Hunting dismay

The 18th February this year marked 15 years since the hunting act, which outlawed chasing wild mammals with dogs, came into force. At the time of the ban, thousands signed a declaration in which they pledged to defy the law, with ex Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance and current Tory MP Simon Hart declaring that the alliance would support this civil disobedience.

The signed declaration has disappeared and the open defiance shown replaced by what many would call ‘trail hunt lies’. One thing has remained the same though: despite widespread public support for a ban on pursuing wild mammals using dogs- foxes, deer, hares, mink, otters and any species unfortunate enough to find itself in the countryside on a hunt day are still being relentlessly pursued, dug out and killed.

According to an independent inquiry led by barrister Stephen Wooler, who was HM Chief Inspector to the Crown Prosecution Service, ‘the evidence reviewed leaves no room for doubt that, despite the 2004 legislation, traditional fox hunting remains ’business as usual...extensive flouting of the law risks bringing Parliament, the police and prosecuting authorities into disrepute’.

Week after week, hunters descend upon the countryside with packs of hounds and proceed to run riot. Local people often complain that they are refused details of hunt meets and thus their pets and livestock are at risk. Only this week, landowners complained to the Yorkshire Post about hunt trespass, illegal hunting, interference with badger setts which are routinely blocked to prevent animals reaching safety underground and stressed livestock thanks to marauding hounds. One said, ‘in truth, the majority of people-farmers and landowners included-do not want them round here’. There have been numerous incidents of pets being attacked and killed (including a rescue kitten torn to pieces at Scarcroft on Christmas Eve), animal sanctuaries invaded, alpacas and lambs attacked, livestock spooked and escaping from fields, not to mention the ‘real and plausible’ disease risks hounds pose to farm animals according to the Edinburgh university report into bovine TB in the Kimblewick hounds. Local people are also complaining about the behaviour of hunts and the lack of action by authorities to prevent the carnage witnessed on hunt days. There has been trespass on train tracks, in graveyards (recently during an active burial), in nursing homes, on main roads (with multiple accidents occurring and hounds being killed), in private gardens and in January bloodied hounds ran amok in Hornton, terrifying children and parents during a school pick up. Violent attacks on hunt saboteurs and monitors have intensified, and many local people in hunt areas point to hunts’ aggression towards anyone attending with cameras of proof of guilt and a justification for one judge calling trail hunting ‘cynical subterfuge’ designed to provide a false alibi for illegal hunting. We are calling on authorities to act. This cruelty and chaos is unacceptable in 21st century Britain. As Wooler predicted, many are losing faith in police, prosecuting authorities and Parliament over this failure to stop criminal activity in the countryside. Criminals who will not respect the rule of law should not be rewarded with inaction-rather, the law must be strengthened and enforced to show that nobody is above it, and that the people and wildlife who live in the countryside are finally afforded protection from the tiny minority of animal abusers who continue to hunt.

Louise Peters, address withheld