TIME TO JAIL FOXHUNTERS

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.

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.