Events | 2009.12.24
Foxhunting lobby prepares to reignite campaign
Labour and anti-blood sports campaigners rally to Back the Ban campaign as Countryside Alliance starts push for repeal
Thousands of hunting enthusiasts will turn out on Boxing Day to launch an election push to repeal the controversial and much-dodged Hunting Act.
Opponents will also be out in force, and a "Back the Ban" campaign will be launched on Boxing Day by the environment secretary, Hilary Benn, alongside celebrities including the actors Tony Robinson and Patrick Stewart.
The issue is high on both Tory and Labour election agendas, with the opposition leader, David Cameron, promising a free vote on a repeal in the Commons if the Conservatives gain power. Labour lists the act among one of its achievements in changing British society since Tony Blair became prime minister in 1997.
"The end may be in sight for the Hunting Act," said Simon Hart, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, which is calling for a huge show of support on hunting\'s traditional big day . "But we must all play our part in ensuring repeal; it will not be handed to us on a plate."
Labour MPs retaliated with a backbench campaign. The former cabinet minister Geoffrey Robinson called on voters in his Coventry North West constituency to sign a national petition, to be launched on Boxing Day.
Saboteurs and protesters will also be at many of the meets celebrating last week\'s ruling on the sport by the European court of human rights, in which judges ruled against a Countryside Alliance claim that the law breaches rights to a private and family life, freedom of association and protection of property. Judges concluded parliament was justified in legislating where it judged an activity as "morally and ethically objectionable".
Lembit Opik, Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire, Wales, and a member of the Middle Way group of MPs, which wants hunting to continue under regulation, said: "I think the public are confused because nothing seems to have changed despite the bleating of the pro-hunt lobby. The ban was illiberal and bad for animal welfare." Foxes are often wounded when shot rather than killed by hounds, he said.
The Boxing Day hunts – operating in Wales as "fox control societies" – will be used to highlight enforcement problems, rather than the principles of the issue, by following artificial trails, which seldom fail to set up an actual fox. These are inevitably chased by the hounds, but if the foxes are killed, the defence of lack of intention has almost invariably held good.
Only nine prosecutions of traditional hunts have reached court since the act was passed in 2004, with three convictions. Other loopholes include the right to use dogs to set up quarry for birds of prey, which Labour conceded in order to protect hawking enthusiasts. Equipped with a variety of eagles, hunts have sidestepped the law.
"Whatever people\'s views on hunting, there is a growing consensus that the act is unworkable," said Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance. "That is the reason why the Conservatives have promised repeal if they win power: because at the moment it is just a waste of everyone\'s money and time."
Hunts in the field this year range from the Badsworth, in South Yorkshire – a pack with traditional support from the mining community as well as gentry – to Leicestershire\'s Quorn and three stag packs in the south-west.
"The hunters make a big thing of Boxing Day, mobilising support which they don\'t usually have," said Lee Moon, of the Hunt Saboteurs Association. "We\'ll be there, but it\'s not a massive day for us. We\'re concentrating on campaigning for loopholes in the act to be closed and for more vigorous prosecution."
The act\'s limited successes have been against organisers of coursing events on the fringe of organised hunting, including the conviction of seven people for killing rats for sport on Merseyside.
Police in the south-west are also investigating a spate of deer killings, apparently organised for sport by people using quad bikes, who left dead carcasses behind rather than selling them for venison.
The last foxhunting court case came in September when a district judge in Penrith, Cumbria, ruled there was no case to answer against John Harrison, huntsman of the Ullswater hounds in the Lake District.
The country\'s 320 hunts – 181 packs of foxhounds, 90 of hare-chasing dogs, three of staghounds, 21 of mink hounds and 25 Welsh "fox control societies" – has changed little since the act was passed in 2004. Over 85% have the same number of employees and hounds as they did then, or more.
A pack of harriers hunting hares on horseback in Hertfordshire closed recently, but this was "largely because they found their countryside was shrinking to virtually the verge of the M25", said Bonner. "A lot of hunting opponents are as fed up with the situation as we are."
Moon said action in the coming year would focus on specific loopholes, including the one involving birds of prey. "There isn\'t a bird in this country which can reliably bring down an adult fox," he said, "and most of the hunt ones spend their time in the back of a 4x4.
"The birds were exempted in the interest of hawkers, and they have just been hijacked by the hunters. It\'s clearly against the spirit of the act."
He also described the "unintentional killing" get-out clauses involving foxes on trail hunts as "like saying, \'I shouldn\'t be investigated if I run over someone accidentally in a car\'".
Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports , welcomed the European ruling against a case brought by the Countryside Alliance as "a victory for common sense."
He said: "No one has the right to chase and kill animals purely for sport. This sends a clear message to politicians and the hunting community alike that the ban on hunting is here to stay."
An Ipsos-MORI poll in September found 75% in favour of the ban on foxhunting, with 84% and 85% against stag and hare hunts.
The Countryside Alliance published a poll today that found 57% of those questioned believed the act was not working and a narrow majority favoured either repeal or Cameron\'s plan for a free vote by MPs. Just under half, 49%, backed repeal or a free vote, against 45% who called for the ban on hunting animals for sport to stay in place.
The poll, by ORB, also asked: "From what you know, do you think the Hunting Act is working?
The response was: 57% no, 34% yes and 9% don\'t know. Hart said: "The law is a confusing mess. Our police and courts should be able to focus on real crime and real criminals rather than wrestling with an unworkable hunting law."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/23[...]ing-repeal-campaign-boxing-day
