Is fox-hunting set to return to Leicestershire?
Pro-hunt campaigners in Leicestershire are at the heart of a campaign to scrap the ban on hunting foxes with hounds.
Supporters from the Belvoir, Fernie, Cottesmore, Quorn and Atherstone hunts believe they are nearing their "best chance" to overturn the 2004 ban.
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They now believe there is a genuine prospect that the Conservatives will win the next general election and party leader David Cameron has already promised MPs a free vote on whether to end the ban.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has to call an election between now and June next year and hunt supporters in Leicestershire are stepping up their campaign.
They have helped draw up proposals for a Hunting Regulatory Authority, an independent watchdog which would be set up should the ban be repealed.
It would involve an independent panel, which would ensure hunts abide by a code of conduct. The panel would also deal with complaints from members of the public.
Joe Cowen, of the Fernie Hunt, is treasurer of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, which has been working with senior Tories on the proposals. Among those to give the plan their backing is Harborough MP Edward Garnier.
Mr Cowen said: "Now is the best chance we have ever had at bringing to an end the inept piece of legislation that has led to the hunting ban.
"The will is there to do it now as is the opportunity and not just among politicians but among other people."
Rad Thomas, of the Quorn Hunt, said: "We are optimistic the ban will be overturned after the Conservatives have won the next election. It was introduced on the grounds of animal welfare yet it has not worked. The fox population has suffered, if anything.
"Hunting eliminated the old and the unhealthy foxes from the population. It was the only selective way of managing the fox population."
Mr Thomas said the return of hunting foxes with hounds would boost the Leicestershire economy.
He said: "We do know it put £7m a year in and that since the ban some of that has been lost, though it is hard to exactly put it into pounds, shillings and pence."
The Cottesmore, the Atherstone and the Belvoir are also backing calls for a repeal of the ban.
Alastair Jackson, director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, added: "Our Hunting Regulatory Authority proposals are central to repeal because they are central to persuading the general public that hunting will be properly regulated."
The authority would have a chairman and four commissioners – experts in rural matters and animal welfare – who would be appointed by a panel and would not be members of the pro or anti-hunting lobbies.
They would have the power to publicly reprimand, fine or even ban hunts which broke a strict code of rules.
It would be a voluntary rather than statutory organisation, but all hunts would have to recognise its authority."
A similar body, the Independent Supervisory Authority for Hunting, existed before the ban but was run by the hunts themselves and was condemned for not being impartial.
Conservative Harborough MP Edward Garnier, who is chairman of the Repeal Committee – a lobbying group set up to overturn the Hunting Act – and shadow justice secretary, has backed the authority plans.
Marcus Papadopoulis, of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "The pro-hunt lobby are getting well ahead of themselves. We don't know when the election will be or if the Tories will win it.
"Labour is happy with the law as it is, the Liberal Democrats say hunting is not on the political agenda and the Tories will offer a free vote.
"Hunting is cruel and has no place in a modern society."
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by MICHAEL PROCTOR, BATH
Tuesday, December 01 2009, 3:29PM
“Just a thought.......should you have a riders licence much the same as a drivers licence to go hunting?.......is there such a thing as a riding offence? when hunting?”
by M Hayworth, Surrey
Tuesday, September 01 2009, 1:12PM
“We are trying to pull the many supporters of the hunting ban together to build a peaceful and effective campaign against those political parties who pledge to repeal it. It will be a couple of weeks before our website is up and running but please send me an email if you are interested in helping out. Thanks! mhayworth@btinternet.com 'Campaign for Decency'”
by eric goodyer, unity house
Thursday, August 27 2009, 2:15PM
“Back to the economics now. And let's keep the emotion out of it please. We need to revitalise our countryside, and a major source of economic diversification is tourism, and leisure. Many years ago I took my family to the Quantocks, well known walking terriotory - instead of a peaceful day out the fragile landscape was being destroyed by piles of cars driving over the hills, to follow the deer hunting. We left, as did all other tourists that day, and we spent our money elsewhere. I later asked Somerset County Council for their views and I quote "Tourism and Hunting do not mix" - The ban on fox hunting has not resulted in the economic catastrophe predicted by the self appointed Countryside Alliance - and many former hunters are able to continue this English tradition by drag hunting. I suggest that those who claim that this sport is good for the 'countryside' should talk to some tenants farmers, where they will get a different persepective. Foxes do need controlling, and that can be done with a gun. It is hunting for pleasure that is sickening and is now rightly illegal.”
by caroline, Leics.
Thursday, August 27 2009, 11:20AM
“Mr LFE says:
"Fox hunting only happens every other weekend and rarely do they catch one"
This is absolutely untrue. A hunt such as the Quorn, or the Belvoir, hunt 4 or 5 days a week during the cubhunting season (just starting now) and 3 or 4 days a week during main season, from 1st November to mid-March.
All hunt magazines (pre ban) gave a "season report" stating the number of foxes killed, and a large hunt would easily kill a couple of hundred in a season. A large number of young foxes are killed during cubhunting, which is the period of the foxhunting calendar when the young hounds (the new entry) are trained to kill. Terriermen that go out with hunts with their terriers, spades and drain rods, kill many foxes during the hunting season.
Foxes do not need to be controlled by any means. They regulate their own numbers by dint of social pressures in stable groups regulating the number of vixens that come into oestrus. If you keep on disrupting social groups by killing foxes, the result is that more cubs will be born each Spring. Leave them alone.
Foxes represent little or no problem to farmers, and are actually helpful as they kill rabbits and voles. Those that claim they are a terrible threat to livestock are invariably foxhunters with a self-interested agenda - they try to demonise their victims so that people will not mind their barbaric activities quite so much.
The law should be made stronger to curb the current full-on lawbreaking that is taking place.
Hunters, when trying to justify repeal, will always get into a mess because they are trying to pretend they have stopped hunting foxes, and making claims about the effect of this, when in fact they are carrying on as before the ban, so there are no changes to report.
At present they are trying to drag out all their old justifications. If you care about cruelty issues, (unlike some who have posted comments here) don't vote Tory, and make sure all your friends know what they are intending.”
by Dan, Leicestershire
Wednesday, August 26 2009, 2:11PM
“I Don't like fox hunting with the old kill. I'd prefer the current alternative or something similar.
I do, however, dislike the political stereotyping cast by some on here that all country folk are 'Toffs', that all Tory voters are 'Toffs' and all must therefore be siding with the hunting community. Wrong.
This is about trying to understand the concerns of those working the countryside, the undeniable inhumane kill, the traditions of the activity itself and why some say the old way should be brought back and if not what's the best ¿workable¿ alternative.
I agree with the point made earlier, we have other pressing issues in this country at the moment than this, but this is an article reporting on a small minority of people who take part in Hunting and suggesting it the Tory party stance is an interesting slant on it all. I beg to differ. Some MP's may harbour sympathies toward the Hunting community, by they'll be comfortably in the minority when it comes to a free vote.
By assuming that the Tories will just vote it back in, is rather a misguided opinion I believe. The majority of the UK opposes the traditional kill, myself included. Forget all this meeting with senior Tories waffle. It would be a ¿Titanic¿ type moment for a Tory government to change it back to the bloodthirsty kill and one that David Cameron would almost certainly avoid, should they get into power that is.”