Barbed Wire Kills Hunting 



doesn't die as a result of her injuries becoming septic, 

 if she doesn't lose at least one quarter, if the vet. can 



work miracles, if well, she may one far-off day still 



be worth from 35 to 65. But it's a hundred to one 

 that at best she'll only fetch canning price, 8 to 14. 

 Money is talking now. Talking very sensibly, too, and 

 if it really went into the details of vet's, fees, medicines, 

 time spent on nursing, labour, attendance, etc., a bullet 

 would have been cheaper in the long run. Hundreds 

 of such accidents are happening daily in this country, 

 and all this waste of national wealth is the result of 

 barbed wire. 



When I sat down to write this chapter I intended to 

 confine it to the subject of hunting. On second thoughts 

 I decided that if I did so a narrow view might be taken. 

 Some readers might, quite naturally, feel that my chief 

 interest was to have more liberty when hunting and less 

 risk of being thrown at my fences, and that any other 

 reasons were of little consequence. That is not so. 

 Actually, hunting horses can be trained to jump wire, 

 and will jump a five or six-strand fence as easily as 

 they will a wall, pole or gate. Quite a good deal of the 

 hunting in Australia and New Zealand is over a wire- 

 fenced country, and the horses take their fences at 

 racing pace. So Irish horses could be trained similarly 

 if we wished, but most people take the very sane view 

 that wire is too merciless should an unfortunate horse 

 make the least mistake. Neither I nor any horse under 

 my saddle had ever any serious mishap due to wire, 

 so I have no personal spleen against it, so far as the 

 saving of my own skin is concerned. I have, however, 



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