Enforce the Hunting Ban

[The Woodman]

Here it is.

This might define the business of hunting more clearly and leave those who use dogs in totally legitimate ways to survey mammals alone.

Times 5.2.09
Hunt sabotage
The High Court rules for freedom and common sense
If hard cases make bad law, new Labour's attempts to ban foxhunting have been a spectacular example. The Hunting Act 2004 has proved virtually unenforceable: only five people connected to hunts have been convicted of any offence. The Act has been counterproductive: the Countryside Alliance says that the number of people hunting has actually risen, by 11 per cent, in the past four years. Now it turns out that the very nub of the Act was equally misconceived. The High Court yesterday brought the Government, and hunt saboteurs, to bay.
Sir Anthony May and Mr Justice Maddison yesterday made three crucial rulings: first, that “hunting” a wild mammal under the Act was not the same as “searching for” an animal to stalk it or flush it out; second, that prosecutors must prove that hunting was “intentional” rather than “accidental”, to secure a conviction; and third, that it is for the prosecution to prove that defendants are not covered by exemptions to the ban, rather than for defendants to show they are exempt. This judgment will make it extremely difficult to mount any successful prosecution.
The ruling is a victory for Tony Wright, huntsman of the Exmoor Foxhounds, and the first man to be prosecuted for hunting foxes. It is also a victory for common sense. The 2004 Act came into force after seven years, a virtually unprecedented amount of debate on one issue. New Labour spent seven years talking to Islington about a sport that provided many countryside livelihoods. Ministers have now gone to ground, and are unlikely to break cover. Rightly so. The hunting ban was unnecessary meddling in an issue in which Parliament had no need to intervene.
Hunt sabotage -Times Online

[Deerhunter]

Originally Posted by Blackdogjnr

I was reallt shocked when I saw a huge congregation in a village near to me the other morning.
I kind of wasn't suprised, but to actually drive by and see them all blatantly on a hunt when there is a ban.... I just found it really upsetting and shocking and rude.
-sigh-

Was anyone breaking the law?

[Meta menardi]

The boxing day hunt round here had better support than it has had for some time.

I live in a rural town.

[wild_as_kate]

The hunting ban was rushed in with no real thought so not surprised its not working, from what i hear some of the fox control methods in place now aren't any nicer. I don't think labour really cared about foxes (I really do) they just wanted the votes.

Obviously seeing hunts meeting and running around is not against the law as they are obviously still allowed to drag hunt and I'm not sure how you would see evidence of this to prove against unless you join them, although I'm sure some hunting is still happening. And I'm not sure how you would stop trained hounds from killing a fox they accidentally stumbled across either but I'm not in favour of having a bunch of dogs killed.

[RAINBOWRUSSELL]

We had them running round here a few weeks back!They had not laid a trail or I would have seen them as we are in the middle of a field and the dogs were all around the perimiters of our fence.They had no shot guns actually with them(the landrovers cannot drive all over the place with them eg bridle paths!) or birds of prey(not that they could kill a fox unless it was already half dead!)So I will surmise that if a fox happened along the dogs would have ripped it apart..and as the young are now around they would not stand a chance in hell!!
So much for the laws of the land....

[BillyPilgrim]

Originally Posted by wild_as_kate

The hunting ban was rushed in with no real thought so not surprised its not working, from what i hear some of the fox control methods in place now aren't any nicer. I don't think labour really cared about foxes (I really do) they just wanted the votes.

I know where you're coming from but I'd have to disagree slightly. I think a great deal of thought went into the (then) proposed hunting ban. The main problem was that Blair was against it and instead of a strong, clear law we ended up with an ambiguous, unworkable bit of nonsense.

They had the mandate and the opportunity but, Blair being Blair, he fudged it!

He tried the same thing with the smoking ban but thankfully there was a back bench rebellion which forced his hand and we ended up with a law that makes sense.

[RAINBOWRUSSELL]

The trouble is with the smoking ban is that the Labour idiots that came up with the idea of a complete ban in pubs has now caused a lot of pubs to close,which affects not only them but the beer producers,people like us that entertain in them,food people etcetc ...don't get me wrong ..I have never smoked in my life ,but I really think they didn't realise the knock on affects to the nations economy in general.They just wanted to impress other counties and didn't care about what their own people actually wanted...did we get asked???No!
This government will fail because of that atitude...we should have more say...and I say start enforcing the Hunting ban properly..they are letting people get away with murder!!!!!!

[The Woodman]

I'm not so sure that the smoking ban is the reason many pubs are closing.

The smokers are still going to my local and pop out for a drag in the specially erected "pagoda" timber shed. It's a pleasure having a pint without having to endure a filthy atmosphere and coming home without my clothes stinking of fag smoke and many others think the same.

The landlords appear to be tightening the screws on the tenants - Punch Taverns are having a hard time keeping theirs around here.

I can't answer for town pubs but the country drinking culture has and is changing for many reasons, drinking driving clampdown, social stigma, economics, availability of cheaper alcoholic drinks, etc.

Getting off track again I'm afraid.

[eeyore]

I agree with woodman - the ban on smoking in pubs is one of the few things the govt have done right (and only as a result of a back bench revolt - left to themselves they would have produced a watered down try to please everyone wind up pleasing no one mess like they did with the hunting bill.

pubs going to the wall has very little to do with the smoking ban and far more to do with the credit crunch and recession - a lot of breweries borrowed money to expand their pub base in the early noughties and are now under pressure from the banks to pay it back - this in turn jacks up land lords rent from the breweries just at a time when punters are trying to spend less.

[treecreeper]

Originally Posted by RAINBOWRUSSELL

...and I say start enforcing the Hunting ban properly..they are letting people get away with murder!!!!!!

The fox is not my brother