THIS month marked the 10-year anniversary of Labour ending
years of Tory filibustering by banning the barbaric act of hunting foxes with
dogs.
But while the anniversary is worthy of celebration, it still grates on me and everyone else who
found fox hunting so utterly barbaric to know that the practice has not yet
been completely stamped out.
The League Against Cruel Sports revealed this month that there is still, on average, one person per week prosecuted under the Hunting Act’s provisions.
The League Against Cruel Sports revealed this month that there is still, on average, one person per week prosecuted under the Hunting Act’s provisions.
About two thirds of those prosecutions lead to a conviction,
suggesting there is still a hunting fraternity more than willing to flout the
laws that Labour set out a decade ago.
As a long-serving trustee and former Chair of the League,
they are statistics that disappoint me but, unfortunately, do not surprise me.
The pro-hunt lobby has remained active ever since the ban
was introduced, using every trick in the book to try to continue with its
activities under the radar.
I have blogged before on the aggression, threats and even
violence that hunt monitors have been exposed to, as the lobby does not take
kindly to anyone challenging the rights and wrongs of their behaviour.
Organisations such as the Countryside Alliance continue to
show their true colours too; their recent unsuccessful attempt to ban a film
portraying the cruelty of hunting with dogs evidenced their desire to cover-up
the obvious wrongdoing of hunt activities.
The successful prosecution to conviction rate gives us
reason to believe in the action being taken. Every one of those convictions is
a tribute to the original piece of Labour legislation which ended decades of
procrastination from Tories who never really wanted to ban hunting.
And that factor still remains a threat. It is only a year or so since amendments were
proposed by some Tories to try to nullify aspects of the Hunting Act, and it
was only after vociferous campaigning by myself and others that the Prime
Minister backed down before that got any further.
Far from weakening the legislation, we should be
strengthening.
For example, a current provision allows for the killing of
wild mammals to be passed off as an “unfortunate accident” during trail hunts,
but this dangerous loophole needs closing.
Another change which would be appropriate would be to
strengthen the punishments that can be dished out to those who ignore the
Hunting Act, including jail terms.
It has done much to deter the majority, but if the minority
still believe they are above the law then we should give them food for thought.
These are among changes which the League Against Cruel
Sports has proposed to mark the 10-year anniversary, and they are amendments I
would back.
Our society is all the more decent for that change a decade
ago, and that should rightly raise our spirits. But rather than rest on our
laurels we should look to how we can make bloodthirsty activities like fox
hunting all the more reprehensible and all the less acceptable forever.
