The sea otter rescue plan that worked too well - BBC Future For Bates, such suffering could not be enjoyable for the sufferer and should not be enjoyable for onlookers. To reinforce this point Bates goes on to outline the enjoyable aspects of the sport. It was the only organisation that called for the legal protection of otters at the beginning of the twentieth century.Footnote Otter hunting presents to him a picturesque scene, with the scarlet-coated, white-breeched men armed with spears, with shaggy hounds, and the landscape set with great marsh marigolds. Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler: Or the Contemplative Man's Recreation (1653), Chapter 2. 8. The evidence seems clear enough.Footnote 1847Google Scholar; 90. This indicates that despite the ongoing challenge from the anti-blood-sports movement, in 1939 hunting rhetoric still informed the public's perception of otters and otter hunting. 34 . The 1911 pamphlet attempted to shed light on the overall death roll of otter hunting. Sea otters were ecologically extirpated from the Northwest Coast of North America by the Henry Salt also argued in the Morning Leader on 31st August 1907, almost two months after the incident, that such scandals as this bludgeoning of a hunted otter and the recent worrying of cats by the master of the Cheriton Otter Hounds were a sign that cruelty in one direction often leads to cruelty in another, and that in such a sport as otter-hunting the line between practice and malpractice is apt to be overlooked.Footnote In advance of a major test in 1968, the U.S. Atomic Ene Alongside this broad criticism, the incident was also used to expose the behaviour of sportsmen in general. 6. He was also a member of the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports and an unwavering opponent of otter hunting. The fifteen hunts in existence in 1880 had grown to twenty-two by 1910.Footnote Wright, Catherine 43. This pack disbanded in 1919 when he became master of the Hawkstone Otter Hounds. By enlisting the opinion of H. E. Bates, the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports hoped this sentiment would not only reach a more popular readership, but also move such people into joining the campaign against otter hunting. Hunting Otters with firearms was once common in the early twentieth century, but many preferred to trap them. It depicts Varndell as a solitary figure deep in thought. and provided further evidence of the barbarous spirit engendered by indulgence in blood sports.Footnote Otters In these terms the iconic image of Varndell could be seen as positively publicising the face of otter hunting. It appears to be more about human behaviour than animal suffering. Throughout the essay he applies the term to a number of situations to discredit the idea that animals are killed for public safety, natural history, protection of farmers or sporting exercise.Footnote Instead as Collinson argued, the hunting and worrying of otters while caring for their offspring proclaimed only the insensate cowardice of the men and women concerned.Footnote In Alaska, 467 sea otters were translo-cated to several locations from 1965 to 1969. By planting a seed of doubt into the minds of readers over the accuracy of hunting reports, it also implied that otter hunters could not be trusted. 35 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 9, In this paper we consider the ways campaigns against otter hunting were carried out in the period 1900 to 1939. UKWOT has Archaeological and Contemporary Evidence Indicates The Trust recently secured the first ongoing class licence to capture and transport live Eurasian otters trapped in well-fenced fisheries in England. In the case of an organised hunt, the followers deliberately engage in a series of barbaric acts, skilfully camouflaged by all the trappings of an elaborate ritual. 46 68. It has many meanings and perhaps I misconstrue it? Otter The Guardian reported that the grisly content of the painting was the reason why it was taken off permanent display by its owners the Laing Gallery in Newcastle.Footnote Can sea otters save the world The fact that otter hunting was singled out suggests that Coleridge felt this particular activity was vulnerable enough to be prohibited. Total loading time: 0 . Sea otter conservation began in the early 20th century, when the sea otter was nearly extinct due to large-scale commercial hunting. The sea otter was once abundant in a wide arc across the North Pacific ocean, from northern Japan to Alaska to Mexico. . For Bell, the only difference between an otter and a cat was their legal status. The first to second the motion was Ernest Bell who pointed out that otter hunting was just as unsportsmanlike as shooting birds from traps. shot but they felt that many otters were preserved for hunting, a shameful blot on our civilisation. Justice for the Animals, Otter-Hunting, Cruel Sports, October 1929, 128. 14 After some lively verbal exchanges between the Huntsman and League members, the Branch Secretary Mrs Chapman attempted to address the crowd by standing on a chair. 59. This is likely to be a ban by local landowners. He also pointed out that Geoffrey Hill of Hawkstone had killed 544 otters between 1870 and 1884, and that William Collier of Culmstock had also accounted for 144 between 1879 and 1884. Coleridge won the audience at the meeting over to his case. Although this demonstration was by all accounts quiet and orderly, the encounter did produce a rather interesting spectacle. 67 50 for this article. The men then lit some cotton waste, smoked out the otter, and pelted it with stones. This echoed broader concerns for non-human animals. His argument in the Hunted Otter was driven by quotations from thirty published sources. The Master of the Wye Valley Otter Hounds, on the other hand, styled himself as a utilitarian, hunting through the war not for sport, but in order to keep down the head of otters in the interests of the fisheries.Footnote with exception of the three spurious sports of carted-stag hunting, rabbit coursing and shooting pigeons from traps.Footnote Daily Mail, 23rd May 1906, cited in 52. Exploitation of otters The Humanitarian League's reaction to this case was interesting. 35. 59. . When the otter reached temporary sanctuary in a holt twenty men got on to the bank and endeavoured by jumping and other means to force the earth down into the unfortunate animal's hiding place until worn out by fatigue and fright surrounded by men and dogs the otter became as easy prey to its enemies. He was a founder member in 1903 of the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire and an opponent of big game hunting. During 1970-71, 93 sea otters were released in Oregon. With no utilitarian reason for killing, the hunted otter was simply something killed for fun. Colonies were discovered around Alaska's Aleutian Islands and Prince William Sound in the 1930s. Instead, it focussed on one man, Mr Sidney Varndell. These public demonstrations shed light on the respectability of the animal welfare movement. . 26 Google Scholar. She is about to be afforded the pleasure, the privilege, of being harried and hunted and having her living guts ripped out by forty human beings, twenty or thirty hounds and some terriers.Footnote They were killed mostly for their fur, which was desirable As otters were removed during the hunting years, there River Otter Indeed, Coulson, Collinson and other campaigners believed that the kill had ill effects on the mental well-being of every person involved. AP Bio Final Questions Flashcards | Quizlet Big game hunter Sir Henry Seton-Karr and otter hunter Mr David Davies, Member of Parliament, were among its sixty-one ordinary members.Footnote Although in political terms women gained full equality of suffrage in 1928,Footnote Spurious Sports Sport with an Otter, The Humanitarian, October 1906, 75. CrossRefGoogle Scholar. And since I have never seen an otter, except behind the glass of a painted case, who am I to say that the otter does not enjoy the fun of having its belly bloodily ripped? 3.84. The object of this society was to create a sound public opinion on the destruction of wild animals throughout the British Empire, especially Africa, and establish game reserves.Footnote 72. What are perhaps more interesting are his reasons for wanting to preserve the otter. H. E. Bates, Otters and Men (1938), p. 1. Reflecting on the period, W. H. Rogers of the Cheriton Otter Hounds wrote: Some doubts were expressed as to the propriety of hunting while so many poor fellows were being killed and wounded in the trenches, but the view prevailed that if the Hunt was once dropped it would be very difficult to restart it, and that those who were away would wish us to keep things going against their return.Footnote The passage not only stresses the moral inconsistency of the public, it also underlines the hypocrisy of sportsmen. A prime example was when an article appeared in the 22nd July 1905 edition of Madame, a magazine aimed at wealthy women, proudly informing readers about the first lady Master of Otter Hounds, Mrs Mildred Cheesman. This allowed broader questions to be raised by the publisher and campaigner Ernest Bell (18511933). The chapter entitled Otters and Men is important. Coulson thought hare hunting was crueller than otter hunting because the hare was timid defenceless and nervous, whereas the otter was a gallant little animal which died after a long hard-fought battle.Footnote This meant the League had far fewer opportunities to criticise otter hunting and by 1918 it recognised that it was the extravagance of spending vast sums of money on hunting and shooting, rather than the cruelty of blood sports, which aroused public resentment.Footnote With fox hunting, he argued, few perhaps ever see the death, and it is over almost in an instant but, owing to his strength and cat-like tenacity of life, the otter fights long and dies hard. 46. 64. Each image is accompanied with a caption and a paragraph explaining the scene. Species, the Sea Otter, Colonizes Glacier Bay 75. My object is only to insure that this Institution shall fulfil the great purpose for which it was founded.Footnote earlier attempts at concealment were also exposed. Pain, too, like fun, is a word of many meanings and it is not surprising, perhaps, that for many people the two things are synonymous. In addition to this justification, any suggestion of cruelty is light-heartedly dismissed: It is improbable that most of the people who go otter hunting worry much about the humanities or the natural law of the thing. First, he insisted that cats had been used, as he could not always get hold of a badger. . Mr Rose of the Eastern Counties Otter Hounds described the proposed Bill as most unfair and ridiculous and argued that otter hunting was grossly misrepresented: Long spiked poles are never used for the purposes suggested, but for assisting followers across ditches, rivers and fences. The scientist built a tube that was divided by an. 1. artificial membrane that mimics the. 4. Joseph Collinson argued that a deplorable feature of this sport is that its followers include all sorts and conditions of people: ministers of religion with their wives, young men and young women, sometimes even boys and girls. In recent years, sea otters have expanded into the upper reaches of Glacier Bay including Scidmore Bay, Russell Otherwise inaccessible wild and watery landscapes could also be explored: in otter hunting, the hounds, the invigorating air of the early morning, and the superb beauty of England's valleys and dales constitute the chief attractions. Ormond, Richard, Sir Edwin Landseer (London, 1981), pp. something like twelve thousand otters have been killed in England for the purpose of fun. Moreover, the intimacy of otter hunting meant that not only are they present at these infamous scenes, but, like the huntsmen, are worked up to the wildest pitch of excitement and moreover join in the final worry and the performance of the obsequies, when the spoils of the chase are distributed.Footnote 80. For Johnston the otter was not a special animal, it was one of many beasts, birds, and reptiles which potentially added to the future happiness of the world. It is quite clear from the applause with which my remarks have been received that the subscribers of the Society do wish to hear me. Following its publication, the book received widespread publicity when Williamson was awarded the Hawthornden Prize in June 1928. At night, in company with her other cub, she came to the yard and tried to liberate the little captive, but without success. The painting was commissioned as a commemorative portrait of his pack of otter hounds by Lord Aberdeen (17841860), then foreign secretary and later to become prime minister. for torturing cats to death, should show the public the lengths to which cowards will go when once they begin to gratify blood-lust.Footnote 48 74. . Allen, Daniel, A Delightful Sport with peculiar claims: The Specificities of Otterhunting, 18501939, in Hoyle, R. W., ed., Our Hunting Fathers: Field Sports in England after 1850 (Lancaster, 2007), pp. 18. Feature Flags: { One of the main reasons Bates spoke out against otter hunting was that he felt that a small minority had reduced his chances of seeing the otter. otter rescue plan that worked too With no sportsmen involved, the incident gained universal condemnation from otter hunters, members of the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports and the general public. For almost 40 years, the otters in southeast Alaska scrapped by. By the mid-1960s, Amchitka Island was being used a site for nuclear testing, which eventually killed many sea otters in the area. For campaigners, the killing of indefensible cubs and protective mothers was the antithesis of fair play, sportsmanship and manliness. Answered: Crab Sea Slug Algae on Eelgrass | bartleby 7. In February 1918 the Representation of the People Act gave all women over the age of thirty the right to vote. (Cheers.) He is astonished that the law of this country still allows this rotten and most bloody exhibition of behaviour and that such repugnant bloodiness survives in a so-called civilised age and country.Footnote 77. Drawing his facts from The Field of 8th October 1910, Collinson explained that the Eastern Counties Otter Hounds had recorded a total of twenty-two otters, the Border Counties accounted for twenty-five, and the Hawkstone finished with forty. The otter hunters involved had been using cats in a specially constructed wooden tunnel to train their young terriers to bolt otters. By 2016, over 4,000 river otters had been translocated to 23 states. Google Scholar. A key criticism was of the voyeurism of watching the otter die. Recognising that such causes may be dismissed as sickly sentimentality, the League made a point of stressing that their underlying principles were not merely a product of the heart. Google Scholar. An incredibly vile sport: Campaigns against Otter As this practice was almost exclusivelyFootnote phospholipid bilayer of a cell. Resting upon his well-notched otter pole and fully clad in hunting attire, he gazes into the distance. The Master of the Crowhurst Otter Hounds surveys a line of Country. Brutality of Otter-Hunting, Cruel Sports, June 1928, 74. How a social lifestyle helped drive a river otter species to 9. Why Otters Are Endangered? Newcastle Daily Journal, 29th May 1914, cited at http://www.henrysalt.co.uk/friends/colonel-coulson. As to the quickness of the kill, campaigners pointed to the duration of separate hunts as evidence to the contrary. In his view, otters were more visible than fish and therefore their lives were more valuable: the time has come when active steps should be taken to promote the preservation of the otter, a creature far more beautiful, wonderful and obvious than any fish.Footnote } . The large bold title above the image read, Women being blooded at an otter-hunt.Footnote The painting, Sir Edwin Landseer's The Otter Speared, Portrait of the Earl of Aberdeen's Otterhounds, or the Otter Hunt had been associated with controversy since it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 (Figure 1). Bell argued that it offered an insightful glimpse into the mind of the sporting man,Footnote WebFrom 1941 till 1957, an interim agreement between the U.S. and Canada regulated the harvesting of sea otters. 63 Rogers, W. H., Records of the Cheriton Otter Hounds (Taunton, 1925), p. 225 He argued that if the government cared for the preservation of beauty in England, the otter would long ago have been placed on the protected list, and would not have been subjected to the undiscriminating attacks of sportsmen.Footnote A modest proposal for hunting sea otters | Popular Science The Humanitarian League's strategy was that whenever an article mentioning otter hunting appeared in a newspaper or magazine, League members would bombard that publication with letters of protest. For such people the laceration of an otter's living flesh is an amusing thing. 86. Humanitarian, April 1918, 100, cited by Google Scholar. 85 This weekly magazine, first published on 1st October 1938, was a pioneering outlet for British photojournalism. Captain T. W. Sheppard, Decadence of Otter Hunting, The Field, 20th October 1906, 658. Posted on September 22, 2019. Glorying over being blooded at an Otter Hunt, http://www.henrysalt.co.uk/friends/colonel-coulson. 65. Figure 5. 14. 58. Staged at Colchester's North Railway Station, on this occasion members of the Colchester Working Group were the chief agitators and the Eastern Counties Otter Hounds the agitated. Otter hunting was a minor field sport in Britain but in the early years of the twentieth century a lively campaign to ban it was orchestrated by several individuals and anti-hunting societies. There were several large sources of South American otter skins. About Otter-Hunting, Cruel Sports, July 1928, 85. 57. Otter reintroductions were common during this time. Master of Crowhurst Otter Hounds, Picture Post, 22nd July 1939, Volume 4, Number 3. Although celebrated by reviewers in the Illustrated London News and Athenaeum, the subsequent engraving failed to sell well and John Ruskin argued in 1846 that Landseer before he gives us any more writhing otters, or yelping packs should consider whether such a scene was worthy of contemplation.Footnote When urchin populations spiked in response, the reefs held their ground. Although in the book he admits this was partly due to the animal's nocturnal behaviour, in the shortened leaflet the omission of the introductory paragraph made otter hunting the prime reason for his misfortune. .but an essential portion of any intelligible system of ethics or social science.Footnote View all Google Scholar citations The small caption reads: OTTER-HUNTING. On rare occasions women were singled out for criticism during this period: Why the educated, rich, or the uneducated for the matter of that, have nothing better of more edifying to do with their time is beyond one's comprehension. He stressed that he was not a sportsman and had never shot a bird nor hooked a fish in my life but became involuntarily the witness of an otter hunt while sketching beside a pool. were extirpated. 82 15. Even if she is prevented from doing so, she will hang about the place where they are, and perhaps be killed wet when the cubs, too, will perish.Footnote 77. men and women,Footnote He met his future wife Ida Hibbert at an otter hunt, and proposed to her at a hunt ball. Some inhuman wretch: Animal Maiming and the Ambivalent Relationship between Rural Workers and Animals, Rural History, 25 (2014), 13360CrossRefGoogle Scholar. 42. The following year, the Fur Seal Treaty was signed and although the (Cheers.) There is no danger, no risk, absolutely no excuse for this form of baiting except the insensate one of a lust for blood.Footnote Returning sea otters to Oregon could revive kelp forests 16586Google Scholar; 47. Is there no legislation which would enable, say, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to get upon the track of the Workington murderers and make them suffer? 25. The League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports based itself on the radical elements of the Humanitarian League. Douglas Macdonald Hastings, Hunting the Otter, Picture Post, 22nd July 1939, 5256, p. 52. Salt edited the two Humanitarian League journals: Humanity, later renamed The Humanitarian (18951919) and The Humane Review (19001910). A part of this pamphlet, which included this quotation, was reprinted in Cruel Sports magazine in 1929. In the minds of campaigners it not only looked ridiculous, it was unacceptable. The League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports also publicised isolated malpractices to strengthen their argument. Rather than defend its sentient or sporting qualities, he was much more concerned with its aesthetic role in the landscape. When, however, other members of the Hunt were moved to action by the scandal,Footnote 27 For Bates, much like Henry Salt, the pain and suffering experienced by animals were indistinguishable from those experienced by humans. The National Anti-Vivisection Society was founded by Frances Power Cobbe in 1875; the Plumage League was established in 1889 and became the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in 1904. Nothing daunted, she returned at nightfall to the yard and once more endeavoured to free her cub, but with no better result than before. sea otters, urchins and starfish make The aesthetic quality of animals was also important to him. It argued that if it were necessary, otters should be cleanly killed, i.e. WebWhich of the following critical values should the scientist use for the chi-square analysis of the data? Collinson quotes from the second chapter of Isaak Walton's The Compleat Angler: Or the Contemplative Man's Recreation (1653): God keep you all, gentlemen, and send you meet this day with another bitch otter, and kill her merrily, and all her young ones too.Footnote The sea otter population has rebounded to nearly three thousand individuals Alongside the overall decrease of otter hunts and otter hunters was the dramatic reduction of advertised meets and reports in the national and regional press. Figure 2. The Spirit of Otter-Hunting, Cruel Sports, August 1939, 62. 76, There is a real sense that women should have had the emotional authority to know better.Footnote In 1931 Ernest Bell, co-founder of the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports, resigned in protest at Henry Amos's continual criticism of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 67. During peak hunting years, during the mid-1800s, according to harvest records that Larson presented, between 1804 and 1807 nearly 15,000 sea otters were killed. 89 In a series of vignettes, Bates fondly describes the rivers, the creatures, the trees, the flowers, the buildings and the people that make up the watery landscape. 47 At least 23 million Amazonian animals, including the otters, were hunted for their hides from 1904 to 1969. 87 80 72 Bates begins by considering the main excuse for killing otters, the supposed need to reduce predation on fish. By Zulma Cary. WebAll the otters that are in there might leave to get away from the smell. A subsection in the Hunted Otter (1911) entitled Hunted for Seven Hours described the lengthy pursuit of a female otter by the Culmstock Otter Hounds in 1910. WebIn 1741, Russians began hunting sea otters. . 2. Google Scholar. Mackenzie, John M., The Empire of Nature (Manchester, 1988), p. 33 In 1928, it showed a cheerful young woman glorying over being blooded at an otter-hunt (Figure 4).Footnote 63. Afterwards everyone who took part in the orgy was probably ashamed of himself. Smith, Virginia, Bell, Ernest (18511933), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [online]Google Scholar. Varndell became huntsman in 1904. Sea otters, in turn, are equally voracious predators of sea urchins. . Coleridge, Bell and others argued in articles in Animals Friend magazine and The Humanitarian that this reversal was unconstitutional and illogical.Footnote Which of the following Although this unusual interlude was tolerated with good humour at first, one follower of the hunt retaliated by burning a number of leaflets. was fully aware of the power of publicity and as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals did not oppose blood sports, this proposal was a radical move. 79. The chairman eventually agreed to put the resolution to the meeting and it was carried with acclamation. In the Daily Sketch, Mr Harding Matthews, an individual with no declared interest, wrote: Are we to believe that Workington breeds people so utterly spineless as to allow, in public and in broad daylight, the brutal murder of an inoffensive, wild creature? . He did however come to the conclusion that their conduct had been reprehensible.Footnote 7 33. After introducing her pack, the Crowhurst Otter Hounds, the article listed the women who actively enjoyed the sport: Of the invariably large and influential following we may mention Mrs Mantell, Mrs Killogg-Jenkins, and Miss Woodruffe, Mrs Trimmer and Miss and Mrs J. Awbrey.Footnote They were joined by English and American hunters in the latter part of the century, and uncontrolled hunting continued until 1799. . President Stephen Coleridge, his successor Lady Cory and several other members did the same. Here he labelled otter hunting as the second cruellest blood sport: With the exception of the hare-hunt men and women possibly never sink so low as they do when they join an Otter-Worry. Ormond, Richard At this time the main justification for killing otters was the damage they did to fish stocks. 29 WebOregons sea otters disappeared in flash of destruction, as one small part of an ocean-spanning fur boom driven by demand for their lush pelts. Raymond, Graham 88 Bates wrote a regular column, Country Life, in The Spectator, and two volumes of nature essays, Through the Woods (1936) and Down the River (1937). 60. Ernest Bell, Cat Worrying, pp. From the late 1890s Coulson had also launched a prolific letter writing campaign against otter hunting in local, regional and national newspapers. The belief that any sentient being deserved protection from ill-treatment generated a comprehensive list of animal related activities marked for legislative change. 87. Otter In these terms, this exceptional incident was absorbed into the broader campaign against blood sports. This act of individual defiance was, however, soon silenced by the laughter of the unreceptive audience. It also shows just how much the mere thought of otter hunting could unsettle an individual. In August 1938 the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports gained permission to reprint the chapter in leaflet form. 15, Although this document only had a small readership it proved to be the earliest written condemnation of the sport from an organisation. WebNo hunting (except waterfowl) during removed only by the user. . Sir Harry Johnston, British Mammals (1903), p. 140. hasContentIssue false, Copyright Cambridge University Press 2016. We appeal to the chivalry of English men and women to make these so-called sports impossible.Footnote Cruel Sports illustrated this incident with a photograph headed Burning the Truth! According to the League's Report for 1931, the demonstration at Colchester resulted in a local ban being placed on the hounds.Footnote . 20. The photograph was taken by Felix Man, who had been an active photojournalist since 1929, had emigrated from Germany to London in 1934 and was chief photographer for Picture Post from 1938 to 1945.Footnote The Monarch of the Glen: Landseer in the Highlands (Edinburgh, 2005)Google Scholar. The commercial trade began in He declared that Coleridge was entirely out of order in discussing this matter now, adding that he was not speaking of the merits of the subject, but only say it is out of order now. Coleridge replied that: If at your Annual meeting such a motion as that is out of order, then I say this great Society will stultify itself if it does not hear me. Google Scholar. 65, The League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports was the first organisation to engage directly with otter hunters at otter hunts and the first ever protest against otter hunting appears to have taken place in 1931.
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