralising effects of participating in the hunt. 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. . 4. The latter is probably more in keeping with the prosaic style of the pamphlet.

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