Action Alert: British hunters need help now!

For Immediate Release
July 24, 2003
For more information contact patti@naiatrust.org

Hunt ban gains momentum in Parliament

In an ironic reversal of history, the British Parliament appears ready to surrender its birthright as the architect of modern democracy and defender of human rights. Once champions of liberty, English lawmakers are now poised to quash the traditions of the British rural minority at the behest of its urban majority. The clash is over cultural values, not national security, national defense, public safety, or public health.

The battle lines are drawn over the right to hunt foxes and other quarry with hounds, a pastime that brings economic, social, and cultural benefits to rural areas and helps remove livestock predators. If the hunts are banned as demanded by animal rights activists and the House of Commons, thousands of hounds will be euthanized, hunt clubs and stables will close, farriers and veterinarians will lose business, farmers will be robbed of a quick-kill method of dispatching foxes that raid their flocks, and rural conservation efforts may be stalled. Kept in check for more than 100 years, foxes may become more of a nuisance in suburban areas and more of a threat to pets and wild prey.

The ban
On June 30, the House of Commons voted to ban all hunting with hounds in England and Wales in spite of a compromise bill offered by the British Government. The House then affirmed that vote on July 9, sending the ban bill to the House of Lords. The Lords will consider the bill as early as September.The House of Lords has consistently taken a pro-hunting view. However, if they vote against the ban, the House of Commons may invoke a little-known and rarely-used provision that allows them to override the Lords decision. If the ban becomes law, promoters will turn their efforts to other forms of hunting in Britain and will be emboldened to do the same in the US.The Countryside Alliance has asked for the help of sportsmen all over the world to support the hundreds of thousands of British citizens who will be affected by this ban. They make the following points and ask for letters to the British civil servants listed below.

· A ban represents an attack on an entire culture, rural economies and way of life with no scientific basis to support a ban.

· Hunting with hounds is a lawful, traditional, leisure pursuit practiced for hundreds of years; it contributes millions to the economy and affirms peoples connection to land and should not be criminalized in a campaign motivated by prejudice and sustained by misinformation.

· Hunting is the most humane and natural method of management; more than 500 vets say a ban would be detrimental to animal welfare.

· Animal rights groups have capitalized on the urban public's ignorance of nature, wildlife and domestic animals. Their outlandish claims have been proven to be false. They capitalize on the public's emotional response to issues they don't understand. The definition of cruelty is relative depending on one's environment, upbringing, education, and economic status.

· More foxes have died painfully slow deaths since hunting with hounds was banned in Scotland. Hounds kill foxes in seconds; none are injured and get away.

· More pressing problems face British rural communities such as limited provision of public transport, schools, policing, health facilities and the state of the rural economy.

· A recently published study conducted by the University of Kent has shown that hunting makes an important contribution to the UK's rural habitats and species conservation.

· Organizations such as the League Against Cruel Sports and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have all expressed their opposition to fishing and/or shooting. Most have stated that their campaign to ban these sports would begin should hunting be banned. They won't stop with banning hunting with hounds. All hunting, fishing and sports involving animals are targeted. The acknowledged philosophical bottom line for many animal rights groups is to achieve a petless/meatless society.

· Following the EU's ban of burying fallen stock on farms, 78 percent of disposal methods in the UK are provided by hunt kennels. If hunting is banned, the number of legal disposal outlets will be severely reduced.

· The issue is more than hunting, it is the preservation of the democratic process.

Send letters to:

The Rt. Hon. Jack Straw, M.P., Foreign Secretary, King Charles Street, London, SW1A 2AH;British Embassy in Washington:

Sir David Manning, KCMG, 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC 20008

Lord Renwick, House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW (ex Ambassador in Washington; Labour peer)