Liberty & Livelihood

'Long live the foxhunters!'

I THINK it is fantastic news that the foxhunters are back.The ridiculous law to outlaw many who engage in the sport was always going to fail and I, for one, cannot wait to see the hunt gallop past my front window in all its majesty on a cold winter's day.

Long may the freedom of the countryside be allowed to flourish.Let the townies, with all their distorted values, get on with their decadent lives and let us country dwellers get on with ours.

Anthony B L Martyn Elton Road, Wansford, near Peterborough

Hunts trying to fox new law with birds

HUNTS in Cambridgeshire are considering the use of falcons in a bid to beat the hunting ban.
Hunt masters are remaining defiant in the face of the new law which bans foxhunting with the use of hounds.

George Bowyer, joint master of the Fitzwilliam Hunt, would not say whether the hunt had bought a bird of prey but added that hunts across the country were determined to defeat the law.

He said: "Yes, we are looking into using falcons. Most hunts are looking into possibilities and there are lots of different exemptions. We are going to do whatever we can to keep going."

Thurlow Hunt, which operates in the Newmarket area, said it may use birds of prey in the future.

Joint hunt master Robin Vestey said: "We are not using falcons at this stage although we never rule anything out."

Under the law, birds of prey can be used to kill foxes, with dogs being used to flush out the animals. But the Hawk Board said using a falcon could be cruel because the kill may not be clean.

A spokesman said: "The Hawk Board and falconry clubs throughout the UK are fundamentally opposed to the use of birds of prey in conjunction with packs of hounds.

"Falconers and those involved in hunting should note that the governing bodies of both sports strongly advise against this practice as it could lead to both sports being bought into disrepute and have significant welfare risks."

The main hunting season starts at the beginning of November. Other local hunts are planning to use an artificial scent for the hounds to follow.

Mr Bowyer said it was important to keep the hunt afloat until a challenge to the ban on hunting was mounted.

Using two dogs to flush out foxes to waiting guns was another option the hunt was considering.

He said: "This legislation is unworkable. Hunting people are never going to accept that hunting is wrong. We are trying to keep the infrastructure together so when the ban is overturned we will still be going."

The Countryside Alliance said it would continue to fight to overturn the law.

Simon Hart, alliance chief executive, said: "The hunting community has resolved to work to remove this confusing and unworkable law from the statute book and to replace it with a sensible legislation."

Law has gone to the dogs
Oct 1 2005
By The Journal

Whatever your views on fox hunting, no-one can argue that the current legal situation is a sensible one.

For a variety of reasons - many of them based purely on the need for political expediency within the Government ranks - we have been left with a piece of legislation which is full of loopholes.
We now face a winter of "cat and mouse" between hunters and anti-bloodsport campaigners.


And quite how the police are going to enforce this new legislation has still not been properly established.

So the hunters are determined to continue with their sport and the protesters are equally determined to stop them.

This, however, was the situation this time last year.

It says a lot - and none of it very complimentary - about the Government's legislative procedure that so little has changed.

We have effectively been left with a law that is both difficult to enforce and toothless, even if one could turn out police officers at every meet.

And all because our Prime Minister threw the hunting-with-dogs bill to his backbenchers as a political sop.

You do not need to be particularly for or against hunting to recognise the nonsense of this.

Poorly framed legislation is worse than no legislation at all because it will simply waste more people's time as one group tries to enforce it and the other attempts to circumvent it.

In such situations, the law has to be clear and well-framed.

This law is not.

It is likely, however, to stand as a monument to the folly of allowing political expediency a role in our law-making process.

And that is not a satisfactory situation - wherever you happen to stand on this particular debate.