Description:
Feb 10, 2006. LONDON (AP) - He is reluctant to call himself a human fox, but several times a year John Whetton is chased through the British countryside by scarlet-coated huntsmen and their packs of hounds.
"I get caught very, very rarely," Whetton said Friday. "But, when I do, the worst that can happen is you get licked to death."
Whetton, a former Olympic middle-distance runner who ran in Tokyo and Mexico City in the 1964 and 1968 Games, is a volunteer for the Readyfield Bloodhounds hunt, a fox-less hunt held in central England.
The alternative event has gained popularity since Britain's Hunting Act came into force last February following a bitterly fought political battle over the sport.
All traditional fox hunting and other kinds of events in which dogs chase and kill prey were outlawed under the legislation.