Diehard hunters are committing a crime
I AM very conscious that we are approaching yet another hunting season. Already the stag hunts are on the move and some of the fox hunts look as if they are engaged in traditional cub hunting, where the new pups are taught to chase and kill young foxes.
The diehards of the pro-hunting movement seem to be as determined as ever to carry on regardless of the law, which makes their cruel sport a crime.
Now encouraged, foolishly and irresponsibly in my view, by promises of repeal if elected from certain leading politicians, those diehards are even more determined to prepare for a day when they can once more chase and kill in the so-called name of sport. A key part of those preparations is keeping a pack of hounds prepared and trained to follow the scent of their chosen quarry. The use of fox parts, "red fox" scent from fox fur farms and other similar lures, clearly ensures that hounds can continue to hunt live foxes if that becomes legal again. The same is also true for all other classes of hounds and their prey.
The hunters claim to be the voice of the countryside, but again the facts are against them. Over 70 per cent of rural voters are against hunting and support the ban. There are only five constituencies in the country where more than 25 per cent of the owners live in the countryside and even there the polls suggest that the majority of voters who live in the countryside will be for the ban and against repeal.
The Hunting Act is under threat no doubt with a change of government but we are on the winning side and with the support of the majority of the public we can see off any threat to the Act. The hunters want to turn the clock back to the past, so it's not a crime to go hunting, coursing and killing for sport.
Kathy Moyle
East Budleigh
5 Comments
by Giles Bradshaw, Rose Ash
Friday, October 02 2009, 1:20PM
“How many free votes did Labour hold on the Hunting Ban? It must be well into double figures surely?
And yet people are up in arms at Tory proposals to hold just one?
What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”
by Melissa Phillips, Silverton
Friday, October 02 2009, 12:08PM
“I wonder where you're getting your 70% from. Most people who live and work rurally that I know of are against the ban and want it repealed, for logical reasons. Can you source your statistics?”
by puzzled, exeter
Friday, October 02 2009, 11:46AM
“I am not anti hunting, but I am also not a participant.
Why do the anti hunt brigade only target hunting with hounds as an animal cruelty sport? Where are these people at the many hundreds of illegal dog fights that take place around the country, ironically enough a large number of which take place in inner city areas. Many hundreds of poor dogs are ripped apart each week, to the sound of baying, bloodthirsty, alcohol fuelled men. (it is usually men attending this type of thing.) Could it be that the type of person attending and running this sort of "sporting" event, may give them more than a shove with their horse or a whipping??!!
I'll be far more impressed to see them "monitoring" and openly filming an organised dog fight and getting stuck into those mindless thugs who enjoy this sort of thing, than seeing them following every legal hunt each week, it's not thier job to police hunting.
Then there's the live transportation of livestock and horses, again protesters are totally conspicuous by their absence at abbatoirs or shipping ports. Where are you when those poor animals who have been crowded into lorries for days on end, without food and drink, despite the best efforts of animal protection agencies, before being slaughtered in Europe?
Now, lets see how committed to your animal cruelty cause you really are and see you out there in force protesting to the European consumers who insist on live transport, despite refrigeration lorries being 10 a penny.
Thought not.”
by Innocent Bystander, Devon... not Surrey
Friday, October 02 2009, 10:42AM
“I guess we don't feel the need to attack the Police and invade Parliament when democratically lobbying our MPs seems to get the job done.”
by Sarah, Surrey
Friday, October 02 2009, 12:18AM
“Right, organise a mass march and rally in London, and let's see how many of that 70% of the population actually turn up to support you.”