When hunting comes to mind. Most people think of a person roaming the woods looking for an animal to shoot. In Vermont, there is a different style of hunting known as hound hunting. This style of killing animals is one that is less popular, but the impact it has is devastating. Hound hunting is a cruel and inhumane way of killing animals when hunting, and laws should be changed with regards to what is allowed.

To talk about why these regulations should be changed, we must have a fundamental understanding of what hounding is. Hounding is the legal training of hounds, and using those hounds to track down a specific kind of animal. They will chase the animal until it is tired, scared, or trying to hide somewhere. In the worst case, the hounds will attack the other animal head on until it is killed.

The reasons why this type of hunting is unethical are a mix of obvious and not so obvious. To start with the easy ones, this is essentially legalized animal cruelty. Training one animal to fight and kill another seems to be a small issue when arguing the morality of this practice. It is extremely violent, and not only does it put the animals being hunted at risk, it is a huge risk for the hounds as well. There seems to be no pretty way to get the job done when you are controlling animals and training them to find and kill prey. Another issue that may possibly get overlooked when examining the issue of hounding is the lack of control these hounders have over their animals. Most of the time, these people are simply following the hounds with their trucks. They are able to do this because they have GPS coordinates of their hounds. What ends up happening sometimes is these animals may go off track, and since they aren’t directly being controlled in their actions, they interfere with peoples land. Below you can see a link to a video which displays an incident of hounding destroying personal property and having an emotional impact on a family.

It is evident that there are clear negative impacts that hounding has on the community. If you don’t think the effect on the community is an important one, think of the animals and what cruelty they must endure. No matter how it comes about, there needs to be some type of reform with regards to hounding regulations that force hounders to gain more control over their animals.

Works Cited

“Hunting with Hounds/Hounding.” Protectourwildlifevt, https://www.protectourwildlifevt.org/hunting-with-hounds. 

Necn. “Animal Advocates Push for VT.. Coyote Hunting Regulations.” NECN, NECN, 26 Feb. 2019, https://www.necn.com/news/local/vermont/animal-advocates-push-for-vt-coyote-hunting-regulations/1619/.