Our Mission
The Hound Welfare Fund is a registered non-profit charity that provides food and veterinary care to the Iroquois Hunt Club’s retired hounds, who are not covered under the club’s budget once their hunting years are over due to age or injury. Founded in 2000, the HWF also provides a model for other hunts in the United States and abroad that wish to provide comfortable and dignified retirements for the hounds that make their sport possible.
The HWF is a 501(c)(3) foundation, meaning that your donations to HWF are tax-deductible. The HWF has no paid officers, and 100 percent of all donations go directly to the hounds’ care. The HWF and Iroquois Hunt Club are located in Lexington, Kentucky.
Iroquois Bonfire '98: Retiree of the Year for 2008-'09
Neil Coleman, huntsman of the Cottesmore in England, bred Bonfire. She arrived in Kentucky as a puppy and spent her entire 10-year hunting career with Iroquois, during which time she became the undisputed favorite of huntsman Lilla Mason. Bonfire retired in September 2008 to live out her days at Miller Trust Farm in Lexington where both the Iroquois pack and the retired hounds are kenneled.
Invitations to her retirement party at the Lexington Country Club were among the top-selling items at the Hound Welfare Fund benefit auction in March 2008, and the event did not disappoint. Bonfire arrived in style in the passenger seat of a Porsche and posed for photographs in the club. Sadly, Bonfire did not have a long retirement. Earlier this year, she was diagnosed with cancer, and she was put to sleep in May.