Tim Bonner: There is nothing quite like a hound show

There is nothing quite like a hound show. Cross Royal Ascot with Crufts and throw in a selection of hunt uniforms and you get the unique experience which is repeated at traditional venues across the country every summer. This week the Alliance has been at the premier hound show in the north, held at the Great Yorkshire Show at Harrogate and next week we will be at Peterborough for the Festival of Hunting which includes the 135th Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show.

As well as the hot competition for rosettes and trophies, hound shows are also a showcase for responsible and effective breeding. The contrast between foxhound, harriers, beagles and basset hounds bred for hunting and the state of some dogs of show breeds which seem to have been bred to emphasise deformities, could not be more stark. Working hounds are a model of how consistent breeding for athleticism, drive and nose, rather than just supposedly desirable physical features, produces superior results.

The physical attributes of a hound are obvious, but what is equally admirable is that hounds bred to hunt are also so wonderfully gentle and biddable. To see half a dozen packs of hounds and hundreds of children interacting as I did at the South of England Show last month is to understand how both breeding and professional hound management develops hounds which are wonderfully adapted to their role and their environment. When many people struggle to control one dog, the ability of a huntsman to walk out 30 couple of hounds may seem like witchcraft, but in fact is the result of hundreds of years of careful breeding and the professionalism of hunt staff.

In the face of a changing world and political instability, protecting the heritage of hounds and hunt staff must be our first priority. We must be able to make the case very clearly that they have a legitimate role in the modern countryside and that they cannot simply be erased because they have, for some bizarre reason, become a political symbol. There is a certain irony that the red coat, which has become so totemic for some on the political left, is most often worn by the worker who cares for hounds and the countryside.

Lord Mandelson recently warned the Labour party that: “If it is wrong, and I believe it is, for the Right wing to stoke culture wars against minorities, it is just as wrong for the Left wing in our country to stoke culture wars against rural minorities.” He was absolutely right but could have added that launching another culture war against hunting would not only be wrong, but also very stupid as the worst affected would be the sort of workers that the Labour party was created to represent.