Adverse effects of hunting with hounds on participants and bystanders

Abstract

AbstractIn the face of biodiversity crises and concerns raised about animal ethics, some societies are re-examining many human uses of animals. One activity that may once have been unobjectionable has undergone little scrutiny in most countries: hunting mammals with free-running hounds. We present two novel datasets about this under-studied ‘behavioral interaction and hunting method. In the state of Wisconsin, USA, hounds and gray wolves occasionally interacted aggressively and human by-standers reported adverse interactions with hounds and their handlers. Such self-selected samples cannot be used to extrapolate rates in space or time but do provide new information. Between 1999 and 2012, 176 hounds were reported to have suffered injury during encounters with wolves. No government data were collected on how many wolves or other non-target animals were injured by hounds. We describe the grouping ‘behavior, patterns of injury and vulnerability to attack, hound phenotypes, and other ethological data associated with aggressive wolf-hound interactions. We analyze wolf life history, seasonal life history patterns, bite locations on hound bodies, consumption of hound carcasses, and the outcomes of interactions to test two hypotheses for wolf-hound interactions. We find weak or no support for either and propose new hypotheses focusing on the behavior of hounds and handlers primarily. We also report handler and hound interactions with human bystanders. Between 2015-2021, bystanders (n=105) reported various adverse incidents with hounds and handlers, interactions with law enforcement, and other events associated with hunting with hounds. We propose reforms to policy for wildlife, hunting, and law enforcement, and reforms to husbandry by hound handlers.