Geoscience Reference
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and the proceedings of the public inquiry on cruelty to wild mammals
commissioned after the Second World War (Scott Henderson 1951) were presented
as 'scientific knowledge', no direct scientific research of the effect of hunting on
foxes has been conducted.
However, scientific knowledge does exist about the effect of hunting on deer, the
result of research by Cambridge scientist, Professor Patrick Bateson, funded by the
National Trust. Bateson's report was mobilised as evidence by hunt opponents
during the parliamentary debate, yet it also became the focus of a sub-play in which
the representativeness of its representations was contested by hunt supporters. The
Bateson Report was commissioned by the National Trust following a vote by
members in 1994 to ban stag-hunting on land owned by the Trust. The Trust's
council, which has heavy representation from land-owning interests, was reluctant
to implement the decision, and viewed the inquiry as a means of at least delaying,
and possibly of shelving, the proposal. In doing so they appealed to modernist
principles by insisting that a decision to ban hunting could only legitimately be
based on solid scientific proof that the hunting of deer was cruel. Thus the purpose
of the inquiry was to challenge the members' representation of the deer with a
'scientific' representation which the council believed would justify their position.
Bateson and his research assistant, Elizabeth Bradshaw, spent two years studying the
behavioural and physiological effects of hunting on red deer on Exmoor and the
Quantock Hills, including analysis of blood samples taken from deer chased and
killed by the hunts. Both hunt supporters and opponents co-operated with the
research, and both anticipated that it would confirm their opinion—a spokesperson
for the Quantock Staghounds claiming that, 'whenever we go to a scientific inquiry,
it comes up in the favour of hunting' (interview with author).
The Bateson Report was presented to a panel of scientific experts in October
1996 and to the National Trust in April 1997. Its main findings were unequivocal:
that 'hunts with hounds impose extreme stress on red deer and are likely to cause
them great suffering', and that hunting with hounds 'can no longer be justified on
welfare grounds' (quoted in Barron 1997:1). These summary phrases were the
predominant means by which Bateson's scientific representation of the deer was
mobilised through the media and political debate. More detailed findings were also
quoted in the parliamentary debate by the Labour MP Dr Ian Gibson, however,
with the technical terminology involved serving to heighten the scientific authority
of the argument:
The physical studies showed that cortisol—a hormone that is [a] scientific
compass for stress in human beings as well—blood sugar and lactate levels
rose as oxygen levels fell, due to overworked muscles. Red blood cells broke
down to release haemoglobin into the blood stream, and muscle enzymes
leached into the blood. Cortisol levels were 10 per cent higher in deer chased
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