'We can't carry on' say hunts
Hunt leaders in the West have issued a desperate plea to their colleagues in the rest of the country to keep trying to overturn the Hunting Act, after admitting they 'cannot keep going for the long term' under a ban.
The call comes on the day around a 100,000 people will gather at meets across the region for the traditional Boxing Day hunt, although it is thought many will be cancelled due to the weather.
Another five years of the hunt ban is in prospect, with a coalition Government reluctant to revisit the issue, and a majority of MPs in the new House of Commons understood to be against repeal.
But because hunts across the rest of the country are not subject to the same kind of monitoring by anti-hunt groups as hunts in Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire, the clamour for repeal in the rest of England is not as strong.
So a hard-hitting video has been produced by the south west branch of the Countryside Alliance, featuring the only hunt in Britain that has been caught by hunt monitors and successfully prosecuted twice for breaking the ban, the Quantock Staghounds, based at Bagborough, near Taunton.
Just last month, QSH huntsman Richard Down was convicted for a second time of breaching the hunt ban, following a first conviction in 2007.
In the video, south west regional spokeswoman Alison Hawes calls for supporters across the country to lobby their MPs with cards showing a cartoon Tony Blair in hunting pinks.
She admits that hunts are finding it increasingly difficult to abide by or understand the law.
She tells CA supporters across the country: "It's very difficult for us to work out what is lawful and what is unlawful. It's very difficult for any huntsman who's going out day in and day out, trying to do his job, and every time he's thinking 'am I operating within the law? Trail-hunting, is that all right? I've got all these exemptions I can meet, am I meeting them all?'
"And it's particularly difficult for the staghounds because their form of hunting is very different from the foxhound packs and the beagle packs.
"So it is much more difficult for huntsmen like Richard Down to meet all the exemptions and to do his very best, which he has been trying to do, and it's very sad that on two occasions, the law has found against him," she added.
The vice-chairman of the QSH, James Hawthorne, said in the video the future of staghunting depended on repeal. "Muddling along is no good at all. Richard has got two convictions now – he's got a criminal record," he said.
"That's two good reasons that we don't carry on under this law, and every huntsman in the country has the potential of going out and breaking the law and ending up with a criminal record – well, that's just not right.
"We're committed to keeping going, but we cannot keep going for the long term under the Hunting Act."
Some 400,000 people are expected to join hunts today around the country, with traditional meets moved from Boxing Day yesterday because it was a Sunday.
Hunts will gather in the centre of towns and villages like Thornbury, Hay-on-Wye, Leominster, Castle Cary, Priddy, Crewkerne, Ilminster, Pewsey, Lacock and Chitterne.
Both sides of the hunt argument traded opinion polls to further their argument last night, in advance of the Boxing Day meets.
The League Against Cruel Sports issued two polls by MORI and YouGov. The first showed that more than three-quarters of the population believed hunting should remain illegal, including 71 per cent of rural dwellers.
The second revealed that the public trust bankers more than hunters to regulate themselves – a suggestion put forward by pro-hunters as an alternative to the hunt ban.
New CA chief executive Alice Barnard said: "The Hunting Act has wasted thousands of hours of police time and millions of pounds of taxpayers money. Police officers have spent endless time investigating allegations made by animal rights activists when they could have been tackling real crime like burglary, knife crime and drug dealing."
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by Pete, Bath
Thursday, December 30 2010, 12:33PM
“"New CA chief executive Alice Barnard said: "The Hunting Act has wasted thousands of hours of police time and millions of pounds of taxpayers money. Police officers have spent endless time investigating allegations made by animal rights activists when they could have been tackling real crime like burglary, knife crime and drug dealing."
The arrogance of these people is surpassed only by their unwitting irony.
If they obeyed the law by not hunting in the first place, then police time would not need to be 'wasted'!
Moreover, the criminals who perpetrate 'burglary, knife crime and drug dealing' seem to have the same (im)morality as the hunting community -'we don't like the law trying to stop our anti-social or degenerate activities, so we're going to ignore it'.
The sick mentality and warped logic of these fox-hunters is astonishing.
Oh, and before they retort that foxes are a nuisance because they kill chickens, well, my neighbour's cats sometimes kill birds and use my garden as a toilet, but I don't ride out with hounds to kill them!
Fox hunting is nothing to do with controlling the fox population - it is purely and simply that the people who participate in this 'sport' derive a sick, sadistic pleasure from chasing,and then seeing torn to pieces, one of God's creatures. They really are depraved and barbaric.”
by JohnLacrosse, Wiltshire
Wednesday, December 29 2010, 9:17AM
“I know that we have a tradition of hunting but maybe its time to start new traditions that have the same benefits to our communities. For example the village of Lacock has its annual Scarecrow festival and recently Lacock Lacrosse 7's (http://lacrosselacock.bravehost.com/) has been added to it to bring a visceral air of excitement much like the hunts.”
by Viscount Vixley, Bath
Tuesday, December 28 2010, 7:17PM
“Stacey- "Why the double standards?"
Indeed why?
The murder and cruelty is only sanctioned if you're rich. Barbarism if you're poor, "sport" if you're wealthy.
Outdated, unwanted and thoroughly unpleasant......A bit like our goverment.”
by Stacey, Bath
Tuesday, December 28 2010, 5:10PM
“All the poor man's blood sports were outlawed decades ago.
Indeed when the papers get hold of stories of dogs being bred for fighting they react with shock and horror.
Why the double standards?”
by Mr Goth, Bath
Tuesday, December 28 2010, 11:52AM
“Foxhunting was part of the english way of life, some may argue that we keep these traditions??
Shall we also revive child labour and bring back the workhouses for the poor and homeless - aha! I see where our leaders are going with this, back to the victorian era!
It is surely time for people to move on and end this barbaric 'sport' forever, if its all about the 'thrill of the chase' then go for a horse ride without killing things!!”
by Jon I, Bath
Tuesday, December 28 2010, 11:30AM
“This kind of thing should not be reported. Who cares if the law-breaking, ignorant toffs are feeling the pinch now their ridiculous and barbaric bloodsport has been banned? This is a good thing not something to lamented about in the Chronicle.
Also if they find it difficult abiding by or understanding the law, they are morons.”
by Dave, Larkhall
Monday, December 27 2010, 10:50PM
“You tell 'em VV. Fox off the lot of yer!”
by Viscount Vixley, Bath
Monday, December 27 2010, 8:38PM
“And the grammar police can just "do one" this time!”
by Viscount Vixley, Bath
Monday, December 27 2010, 8:36PM
“The ban was put in place for a good and majority supported decision.
More people as a nation have morals and abhor the barbarism of the upper classes/ the so-called "Countryside alliance" who sanction murder as a sport?
How else can you describe the chasing of an innocent animal with hounds to the point of exhaustion and ripping it limb from limb?
This is not a scientifically/naturally supported vital culling (if there is such a thing).
This is vile and disgusting cruelty by a type of philistine who gets sadistic pleasure from perpetrating the agonising death of a living creature,.
If the Tories and Tory Lords- backed by the Lib Dem passengers even think of repealing this ban. Particularly when they are axing the Book Start and Sure Start Schemes for children and people are losing their jobs, homes and livelihoods. I believe that I won't be alone in making sure this spells the end for this sham of a government.
Their demise never come too soon in my opinion.”
by Vernon, Bay Tree Road
Monday, December 27 2010, 4:05PM
“If I remember rightly, the Chronicle ran a poll on this site about foxhunting and more local people were in favour of it than against it. I am indifferent and it doesn't affect me either way.”