In the run-up to the publication of A Street Dog Named Pup on the 1st April 2021, meet some of the dogs and find out why I wrote them into the story –
I wanted the story to explore our relationship with our canine companions.
Reynard the foxhound – A dog is for life, not just for Christmas – unless it’s a foxhound.
Fox hunting is a ‘traditional sport’ in which hunters, usually on horseback, follow a pack of hunting dogs to pick up the scent of a fox, chase it and kill it. Fox hunting is illegal in England and Wales (Hunting Act 2004) and Scotland (Protection of Wild Mammals Act 2002). There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that hunts are regularly breaking the law. An explosive expose aired on ITV November 2020 showed senior figures within the Master of the Fox Hounds Association and the Countryside Alliance caught on camera admitting that trail hunting is a ‘smokescreen’ for the chasing and killing of foxes.
Foxes suffer a cruel and vicious death.
But it is not just the foxes that suffer.
Foxhounds are disposable items to the foxhunts.
If a foxhound doesn’t hunt, or becomes too old or incapacitated to hunt, it is killed.
Usually shot. A bullet in the head.
The Countryside Alliance admitted that about 3000 foxhounds are killed each year. Animal welfare groups think this number is actually a lot higher. Foxhounds rarely make it beyond the age of eight before they are killed. For most pet dogs this is a comfortable middle age where they are still very active, with years ahead of them.
Hunters profess to love their hounds. But I don’t believe they can love their hounds. They love the tradition of foxhunting.
Yet, to me, the truth about the fate of these hounds doesn’t seem to hit the headlines. We are (or so we are told) a nation of animal lovers. Even if hunters were obeying the law and not hunting foxes, the casual killing of foxhounds would continue. It is the unspoken truth. Those who joins hunts turn a blind eye to the annual mass slaughter of dogs.
In A Street Dog Named Pup, Reynard is a young foxhound who has escaped from the hunt kennels, following the foxes into the city. Reynard is chased by the dark memories of his time in the hunt kennels. He is always seeking the dark places where the Huntsman can’t find him.
In exploring our relationship with our canine companions, I wanted A Street Dog Named Pup to expose some of the best and worst in human nature.
With foxhunting, human nature is scraping the bottom of a very bloody barrel.
A Street Dog Named Pup (cover Levi Pinfold)
Pup and his boy are inseparable. But both their worlds change forever when Pup is cruelly taken away and abandoned in Dead Dog Alley. With nowhere else to turn, Pup joins a pack of misfit street dogs who help him learn to fight for survival on the streets. Pup holds onto the hope of one day being reunited with his boy. But as hope shrinks with every passing day, Pup begins to wonder if their bond is irreversibly broken….
Michael Morpurgo “I’m not sure I’ll ever look at a dog the same way again. Unforgettable.”
Lauren St John “A masterpiece. Gill Lewis does for Pup what Anna Sewell did for horses in Black Beauty. A wise, brave book, steeped in kindness.”
