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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 208, 30 March 1877, Page 17

A letter from a sporting gentleman, in the last number of the ' Sporting Magazine/ gives some idea of the cruelty of the huntsmen of a former generation, and which may be food for reflection for the vivisectionists. It appears that the Nimrods of the period were much given to badger hunting, and on one occasion an unfortunate animal furnished the gentlemen of the hunt with sport for several days. On the first day he was turned out, and received ten minutes' " law " before huntsmen and hounds pursued him, and he then gave them a three-miles' run before he was caught and brought back iv a bag. On the second day his " law " was increased to half an hour, and a man mounted on a fleet horse was sent after him to flog him on ; but he ran so fast that his pursuer could only get an occasional cut at him, although furnished with a very long whip, and at the end of " a glorious run of twenty-five miles" he was once more taken alive and brought back. A third days' torture came, with a three quarters of an hour's " law," and produced a run of eighteen miles, after which the badger was once more bagged j and but for the poor brute having been carelessly starved to death, or, in the words of the writer, " came to a premature death," this kind of amusement would have been kept up until Councillor Jenkins, one of the huntsmen, should have been duly furnished with his hams, " for," says the writer, "it was the custom of that part of the country to cure the posteriors of badgers and eat them for hams."