To me, it is akin to the old English foxhunt. With a little more rock and roll thrown in. One could argue that killing/catching fox disrupts the ecosystem as well, but the hunt itself, the act, the dress, the ceremony itself, is the reason for the hunt.
Having a pack of good hunting hounds is almost as old as hunting itself. It is possible that it goes back as far as 20,000 years, but for sure there is evidence that it goes back 12,000 years.
Consistently catching cats with houds is hard. Very hard. The movies like, Where the Red Fern Grows etc show old school hound men catching coons with hounds, Jerry Clower talked about it and country songs are written about it, but coons are absolute childs play compared to catching cats.
Bobcats separate the men from the boys amongst hounds.
In modern times one could argue that hunting with hounds for some animals, like bobcats or mountain lions, isn't "necessary". One could also argue that hunting deer for meat isn't necessary because you can go to the store now for your food, but people still meat hunt. If you've never been on a legit cat hunt, if for no other reason than to hear/watch the hounds work, I strongly encourage you to do so.
Having a hound that can unravel a cat trail for hours, then run that animal for hours (a light/streamlined bobcat can run for long periods of time) is a rare thing. Most hounds can't do it. The overwhelming majority of hounds can't do it. The typical long eared "blood hound" like you see in the movies absolutely can not catch a cat.
You need a dog that is very athletic, marathon runner athletic, also very smart but also has a nose that is cold enough to pick up a scent that is hours or a day old.
Given that there are fewer houndmen than there used to be, by far, the number of available dogs is also fewer and further between. So, hunting of this type is an art that takes a long time to learn and patience. It is much like any other "hobby" that is very expensive and others wonder why the hell you do it. Having grown up around hounds myself, I don't have an interest in owning them personally but I'm glad that people still do.
