Everyone is saying how wonderful this is....but how many of you are out supporting your local pack of minkhounds? They are still there and still need your support
They would never show these brilliant programs on tv anymore, replaced with boring soaps and brain dead reality crap. Country life as we knew it is now sadly a thing of the past.
True enough you can’t see quality programmes like this on tele anymore, but minkhounds packs are still running- so you can get out for a day with them!
All this country life living and hunting and you all probably live in council estates on the dole . Anyone who thinks killing any animal needs to seek mental health treatment .
We have meat eaters on Netflix we have hundred of different hunting channels on RU-vid I think we will be fine. you old people just like complaining things change ...
I agree. The fact these things are not on mainsteam TV these days says that we are no longer one nation with diverse interests who accept each other's pass times and views. It says we are relegated from being part of mainstream Britain to being an unpopular subculture who talk in an echo chamber occasionally visted by haters.
What a wonderful video, such a perfect understanding of the English countryside and nothing lazy or easy about this kind of hunting. great bit of history and informative as well as entertaining. Thanks Nick
Wrong end of the world for Mink, but it’s lovely to see -and hear - the hounds working. Not to mention impeccably attired Englishmen up to their waists in water for the fun of it. “Mad dogs and Englishmen” are part of my ancestry if I go back far enough, so the comment is entirely in sympathy. We still have the ability to run hounds on fox and deer, and aim to keep it that way. May the sound of hounds never die.
Lovely old film 1975 I was 10 years of age then…Gun safety in the Shoot footage leaves a lot to be desired tho….compared to whats practiced today , thank you for uploading 👍
Just watched this and thought I recognised it. It's not in the "West Country" as Jack says but in Worcestershire. That's the river Teme where I have fished for over 50 years. I remember meeting some of the members of the hunt on that bridge 30 odd years ago as I was about to start fishing. They had finished for the day and hoped they hadn't upset my fishing. There are still mink there today but not as many as there used to be. We've got otters now.
@@davedavids57 Otters were reintroduced, it never saved the water voles that have been decimated by mink, the greatest crime committed to British wildlife was the anti's releasing mink.
@@hetrodoxly1203 I studied water voles at university weirdly enough. American mink first established wild populations after escaping captivity and had a well established wild population in Devon in the 1940s (the first UK first farm was established in 1929). The first animal rights release wasn't until the 1980s when there was already an established mink population. Introduced mink populations also exist in Norway, Spain, Italy etc all places that didn't have mass animal rights releases. A good example is Japan were they now have a introduced wild mink population having never had animal rights activity. In fact Japan even banned the fur farming of mink in 2006 as there eradication efforts were failing due to the continued escapes from fur farms. On the water vole front I could write you an dissertation but basically the number one issue with water vole populations is river bank vegetation management. The number two is population. Then it's predation by other species, mink do have an effect on water vole populations, but mink aren't really that more effective than otters in that regard. Brown rats and even pikes can cause real issues as well.
@@davedavids57 Escapese were in small numbers and didn't often breed, the real problem started after the antis released thousands all together in the wild, mink are small enough to follow voles down their tunnels, we've seen the result in real time of eradicating mink and the return of voles.
@@hetrodoxly1203 It's hard to talk to people who just ignore the facts and go by their beliefs or feelings. But for other people who might read this in the future. Firstly escapees cause wild populations of mink. That's a fact. Evidence in the UK can clearly be seen in the media and the public record. For instance otters were declared a protected species in 1978. Most otter hunts saw the writing on the wall and switched to mink in the mid 1970s. Many hunts to as the Culmstock otter now Mink Hounds had been catching mink since the 1930s alongside otters (see there records). By the late 1980s when the first mink animal rights releases happened there were over 15 mink hunts already established and going out three times a week. Also look at Japan and Norway they have established wild American mink populations simply from escapees. This is in Japanese but with google translate you can read all about it. Japan even banned fur farming in 2006 due to this escapee problem (japan has never had animal rights activism) www.nies.go.jp/biodiversity/invasive/DB/detail/10190.html Taking data from Japanese studies it is clear that the gradual decline in mink population in the UK is greatly helped by the ban on fur farming and the fact that numbers aren't being added to be escapees.
I was lucky enough to see the mink hounds out on Dartmoor whilst working at Jordan nr. Widecombe. Another bit of England buggered up by soppy townies with no more idea of country life than flying-same sorts that released the mink from fur farms in the first place.
We have mink here in the south east, but no packs of hounds to get rid with. It was anti's who released them from fur farms, just as they did rabbits infected with vhd. It's now countrywide and the rabbit population has suffered more than it did with myxomatosis. Where have all the water voles gone? Mink! Jack would be turning in his grave if he knew.... A great countryman and brilliant that this series is available to view here!
This type of hunting is terrible for both otter and water vole populations. That's why the populations of both have actually increased markedly since the banning of this type of hunting. The first well established populations of mink were in the 1950s and 1960s as Jack said. The first mass release of mink wasn't until the 1980s. All countries that have or have had fur farming industries have wild North American mink populations, look at Japan. There has never been a mass release of mink at a fur farm there. However keeping mink in fur farms was banned due to the large number of escapees who were damaging the Japanese countryside. Google the Japanese Invasive Alien Species Act of 2006. Also mass rabbit releases causing wild Rabbit hemorrhagic disease? Ummm firstly are you suggesting there were lots of rabbit farms fulled with a disease in England? Also mass rabbit release isn't going to go very well is it. Rabbits aren't hares!!! As well how can you explain the fact that the whole of Europe has RHD now even places (like Lapland, Russia, Malta etc) that don't have a history of animal rights activism. RHD is spread in the same way foot and mouth is spread. Normally on dirty machinery.
David Newman Agreed... The otter was hunted out, the fish population grew... We used to fish the Ouse at Newport Pagnell ten years ago... Caught some huge barbel and chub... We returned the next season to the same excellent swim.. 3 blanks in a row and not a single fish, then on the fourth trip I heard some splashing, shone the torch and there was an otter... Reintroduced by well meaning ppl but they have had a terrible effect on large fish populations.
@@zola561 So, killing the mink to protect your fish stocks on a river you rely on to bring in your livelihood (fishing day tickets) is not the same thing?
Matthew Tanner what is wrong with humanely killing them by gun etc . Why get dressed up as toffs to hear the barbaric ripping apart of an animal in agony suffering. The introduction of mink was brought about by the gentry for fur farming which the retards let out . Only ugly people wear fur off beautiful animals
The priority should be on protection of indigenous species first, if they directly compete with our own, there must be control. Too much self centered fantasy has us at odds with nearly all our traditional ways, such is the pity.
Traps are better to catch Mink a live, that way if an Otter is trap it can be release, its wasteful to use dogs to kill, the pelt is not good after dogs have rag it to death
@@dangerous9straps703 Or culture improving it self, native american indains had it right as we did when we was hunters and geathers, you don't kill for the sake of it, a kill is not to be wasted, you use every part that you can.
I understand that the mink should be wipe out and are a pest, but there is no need to be cruel and wasteful about it, the pelts can be used, the meat can be use for food, what is left can be used to make glue. Blood Sport is not a Sport at all same as Fox hunts its cruelity for the sake of being cruel
Shame that wretched BBC country file never shows anything like this. I know its banned now but they could show a bit of fishing and shooting. My wife said that aint going to happen Ken. It's for arty farty townies who think the countryside is for them to admire and eff off home
There are more otters now than ever and due to the demise of the eel they are decimating fish stocks on certain rivers. Combine them and the mink both which have no natural predators and it upsets the balance of nature. I love seeing the otters that live near me in Oxford but what with cormorants, herons, otters and mink it won't be long before the smaller rivers are devoid of fish.
@@RicTic66 Mink are not indigenous and eat a lot more than fish they sadly decimate avian species I have no problem with indigenous species doing what they do, but Mink need eradicating due to idiots releasing them into the wild.
@@RicTic66 That's cool, I had a look at otter predation in the UK wolves would of been their natural predator, foxes kill otters if they get a chance on land, Domestic dogs kill a few apart from that they seem safe,maybe a big female buzzard would take a immature one, at least the Otters are killing the Mink, there numbers are down by 40%😀👍.. what's worse than any predators is the wind farms apart from destroying the landscape,they kill thousands of birds millions of insects and have annihilated numerous species of bats...keep well
back in the 60's when a bunch of anti;s released them from a farm near ringwood in the new forest they roamed for miles killing wild life fish and even small domestic pets, catch the odd fish ?? i dont think so !!
Well, minks are pests, 16:34 you can see a mink killed a duck and a fish. So here’s an ethics question for you. Ought you hunt the mink in a fun and challenging manner or let the mink kill everything else comparable in size, bites their heads off and drink the blood from their bodies
@@zach_7ay Mate, the people that take part in these blood sports are a bunch of ***** and you know it. Given the chance of putting a cornered "Pest" out of its misery, which do you think they choose? By shooting it or letting the hounds tear it apart, Look at how these people treat hunt sabs. And nowadays they are breaking the law but they still practice this barbaric "Sport".
