Hunting laws are stopping cruelty
TIM Bonner of the blood-sport-supporting Countryside Alliance claims that the Hunting Act should be repealed because it is a bad law that has failed, with just three prosecutions of hunts in five years.
If we follow that bizarre logic, should we then remove laws on speeding because not enough people have been prosecuted?
Indeed the opposite must be true – that if not enough people are being prosecuted then the act needs tightening to close loopholes which are allowing hunts to literally get away with murder.
The Hunting Act was brought in to prevent unnecessary suffering to wild mammals by making hunting with dogs illegal.
Contrary to Mr Bonner's nonsense, there were actually 14 prosecutions, according to Home Office figures, in the first two years of the act and many more since.
The act is working, but not to his liking. I wonder why!
So while Labour is focusing on getting the country out of recession, would-be prime minister David Cameron and his MPs want to waste Parliamentary time bringing back an activity that most of their own voters don't even support, let alone the 75% of the public who want to keep the ban in place (voting figures quoted are from opinion polls undertaken by Mori, commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports between September 2008 and October 2009).
A vote for the Tories is certainly a vote for change – a change for the worst.
Do we want a return to stag, fox and deer hunting, and the equally despicable hare coursing?
Taking Britain back to the Dark Ages is not what the public are looking for.
It's the same old Tories, same old cruelty, same old nasty party.
Chris Edwards,
FACCT (Fight Against Cameron Cruelty Threat),
Chester.
Comments
by Chris, Derby
Friday, November 20 2009, 3:46PM
“A list of MPs supporting the hunting ban was produced at the time the bill was published.
There was a fairly even split with mmbers of ALL parties both supporting and against the bill. John Major wasone of many Conservatives in favour of a ban on hunting.
It would appear that MPs of all parties who have constituencies bsed outside of city boundaries were against the ban, this includes Labour MPs.
It would be a foolish mistake for the Conservatives to show any support for a repeal of the act of Parliament. It is clear that the majority of UK residents and voters are against hunting, in particular the hunting of foxes with hounds. When I was a member of the Young Conservatives back in the 1970s, I was against fox hunting then and still am.
I hope that any proposal to repeal the act will be rejected by all political persuasions.”