Friday, July 28, 2006
MORE FOXES WOUNDED
'More foxes wounded' since hunt Act
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
(Filed: 28/07/2006)
More foxes have been wounded rather than killed since the Act banning hunting came into force, a new study says.
The survey of 600 sheep farmers, commissioned by the Middle Way Group of MPs - which supports regulated hunting rather than a ban - to examine the effects of the Hunting Act, shows that there has not been the increase in animal welfare predicted by anti-hunting groups.
Most farmers in the survey - published at the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) Game Fair, which starts today at Broadlands, Hants, - report that they attempt to control foxes to the same extent that they did before the Act was passed, and this means that their use of shooting and snaring has increased.
Shotguns were used in fox control by 68 per cent of farmers polled, with one quarter of the foxes shot being only wounded, according to estimates. On the 49 per cent of farms where rifles were used at times, farmers estimated that an eighth of foxes were wounded, not killed.
Sixteen per cent of farmers used snares to kill foxes and two per cent used poison. A large number of farmers, 44 per cent, claim that they are now suffering greater losses of lambs to foxes at lambing time because of the difficulty of killing predators since the Hunting Act came into force in February last year. The findings indicate that wounding rates in fox control are higher than shooting bodies accept. These bodies estimate that only nine or 10 per cent of foxes shot are wounded rather than killed.
Lembit Opik, the co-chairman of the Middle Way Group, said the results of the survey confirmed what it said during debates in Parliament on the Hunting Act: that animal welfare would be worsened if the law passed on to the statute book. He accused animal welfare bodies of sacrificing animal welfare for a political victory over hunt supporters. David Fursdon, the president of the CLA, said: "This survey is not an attack on shooting. It is an attack on the restriction of types of wildlife management available to landowners, forcing them into methods that are unsuitable."
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
(Filed: 28/07/2006)
More foxes have been wounded rather than killed since the Act banning hunting came into force, a new study says.
The survey of 600 sheep farmers, commissioned by the Middle Way Group of MPs - which supports regulated hunting rather than a ban - to examine the effects of the Hunting Act, shows that there has not been the increase in animal welfare predicted by anti-hunting groups.
Most farmers in the survey - published at the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) Game Fair, which starts today at Broadlands, Hants, - report that they attempt to control foxes to the same extent that they did before the Act was passed, and this means that their use of shooting and snaring has increased.
Shotguns were used in fox control by 68 per cent of farmers polled, with one quarter of the foxes shot being only wounded, according to estimates. On the 49 per cent of farms where rifles were used at times, farmers estimated that an eighth of foxes were wounded, not killed.
Sixteen per cent of farmers used snares to kill foxes and two per cent used poison. A large number of farmers, 44 per cent, claim that they are now suffering greater losses of lambs to foxes at lambing time because of the difficulty of killing predators since the Hunting Act came into force in February last year. The findings indicate that wounding rates in fox control are higher than shooting bodies accept. These bodies estimate that only nine or 10 per cent of foxes shot are wounded rather than killed.
Lembit Opik, the co-chairman of the Middle Way Group, said the results of the survey confirmed what it said during debates in Parliament on the Hunting Act: that animal welfare would be worsened if the law passed on to the statute book. He accused animal welfare bodies of sacrificing animal welfare for a political victory over hunt supporters. David Fursdon, the president of the CLA, said: "This survey is not an attack on shooting. It is an attack on the restriction of types of wildlife management available to landowners, forcing them into methods that are unsuitable."
