Blooded Children

"Three-year-old Paddy Barlow (Cheshire Hunt), when asked what hounds were going to do said firmly: 'They are going to kill Mr Blair'." (Source Horse and Hound - February 24, 2005). When you hear a three year old talking about killing you can't help but wonder what kind of upbringing the unfortunate child has had.

One of the definitions to define emotional child abuse is "Parents who permit children to watch cruel behaviour toward animals". Emotional abuse is probably the least understood of all child abuse, yet it is the most prevalent, and can be the cruelest and most destructive of all types of abuse.

On the 6th March 2004 a member of the Oakley hunt happily told members of a hunt forum that she had that day been 'blooded' by the Oakley huntsman. On the 18th February 2005 the pro-hunt Daily Telegraph showed a picture of a young girl "daubed with fox blood, a hunting tradition."

Meanwhile on the 29th October 2005 the Times announced:

Children beat foxhunt ban by chasing rabbits

Children who used to enjoy foxhunting have taken advantage of a loophole in the law that banned it by creating a rabbit hunt.

Twenty children aged between 4 and 14 started chasing and killing rabbits with beagles and terriers this week. The Wormstall Rabbit Hounds Hunt at Park Farm, Oakley, near Basingstoke, is the brainchild of Freddy Tett, 12, Archie Rutland, 13, and Tom Small, 12. The boys used to ride with the Vine and Craven Hunt, which supports the venture.

At the inaugural meet they used six dogs and killed four rabbits. Tom said: “We came up with this idea as a bit of fun. It’s a way of enjoying ourselves now we can’t hunt foxes anymore.”

Rabbits are the subject of an exemption to the Hunting Act 2004, which bans the hunting of most wild mammals with dogs.