Frank Prince-Iles (Opinion, February 23) accuses me of being economical with the facts of deer hunting and then supports his claim with misinformation.
Hounds may well be bred for stamina but the length of the hunt relies entirely on the quality of scent.
Scent conditions vary enormously and are subject to ground and weather conditions.
Good conditions will result in a short, sharp hunt, bad conditions in a long, slow one.
During the latter, the quarry will not flee for "hours on end" at a flat-out speed. If it did so, hounds would never catch it.
Mr Prince-Iles quotes from the Bateson report on deer hunting (1997).
This has now been shown to be seriously defective by the Joint Universities Study (JUS). Bateson did not have his report peer-reviewed before publication, much to the surprise of scientific bodies.
The JUS report showed Bateson had also assumed a great deal of his "findings" without having the scientific results to support them.
Bateson admitted he had made incorrect assumptions when faced with the JUS report, which was fully peer-reviewed.
-Wendy Peckham, Countryside Alliance
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