LadyJean: I never heard the term "Kentucky fox hunting" but that sounds like what my relatives did! And they were from Kentucky! I don't think it was foxes that the dogs were after, though; more likely raccoons, possums, or rabbits. My dad and my uncles would sit on the porch at night, smoking, swapping stories, swatting mosquitoes, listening to the dogs run through the woods, and offering interpretations of what the various barks meant. They knew, or claimed to know, which dog was barking, and what the dogs were doing. They could tell when the dogs had picked up a scent, when they were in hot pursuit, and when they had "treed." Or they could have been bullshitting--how would I have known the difference? I was just a kid, listening because there was nothing else to do; there were no other kids to play with. All my cousins were much older than me, probably off in their cars somewhere. I was a city kid; this happened on our yearly visits to the farm. Over the years, I have lost touch with all my farmer relatives.

Anyway, I never knew this was a widespread practice. As far as I ever knew, the "hunt" always ended with the rabbit escaping down a hole, or the raccoon or possum escaping up a tree, so I suppose these hunts were about as humane as hunting ever got in those days.