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'More people hunt and more foxes killed' since ban

By Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson

(Filed: 17/02/2006)

More people are hunting with hounds and more foxes are being killed than before the hunting ban came into force a year ago, Kate Hoey, the chairman of the Countryside Alliance, says today.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Miss Hoey, Labour MP for Vauxhall, admits that the law is regularly being broken, inadvertently, as hounds kill foxes.

"If you are going out legally following a scented fox-trail and the hounds come across a real fox, they can kill it before it is possible to shoot it," she says. "How do you know you are breaking the law when it is full of so many inconsistencies? You could not have devised a more ridiculous law."

Miss Hoey says the imposition of the ban has appealed to the "British rebellious streak" and people who had never hunted before have started riding out with hounds. Despite warnings from the alliance last year that the ban would lead to thousands of hounds being put down, she says that none has so far been killed and no jobs have been lost.

"All the hunts have far more people going out with them. A lot more women are going out, more young people. People are getting fed up being told how to run their lives."

Miss Hoey adds: "In the longer term will have to be repealed, not just because people who hunt want it to be repealed but because the police say it is not working."

A Cabinet minister admitted privately that the ban had been "a complete waste of time". He said: "It was the Labour Party talking to itself rather than doing what the voters wanted."

There have been no prosecutions by the Crown Prosecution Service since the ban took effect a year ago tomorrow. A private prosecution brought by the League Against Cruel Sports will be heard next month.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.

Gee, this comes as SUCH a shock. :yh_eyerol

:yh_rotfl BabyRider wrote: Gee, this comes as SUCH a shock. :yh_eyerol


:yh_rotfl

The name, Miss Hoey, speaks volumes........................

*save the foxes!*

chonsigirl wrote: The name, Miss Hoey, speaks volumes........................



*save the foxes!*


I have mixed feelings about hunting.

Firstly, it is a vital skill. Up until the law was passed last year, gamekeepers were responsible for maintaining a level of game on land that proved to be an effective balance. Much of the endearing English countryside is the result of this sport.

On the other hand, I have grown up with an inherent revulsion for the attitude of those that participate in the sport. In the past, these people would ride through people's homes (literally, through the front door and out the back door) in pursuit of their prey. The prey, absolutely terrified out of it's mind, if it didn't die of a heart attack, would be savaged by the hounds untill the huntsmen (huntspeople? to be politically correct) arrived and they killed the damned thing.

I believe in the right to hunt for food, but not so much for sport unless it's humanely done, and the baggings are actually used for food. Now, however, we have a scenario where every Tom, Dick, and Harry is taking part without any knowledge of the protocols.

It seems that our Government, rather than creating a civilized nation (which I am sure is their intent (backbenchers and Prescott aside)), are turning England into a nation of lions and deer.

mrsK wrote: Hi Openmind

We have plenty of foxes & feral animals on our property. I hate to see any animal killed but in this case it has to be done to save the lambs.

Instead of shooting the things we have to put out baits & poison them.

I think the shooting would be a much better & quicker option.

We will not allow anyone on our property who think they are going to go hunting with dogs.I think that is so cruel & the dogs also kill the lambs.


The hunt is a game, but you have a need to defend your 'boundaries'. Foxes, and the like, have always been considered as vermin, and rightly so, even domestic cats are in danger of being killed by them.

Yours is a different need altogether. While I have an affinity with all animals, I still go by the creed that if it's between the rottweiller and me, the rottweiller gets it.

However, I believe in killing as humanely as possible. A quick bullet sounds righteous, but not many people have that good an aim. I personally prefer to use my hands wherever possible so as to put the creature out of its misery.

In your case, you are probably too busy for that, so traps are the next best thing. So long as you check them regularly, which you need to do, just to clear the prey, and to make sure that they are working efficiently.

And I'm a vegetarian!:wah:

Just a little warm hearted hunting related story here. I abhor hunting. Exception to my disgust is in the case of anyone doing it because they must to survive.

Anyway, when I moved to the country ten years ago... my son Brian was 10. He came in the cabin one day, took me aside, and whispered.."Mom, I followed a red fox into the woods. I found her nest with five babies in it. I am not telling anyone where it is. I dont want the hunters to kill them. I was awash in love for him at that moment. His heart was everything I dreamt it would be. The coon hunters in our area, would have trapped, and killed them, to sell the pelts.