[Music]
The Yorkshire Dales has a well known rabbit problem.
I am in Wenslydale and we are working whippets.
[Music]
If we don't do it the sheep go hungry and what's more these guys love doing it.
The walk up to the buries is a long hard trudge, but imagine living up here the few sprigs
of tough grass provide thin pickings for sheep and rabbits alike.
The day starts badly John loses a ferret finder collar in the first bury and blames Darren.
We could cheat and say there is a rabbit down there.
[laughter]
I bet that's a rabbit
But it's a collar.
So how much do those collars cost?
About £60.
£62
And how much does a ferret cost?
£5
[laughter]
But it is all about the animal's welfare and that is why we have the collars on to begin
with because again it isn't fair just because the ferret is only worth pennies, you are
not going to leave it in a place like this just to fight for itself, that's why we put
the collars on.
Happy?
[laughter]
Very!
I shall make sure I put my own collars on next time.
Then things get better and rabbits start bolting.
Nigel and Darren are both nuts about whippets.
I help run a farm called Poachers Rest Forum.
We just want to say we want people to see that whippets are great little dogs.
20 years ago Brian Plumber was trying to create the all round lurcher he didn't have to look
far, the whippet was there they are the ant?? of the dog world they punch so far above their
own weight and they can do anything a good lurcher can do.
Breed 2 whippets together you get a whippet breed 2 lurchers together and you and you
haven't got a clue what you will get.
You might pay a little more but you are saving money in the long run.
You are getting a great little dog which as you can see can cope with any condition here
we are in the Yorkshire Dales in places 8 or 9” of snow the dogs weren't cold and
shivering and they just carried on doing their job as you saw.
Darren is one of the top dog people in the country.
Nigel runs a Forum too.
A friend of mine called Geoff Hutchins set up the Forum a few years ago because basically
it's quite a large population of owners who use whippets now for work who might traditionally
have owned lurchers I suppose and there wasn't anywhere they could go to sound their opinions
off a lot of the traditional forums were based around showing and racing and there wasn't
really anything available for owners or people who like to work their whippets.
So we started the Forum off and it has been a great success to be honest.
We have got members from all over the world and we work hand in hand with a lot of the
other forums, including Darren's.
So of the 2 forums who has got the biggest and best forum?
Mine of course but I am sure Darren would tell you his is the best as well.
[laughter]
What is good is that the internet has brought them all together.
Darren from East Anglia, Nigel from the West Midlands and John from here in north Yorkshire.
There is a great deal to learn from all of them such as John's method of paunching a
rabbit without using a knife.
He says his Dad wouldn't give him a knife until he learnt to do it this way.
With all their years of long dog experience they have strong views about the criminal
end of working lurchers.
You are using whippets today but you are a lurcher man?
Yes, I am an advocate of the lurcher.
I am more of a traditionalist than the 2 guys.
But you like to draw a line between the illegal use of lurchers and whippets.
Yes, I would like to draw a line between illegal coursing or even poaching.
What a lot of people don't understand is that it is the farmer's land, if you went and asked
him I would say a good 8 times out of 10 he would let you on because you are providing
a service, but if you pull up at a gate and climb over he doesn't know you are there,
the implications of you having an accident on his land then he has to come out, he's
worried about his sheep, he's worried about his cattle are you going to leave gates open.
He just needs to know you are there.
Nice hat John!
Always glad to advertise our friends at BASC.
Now we would not be ferreting if we did not lose a ferret and there are always one or
two who linger underground while we are waiting on the surface.
The last rabbit from this series of buries has 2 ferrets attached to it.
The Countryside Alliance campaigns for all fieldsports.
We are committed to putting the hare back on the quarry list for whippets, lurchers
and greyhounds alike.
Visit www.countryside-alliance.org.uk