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Last year the National Trust in the United Kingdom prohibited Hunting on its land after a study by Patrick Bateson, a professor of animal behavior, claimed hunting subjected Deer to incredible level of stress and, therefore, was cruel. In mid-September Bateson was forced to revise his views to conclude that hunting is not necessarily cruel.
Bateson, for example, originally reported that deer subjected to a hunt suffered extensive muscle damage caused by severe stress. A study by Roger Harris of the Royal Veterinary College disputed this claim along with a claim Bateson made that stress from hunting caused red blood cells in the deer to break down.
Perhaps Bateson's most stunning claim was that the stress deer experienced from predation by human beings was unlike any sort of stress deer would experience in a natural environment. Harris' study, however, found no evidence of this and concluded that the stress deer experience during a hunt is not fundamentally different from other forms of stress.
As a result of Harris' study, Bateson and other researchers signed a 9-point statement issuing specific modifications of the findings of their original research, although Bateson said he still feels hunting is "knowingly cruel."
Source:
"Professor revises view on deer hunt cruelty," Charles Clover, The Daily Telegraph, September 15, 1998.