Friday, September 17, 2004
Pro-foxhunting demonstration as Bill is rushed through parliament
Two days ago hundreds of pro-foxhunting demonstrators crowded around Westminster as the Bill to ban foxhunting was debated for about the eighth time. This time it was to be rushed through in one day even if the House of Lords tried to stop it. A two year delay in implementing the ban to allow people to reorganise their lives was reduced to eighteen months.
Thousands of people are destined to lose their jobs and their tenancies.
The demonstration got quite rough and police used their batons. Several people were hurt and complaints of police unreasonable behaviour have been served.
Five young men got into the Houses of Parliament disguised as building workers with a forged letter. They were then helped by someone inside to negotiate corridors and burst through a door where the electronic lock was known to be out of order. They got into the Chamber and were eventually arrested.
I confess I went beagling every week for about three years around 1970 which I enjoyed so I sympathise to some extent with foxhunters. It is a sport and the thrill of the chase is a basic human emotion like anger and sex. It is a pity that we are becoming so “civilised” that these basic emotions have to be curtailed.
However, I now believe that foxhunting is cruel to the fox but that the alternative will be worse. There are lots of rough, tough country men who will go out at night with their terriers, nets, snares, guns, gas bottles or poison to kill foxes some of which will be injured and die slowly.
At present these men are controlled to a very great extent by the Hunt management in that they get an outlet for the blood-lust at set times which everyone knows and under the direction of the Hunt. The foxes themselves are chased and killed swiftly. The lead hound will snap the fox’s neck and it will lose consciousness before the following hounds tear it to pieces. That's the theory anyway and it happens in most cases; otherwise the fox escapes unharmed. It will be very different when anyone can go out unsupervised trying to kill a fox.
