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'My foxes will be gassed or starved'
Jan 18 2005
The Huntsman
William Deakin looks after the 104 hounds used by the Warwickshire Hunt. He also helps to manage the nine woodlands owned by the group.
He will lose his job and his home in Little Kineton if the hunt packs up and will have to retrain for a new job. But his biggest concern is the welfare of the foxes once alternative pest control is introduced.
He said: "My biggest worry is what is going to happen to the foxes. We are also wardens and I see myself as a conservationist first and a hunter second. Hunts have been covering the English countryside for 200 years and we do a lot of conservation work.
"We are catching plenty of foxes and people aren't shooting them, but once we finish I would have to move away from Warwickshire because I couldn't bear what would happen.
"They will shoot foxes and cubs will starve or be gassed and I get very upset about it. At the moment we catch foxes with three legs. Five to ten per cent are carrying a bit of lead and perhaps carry it for a long time.
"That is going to increase ten fold because every farmer I have spoken to has said come Friday February 18, the foxes will be shot."
Mr Deakin said the hunt kills about 20 to 25 per cent of the fox population but the use of guns and poison would wipe out all the animals in the countryside.
"We are not in the fox destruction business, we are in the fox control business."
