No more Hunting with Dogs – Part 2

Hunt member with fox killed by dogs

There is a small section of our society, mainly those who are extremely privileged, that think that it is acceptable to have their huge pack of dogs chase a fox until it is exhausted, digging into it’s home, and ripping it apart while it is still alive.

Hunting dogs killing a fox

Fox killed by hunt dogs

Un-democratic

David Cameron, PM, at a Hunting Meet

Our government should be representing the view of the 80% of the population who are against the repeal of the hunting with dogs ban. That is what democracy is about. You are voted in to represent the people, not to represent yourself and your friends.

After the elections, our elite group of ministers returned to power. My MP is the conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg. I have asked to meet with him so that I can raise my concern about this issue. He is pro all things elite as this is his background. He is pro hunt and pro a repeal of the hunting with dogs legislation, previously saying “The law [banning hunting with dogs] is obeyed but its tyrannical aim to prevent people pursuing their pastimes is avoided”.

The Hunt will be happy at the moment as the new Conservative government has said that it will have a free vote on whether to repeal the ban on hunting with dogs, which Tony Blair brought in 10 years ago, virtually all my life. 

The Conservative manifesto promises a vote on whether or not to repeal the ban.

The Countryside Alliance, the main pro-hunting lobby, predicts they will get the 286 votes from conservative MP’s needed to repeal the ban. However, the League Against Cruel Sports think that more MPs will vote to keep the ban.

The Conservative’s former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said, “The hunting ban is bad legislation, bad for animal welfare and bad for the liberty of people in the countryside.”

The repeal was not mentioned in the Queen’s speech as David Cameron was trying to shake his parties’ image as a party for the rich and privileged.

Hunt dogs killing a fox

Is this kind of death reasonable for any animal

What I have witnessed

There is a Hunt that meets at the top of the woods overlooking our house, on the Mendips.

The sight of their coats fills me with anger and fear. They are the elite. Those people who think they are better then the rest of us. That they can intimidate us, that they have the right to treat us as though we are nothing.

There is a footpath through our woods, with a gate across it to show that it is not a bridleway and to discourage people on horses.

Sometimes, I have been in the garden or in our lane with a number of the hunt galloping through, with their unchecked fearsome dogs petrifying me. As they ride past, there is no apology, just a feeling that the countryside belongs to them.

Hunts often trespass, with their dogs out of control, like here

My next door neighbour is an artist. In her naivety, she joined a hunt because she loves horses and thought that it really would just be a drag hunt. She attended once, realised that foxes were still being chased by dogs and was so shocked by what she saw, that she has become a bit of an animal rights activist.

It is no co-incidence that it is very rare to see a fox where I live or and even more so on the Mendips.

This government want to change the law so that hunting animals with dogs is legal again. My message to anyone who opposes them:

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who

That it's namin'.

What can you do?

Don't forget that The Hunting Lobby is powerful, with powerful and well connected aristocratic activists among them. Before hunting with dogs was banned, the Countryside Alliance rustled up 250,000 for two marches against the ban. As a comparison, our Hen Harrier Day last summer had 570. That is what we are up against.

Conservative MP Simon Hart, former Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance has already said that they hope to have 15,000 activists working to reinvigorate grass-roots support for a repeal. We need to mobilise ourselves quickly and ensure the government take heed of the 80% majority in our cities and countryside who oppose this act being repealed. The precedent is not good, with the Badger cull, this same government would not listen to any amount of campaigning and science. It is likely that they will take the same approach to repealing the Hunting with Dogs Act 2014.

Write to your MP using the following website - http://bit.ly/1JERayX

Petition the SNP to vote against the repeal - http://chn.ge/1MjHzfY

About the writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol, UK and blogs about birding and conservation from around the world. Wader conservation is important to her and she is Ambassador to the global wader initiative World Shorebird Day. She is looking forward to Mountain Gorilla trekking this summer in East Africa and to watching penguins in Antarctica in December, her 7th continent. She has recently been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.