My interview on BBC Radio Stoke’s ‘Drive Time with Stuart George’ yesterday re: the South Herefordshire Hunt ‘fox cubs’ case which concluded on Monday …
Not Just ‘Bad Apples’ – The Reality of Fox Hunting
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Well said Jane an excellent interview. Just one thing I’d add regarding the ‘pest’ question is that foxes aren’t regarded as pests under the ‘Pests Act 1954’.
Thanks for pointing that out, Tom – quite right. The whole notion of which species are classified as ‘pests’ and which are not, and by whom, and why, is a very troubling one. In the context of this interview, which was live and where I hadn’t seen the questions in advance, I was a little bit taken aback to be asked a question about foxes being pests, given that we were discussing humans having killed three cubs in the most sadistic way. I think sadly it illustrates further just how far things have gone with the demonization of wild animals.
Great interview Jane, you’re right this certainly highlights the cruelty in the countryside, and the lies the hunts tell to get round the weak Hunt Ban, and why do the Hunt need the terrier men and why do they block badger setts
The ‘pest control’ argument of the hunting lobby has many weaknesses, but was, in any case, inadvertently blown out of the water by Lord Daresbury in 2004. He was then Chairman of the Master of Fox Hounds Association. In his infinite wisdom he decided tio write to all their registered Hunts’ Chairmen. This letter urged them to get ‘their’ farmers to help foxes to breed as they were beginning to run low on foxes to hunt. We only find out about this because Simon Hart, then CEO of the Countryside Alliance, now a Tory MP [though still in receiept of £30k per annum ‘consultant’ fees from the CA] emailed Daresbury, ferociously berating him for being so stupid. And we only found put about that because somebody in the CA offices leaked the email to the Sunday Times. This is an excerpt from the article the Sunday Times published – SUNDAY TIMES 26-9-04 … One of the protesters’ key arguments — that foxes need to be destroyed — has been undermined, however, by the discovery of a letter sent by the Master of Foxhounds Association to masters and hunt chairmen. Complaining about “a shortage of foxes”, it berates landowners who did too little to encourage the animals to breed.
The letter, circulated last March, has come to light following the leak of documents from the Countryside Alliance. It is referred to in an e-mail from Simon Hart, chief executive of the alliance, to Lord Daresbury, the chairman of the foxhounds association. Hart warns the letter would be damaging if it were made public.
“The notice refers in line one to a shortage of foxes,” he wrote. “What for? For several years we have articulated a case for wildlife management. That management should be accounting for every rural interest not just hunting. I am concerned that nowhere in the letter do I see reference to the needs of farmers . . . only the interests of foxhunters. This would play badly in almost every sector outside hunting itself, and within too.”
Hart takes exception to the suggestion that hunt masters ought to put pressure on members to maintain fox populations: “This can only be interpreted by the outside world as suspicious — the artificial enhancement of a ‘pest species’ for purely sporting benefit. We would be ridiculed (if the remarks were published) in parliament and the media.”
The story was run by the Sunday Mirror a week later, including the following quote from Hart – “… the Alliance is here to play it’s part in hunting’s future but we cannot do this if the core arguments are undermined… ”
Not undermined, Simon, sunk.
Incidentally, a couple of years later when Hart was chosen as a Tory PPC for a seat in S.W. Wales, Daresbury made a personal donation of £2k to him, presumably as some kind of apology for Daresbury’s screw-up.
Daresbury had also allowed his country estate to be used as one of the venues for hunt supporters to attend and sign the ‘Hunting Declaration’ a document in which signatories pledged to disobey any future law banning hunting. They claimed it closed [in early 2005] with over 60,000 signatures – which is actually quite a lot more than the number the Burns Inquiry in the early 2000s found engage in hunting regularly or are Hunt members [around 45,000].
Really good to hear this counter to the pathetic ‘few bad apples’ damage-limitation excuse from the cruel hunting fraternity.
Time for this nasty ‘sport’ to be thrown back into the annals of The Dark Ages. There is no place for this barbarism in the supposedly informed modern day.
A very good interview
Well said Jane!
it appears that when the victim of this particular revolting animal abuse is a fox the law never ever offers any deterrent or punishment. it proves as i always knew hunts know where foxes are and could kill them there and then, but they want victims to chase for hours and enjoy seeing the hounds tear apart the fox alive