A hunting we will go (From Gazette & Herald)

A hunting we will go

THIRTY veterinary surgeons from across the country joined a Ryedale hunt today.

Members of Vets For Hunting, 20 mounted and ten on foot, rode with the Middleton Hunt, starting out from TM Abram stud, Busk Hill, Leavening, Burythorpe, at 8am.

People came from as far away as Dorset and Essex to North Yorkshire for the group's third annual hunt, which was supported by a number of local members.

Previous events took place in Newmarket and Northhamptonshire.

"It's a very fair turnout," said Dr Lewis Thomas, of Newbury, who founded the group along with Professor Twink Allen, director of the equine fertility unit at Newmarket, at the end of 1999.

"It's good to see all my friends again. There are around 530 members of the group, so this is a small proportion. Many of them are don't go hunting, but are veterinarians who are academics or in industry who support hunting with hounds as a way of controlling foxes."

Frank Houghton-Brown, who has been master of Middleton Hunt for 14 years, said: "I see it as people who work with animals like farmers they are standing up to the country by going hunting. They see life and death of animals on a day to day basis, and this, in their opinion, is a humane way of controlling foxes."

Updated: 11:57 Wednesday, October 08, 2003