Editing Fox hunting (section)

===Europe===
[[File:Desportes fox.jpg|thumb|right|''The Fox Hunt'', [[Alexandre-François Desportes]], France, 1720]]

Many Greek- and Roman-influenced countries have long traditions of hunting with hounds. Hunting with [[Agassaei]] hounds was popular in [[Celtic Britain]], even before the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] arrived, introducing the Castorian and Fulpine hound breeds which they used to hunt.<ref name=guardian1>{{cite news|newspaper=The Guardian|date=18 February 2005 |title=Ten things you didn't know about hunting with hounds | last = Aslam | first =D| url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/feb/18/hunting.immigrationpolicy2|access-date=3 November 2007 | location=London}}</ref> [[Normans|Norman]] hunting traditions were brought to Britain when [[William the Conqueror]] arrived, along with the Gascon and [[Talbot (dog)|Talbot]] hounds.

Foxes were referred to as ''beasts of the chase'' by [[medieval hunting|medieval]] times, along with the [[red deer]] ([[hart (deer)|hart]] & hind), [[marten]]s, and [[Roe Deer|roe]]s,<ref>{{cite web|publisher=St John's College, Oxford|title=Forest and Chases in England and Wales c. 1000 to c. 1850|url=http://info.sjc.ox.ac.uk/forests/glossary.htm|access-date=16 February 2008}}</ref> but the earliest known attempt to hunt a fox with hounds was in [[Norfolk]], England, in 1534, where farmers began chasing foxes down with their dogs for the purpose of pest control.<ref name=guardian1/> The last [[wolf]] in England was killed in the late 15th century during the reign of [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]], leaving the English fox with no threat from larger predators. The first use of packs specifically trained to hunt foxes was in the late 1600s, with the oldest fox hunt being, probably, the Bilsdale in [[Yorkshire]].<ref>[[Jane Ridley]], ''Fox Hunting: a history'' (HarperCollins, October 1990)</ref>

By the end of the seventeenth century, deer hunting was in decline. The [[inclosure act]]s brought fences to separate formerly open land into many smaller fields, deer forests were being cut down, and arable land was increasing.<ref name = "Birley">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qVQiOYkBvV8C&q=%22Inclosure+Acts+%22+deer+hunting&pg=PA130|publisher=Manchester University Press|title=Sport and the Making of Britain|author=Birley, D.|year=1993|access-date=14 February 2008|pages=130–132|isbn=978-0-7190-3759-7}}</ref> With the onset of the [[Industrial Revolution]], people began to move out of the country and into towns and cities to find work. Roads, railway lines, and canals all split hunting countries,<ref name=Carr/> but at the same time they made hunting accessible to more people. [[Shotgun]]s were improved during the nineteenth century and the shooting of gamebirds became more popular.<ref name=Birley/> Fox hunting developed further in the eighteenth century when [[Hugo Meynell]] developed breeds of hound and horse to address the new geography of rural England.<ref name=Birley/>

In Germany, hunting with hounds (which tended to be deer or boar hunting) was first banned on the initiative of [[Hermann Göring]] on 3 July 1934.<ref name="verboten">{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1407954/Thanks-to-Hitler-hunting-with-hounds-is-still-verboten.html|title=Thanks to Hitler, hunting with hounds is still verboten|access-date=19 May 2010|date=22 September 2002 | location=London | first1=David | last1=Harrison | first2=Tony | last2=Paterson}}</ref> In 1939, the ban was extended to cover Austria after Germany's annexation of the country. Bernd Ergert, the director of Germany's hunting museum in Munich, said of the ban, "The aristocrats were understandably furious, but they could do nothing about the ban given the totalitarian nature of the regime."<ref name="verboten" />