The Great Scarcity of 1923

 

In his 1952 book The Way of the Fox, Douglas St. Leger-Gordon notes on p. 16 "The Great Scarcity" of 1923 when foxes were transported around the country and into other areas where there was "no sport".

I find this interesting for a couple of reasons. The first because it is claimed by many of the mutually acclaimed 'great sportsmen' that the First World War, which had taken gamekeepers and landworkers away to fight, there was a boost n the population of foxes.

The second reason why I find this interesting is because of the research that is ongoing and epecially the taxidermy work collected by team member LM. This I will come back to further on.

The first point is a cause for debate sinvce I have not come across any accounts for a mange outbreak sweeping through "hunting countries" at that period -mange itself being introduced to the UK by the hunts -as they repeatedly state in the literature without accepting any blame. But just five years after the end of World War One the English fox population that was supposedly boosted by the absence of war time hunting was now "scarce". That the decline in foxes was so noticable that the term "The Great Scarcity" was used and foxes caught and transported around the country indicates a big problem because 'sportsmen' understated certain matters and so to use that term meant it was serious.

But what exactly happened? Sadly, this was after the "great days of the Golden Age of the sport" and so not as many books by the old guard were published -many of them having died off by that period. Sports magazines of the time may offer us insights but that is going to take far more time than I have at the moment.

Could it have been a disease brought back by dogs after WW1? "The Mercy mercy dog (also known as an ambulance dog, Red Cross dog, or casualty dog) was a dog that served in a paramedical role in the military, most notably during World War I....often sent out after large battles, where they would seek out wounded soldiers....they carried first-aid supplies that could then be used by wounded soldiers, and comforted dying soldiers who were mortally wounded... Many mercy dogs were trained by national Red Cross societies to serve the country in which the specific society operated. The German army called such dogs medical dogs". There were as many as 20,000 dogs serving as mercy dogs in World War I and WW II there is not a lot of information about what happened to the war dogs after World War I "in Europe. Of course many were killed or wounded during the War and had to be put down. Large numbers survived the War". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_dog

There is the possibility, with the filth and poor hygene for humans let alone animals in the war zones, that something may have been brought back with the dogs that were saved. From research I know that "mad dog" (rabies infected dogs) attacks were not that common by the 1920s -the last case was in the 1920s but the UK was largely free of rabies from the early 20th century...however that period of "Rabies Free" can be seen as having begun in the mid 1920s. Very few people today are aware of the last rabies outbreak. I quote this from Hansard:

THE OUTBREAK OF RABIES.

HL Deb 22 December 1920 vol 39 cc876-7876

VISCOUNT CHAPLIN had given notice of his intention to ask the Minister of Agriculture the following Questions—

1. What was the date of the discovery of the existence of rabies in Great Britain;

2. How many different counties or parts of them had been declared infected before they were announced to be free from it again;

3. How many different counties or parts of them have been scheduled since then as being infected at present;

4. What is the usual extent of the area scheduled at present after a case of rabies has been discovered numbered in miles.

§The noble Viscount said: My Lords, I have on the Notice Paper a series of Questions to the Minister of Agriculture with reference to the outbreak of rabies. I do not want to raise a debate, and, having talked to my noble friend opposite, I suggest that probably it will be most convenient for him and for the House if I ask each Question separately and not exactly as they appear on the Paper. The first Question is, What was the date of the discovery of the recent existence of rabies in Great Britain?

Arthur Hamilton Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham

§THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE (LORD LEE OF FAREHAM) The first actual outbreak of rabies in Great Britain after sixteen years was confirmed on September 7, 1918.

§VISCOUNT CHAPLIN How many different counties have been declared infected before they were announced to be free from it again?

§LORD LEE OF FAREHAM Seventeen.

§VISCOUNT CHAPLIN How many different counties have been scheduled since then as being infected?

§LORD LEE OF FAREHAM Six.

§VTSCOUNT CHAPLIN What is the usual extent in miles of the area scheduled at present after a case of rabies has been discovered? I put that Question for one reason only. A dog is sometimes conveyed by motor car.

§LORD LEE OF FAREHAM And I am afraid by aeroplane also. The area scheduled varies according to the distance the confirmed case has run and according to the number of cases which come to light after enquiry. This may be a larger or smaller area, but as a general rule it may be said to measure fifteen miles in radius.

fin

I lived in a rabies zone in Germany and the measures taken before more modern nethods of control was to literally kill anything in an outbreak area -foxes, boar, deer, birds and so on. Walking in a forest after this "cleansing" is nightmarish and it is still engraved in my memory. The question is whether this rabies outbreak that began in 1918 and was still a concern in 1920 was what caused the Great Scarcity -not necessarily the rabies itself but the "clean up" work?

The big spanner in the works for this theory is that only six counties were affected. For that reason the rabies outbreak -which might just have been one animal infected and precautions taken (as with foot and mouth disease) but certainly not a whole group of animals contracting the virus and dying off.

The Edgewood Hunt 1920s

Unfortunately, that leaves us with two alternatives:

1. The massive increase in the UK fox population was a lie to justify continuing an outdated 'sport' which was under increasing fire from those opposed to it. The "humanitarians" as hunters called them using as much spit as possible!

2. The returning 'sportsmen' quite literally went on a kill spree -before WW I it was noted how some 'sportsmen' went out hunting every day. There was the practice of "cubbing" which killed off many young cubs and also it was proudly boasted how many "brace" (ie a vixen and dog fox) were killed and this was relentless. If this was continued after WW I then we have the cause: hunts once again wiping out the foxes.

In this period there were no more great markets supplying thousands of new European foxes each year and we know that prior to the War English hunts were buying foxes stolen from Irish hunts (as a result of which the political ramifications led to "questions being asked in the House (of Commons)" as noted in The Red Paper and that indicated that there were problems in the English fox population.

I do not believe that there was a huge upsurge in the English fox population following the War: I believe fox numbers "may" have been recovering and the very enthusiastic 'sportsmen' who had to attend all the hunts was seeing foxes killed so -as they did continuously in their 'sports' history- they turned a blind eye to a drop in numbers; so many were being killed so there "must" have been a population boom during the war. Right?

The other aspect of this "Great Scarcity" is that once again we have the evidence (physical evidence also providing date and location) of jackals and coyotes as well as wolves being hunted and killed by the hunts from Devon and Cornwall right up to Yorkshire and this continued into the early years of World War II.

Hunts had brought about the Great Canid Extinction of the Old British foxes, as they did the wolf, and then went about wiping out the New fox population to such a point they had to once again (if they had ever stopped) bring in other canids than Vulpes vulpes.

It may take some years (I hope I have a few left!) to get to the bottom of the Great Scarcity but the only explanation that seems to fit is the hunting one.

Just one extract from a line in a book can lead to a lot of research and more mystery.