Roy Sparks - Hound history background of South Africa.
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 9:33 am
The introduction of hounds to South Africa came with the landing of the British settlers in the early 1800’s. As hounds were not associated with the working class in terms of ownership these hounds must have belonged to aristocratic families that would have had been sent here in official capacities representing the “ Crown “.
Records show that Lord Charles Somerset definitely was a contributor to the arrival of hounds in the Cape Province. Subsequently I can only imagine in order to uphold traditions a hunt club must have been formed for purposes of entertaining aristocratic and privileged title persons.
I believe the resulting trial runs here must have produced some interesting sights for onlookers. The rugged Cape countryside would have been in great contrast to the tame English countryside and their must have been a fair amount of thrills and spills.
Following this as the land in the Cape became more settled and farmers started emerging predation on stock must have taken place. At this point I can only assume that in order to keep their subjects motivated in the farming life that was virtually totally new to the settlers hounds were made available to curb losses.
Jackal , lynx and leopard were fairly abundant in those regions then and it would have been those that were sought to be eradicated by the farmers. At different stages records show that bounties were actually paid by administrators of the Cape Province which varied according to the species of predator.
The influx of hound packs in farming communities spread from the Western Cape through the Southern and Eastern Cape and later into the interior of the Orange Free State which were areas where most small stock farming occurred.
In the 1900’s state owned and subsidized hunt clubs were formed in those provinces in order to actually try and eradicate the problem animals. It was also the purpose of these state owned packs and staff to breed selectively and make hounds available for purchase by farmers as pups and trained hounds. Privately owned packs however did exist in farming communities there as well. In certain areas of Natal Province sheep farming took off and packs were developed there as well.
In the later 1900’s we saw the discontinuation of these government packs due to bad administration and lack of funding.
Due to this disbanding of hunt clubs I firmly believe that our current losses in the small stock farming industry is attributable to the lack of organized hunting of predators with hounds. Our current statistics show we loose R 3.65 Billion annually mainly to Jackal and Lynx and that figure is increasing.
At about this time subsequent importation of hounds from England had taken place which facilitated the introduction of different English hound breeds namely the traditional Foxhound , Fell hound , Welsh Foxhounds , Harriers and to a lesser degree Beagles.
In due course only recreational hound clubs situated in the Western Cape and Johannesburg in the Transvaal were left with any formally kept structure and record of types and breeding. They still exist and continue to import from time to time from hunt clubs in the UK. These hunts are not on live prey but are on artificial drags scents.
When hounds became privately owned property this saw the inevitable out crossing between virtually all British type hounds and very little record was kept of this progress or decline of the British hound ancestory in South Africa. Little or no private importation was since done from the UK by farmers who had packs.
Of the English type hounds that are commonly found in South Africa it would be at this present time very difficult to accurately determine the precise origins of hounds within a single pack as they can vary in contrast from Beagle sized hounds through to Foxhound sized hounds with broken coated types in the mix.
Those types of hounds have been applied to various forms of hunting in especially the Cape Province and Natal where the English culture is more predominant still to this day.
A very popular colonial past time which is now firmly rooted in , especially the Eastern Cape is to use hounds on colonial driven hunts for Bushpig , Bushbuck and Grey Duiker. This is a very social event which stems from the style of hunting that is still continued in Europe. These types of hunts will allow the observer to see any variety of hounds you could imagine in a single gathering. Also it is a unique opportunity to meet the owners and members of the hunt. While hardly as formal in attire and etiquette as the European hunts it makes for an interesting experience in observing the lingering passion for old traditions to continue with the inclusion of hounds.
The introduction of American bred hounds was initiated in about the early 1970’s when Blue Ticks were introduced by Mr. Gary Miles these also saw the inevitable out crossing to English type hounds with some good results. Since then a number of hound enthusiasts have imported a variety of American recognized breeds.
From my observations the most significant contributions have come from the hounds brought in by Trevor Filmer from the American South Western Houndsmen. A line and type he has managed to keep quite distinct for almost thirty years.
I am proud to be associated with Trevor and to have had the privilege to own hounds from his stock and which I still continue to keep since 15 years back.
These hounds have really proved their salt since with Trevor’s assistance I pioneered the leopard hunting in the trophy hunting industry in 1993. Of this I will elaborate in due course.
As far as African hound hunting culture and traditions is concerned the hub of life in these activities lies none other than in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The Eastern Cape is undisputedly the home of the South African Houndsmen.
Roy Sparks – Sparks Hounds.
Records show that Lord Charles Somerset definitely was a contributor to the arrival of hounds in the Cape Province. Subsequently I can only imagine in order to uphold traditions a hunt club must have been formed for purposes of entertaining aristocratic and privileged title persons.
I believe the resulting trial runs here must have produced some interesting sights for onlookers. The rugged Cape countryside would have been in great contrast to the tame English countryside and their must have been a fair amount of thrills and spills.
Following this as the land in the Cape became more settled and farmers started emerging predation on stock must have taken place. At this point I can only assume that in order to keep their subjects motivated in the farming life that was virtually totally new to the settlers hounds were made available to curb losses.
Jackal , lynx and leopard were fairly abundant in those regions then and it would have been those that were sought to be eradicated by the farmers. At different stages records show that bounties were actually paid by administrators of the Cape Province which varied according to the species of predator.
The influx of hound packs in farming communities spread from the Western Cape through the Southern and Eastern Cape and later into the interior of the Orange Free State which were areas where most small stock farming occurred.
In the 1900’s state owned and subsidized hunt clubs were formed in those provinces in order to actually try and eradicate the problem animals. It was also the purpose of these state owned packs and staff to breed selectively and make hounds available for purchase by farmers as pups and trained hounds. Privately owned packs however did exist in farming communities there as well. In certain areas of Natal Province sheep farming took off and packs were developed there as well.
In the later 1900’s we saw the discontinuation of these government packs due to bad administration and lack of funding.
Due to this disbanding of hunt clubs I firmly believe that our current losses in the small stock farming industry is attributable to the lack of organized hunting of predators with hounds. Our current statistics show we loose R 3.65 Billion annually mainly to Jackal and Lynx and that figure is increasing.
At about this time subsequent importation of hounds from England had taken place which facilitated the introduction of different English hound breeds namely the traditional Foxhound , Fell hound , Welsh Foxhounds , Harriers and to a lesser degree Beagles.
In due course only recreational hound clubs situated in the Western Cape and Johannesburg in the Transvaal were left with any formally kept structure and record of types and breeding. They still exist and continue to import from time to time from hunt clubs in the UK. These hunts are not on live prey but are on artificial drags scents.
When hounds became privately owned property this saw the inevitable out crossing between virtually all British type hounds and very little record was kept of this progress or decline of the British hound ancestory in South Africa. Little or no private importation was since done from the UK by farmers who had packs.
Of the English type hounds that are commonly found in South Africa it would be at this present time very difficult to accurately determine the precise origins of hounds within a single pack as they can vary in contrast from Beagle sized hounds through to Foxhound sized hounds with broken coated types in the mix.
Those types of hounds have been applied to various forms of hunting in especially the Cape Province and Natal where the English culture is more predominant still to this day.
A very popular colonial past time which is now firmly rooted in , especially the Eastern Cape is to use hounds on colonial driven hunts for Bushpig , Bushbuck and Grey Duiker. This is a very social event which stems from the style of hunting that is still continued in Europe. These types of hunts will allow the observer to see any variety of hounds you could imagine in a single gathering. Also it is a unique opportunity to meet the owners and members of the hunt. While hardly as formal in attire and etiquette as the European hunts it makes for an interesting experience in observing the lingering passion for old traditions to continue with the inclusion of hounds.
The introduction of American bred hounds was initiated in about the early 1970’s when Blue Ticks were introduced by Mr. Gary Miles these also saw the inevitable out crossing to English type hounds with some good results. Since then a number of hound enthusiasts have imported a variety of American recognized breeds.
From my observations the most significant contributions have come from the hounds brought in by Trevor Filmer from the American South Western Houndsmen. A line and type he has managed to keep quite distinct for almost thirty years.
I am proud to be associated with Trevor and to have had the privilege to own hounds from his stock and which I still continue to keep since 15 years back.
These hounds have really proved their salt since with Trevor’s assistance I pioneered the leopard hunting in the trophy hunting industry in 1993. Of this I will elaborate in due course.
As far as African hound hunting culture and traditions is concerned the hub of life in these activities lies none other than in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The Eastern Cape is undisputedly the home of the South African Houndsmen.
Roy Sparks – Sparks Hounds.