02-06-2006, 05:11 PM
Friday, 02 June 2006
As the National Trust accepts that using hounds to deal with sick and injured deer is the most humane option the Western Morning News has produced one of the most powerful leaders yet calling for the Hunting Act to be revisited.
The WMN concludes: "Stripping away all the emotion from the hunting argument is almost impossible. But the hunts have always argued that while chasing fox, deer or hare with a pack of hounds might not be the most efficient way of killing prey species it does offer a form of natural selection which generally means the weaker animals are culled and the stronger survive. For anyone genuinely concerned about animal welfare that might well, in time, turn out to be a compelling argument in favour of bringing back hunting". Read on for the full article.
Reconsidering the hunt ban?
There is a certain irony in the decision of the National Trust to reconsider its ban on hunting with dogs because it believes using hounds to flush deer to be shot might be a more humane way of dealing with sick and injured animals. It was, after all, the NT's original decision to outlaw hunting on its land nearly ten years ago that set the scene for the Government ban which followed in 2004. Now it seems the trust is questioning the wisdom of its own decision on animal welfare grounds. If it were to allow hunting to start again on NT land on Exmoor and the Quantocks it would have to be within the current laws, using no more than two hounds to flush a deer to the gun. But it would strengthen the pro-hunt lobby's argument that the ban was misguided and had little to do with improving the welfare of wild animals.
By putting this issue before a working group the National Trust has pushed the hunting issue back up the rural agenda. And it has highlighted once again the complexities and contradictions, both in its own original decision to ban hunting on NT land and on the Government's bungling and ham-fisted efforts to crack down on a long established and generally effective means of controlling fox and deer in the countryside.
Most of the anti-hunt campaigners who succeeded in first persuading the NT to ban hunting and later to get MPs to vote to make it illegal did so from a genuine belief that the practice was cruel. Unfortunately, however, many of the mostly Labour MPs who voted the Hunting Bill through seemed less interested in the welfare of the hunted animals and more concerned about ending the spectacle of what they wrongly saw as mounted "toffs" engaging in the ritual killing of animals.
The fact that many huntsmen and women do, unashamedly, enjoy the experience of the chase and the kill and that many non-hunting people find that genuinely abhorrent has dogged this argument for decades. What the National Trust has done in re-opening the debate, however, is to concentrate purely on what's best for the animal, in this case the red deer of the Westcountry which have to be culled in order to maintain a healthy herd and preserve the landscape in which the deer live.
If, this time around, the argument can stay focussed on that aspect of the issue, without getting bogged down in the class war or whether it is right to "enjoy" a practice that ends in the death of an animal, we might hopefully arrive at a more sensible conclusion. And if the NT's working party does conclude that it is better to use hounds to hunt down sick or injured animals the pressure on government - whether this one or the next - to reconsider the use of dogs in controlling certain wild species will increase.
Stripping away all the emotion from the hunting argument is almost impossible. But the hunts have always argued that while chasing fox, deer or hare with a pack of hounds might not be the most efficient way of killing prey species it does offer a form of natural selection which generally means the weaker animals are culled and the stronger survive. For anyone genuinely concerned about animal welfare that might well, in time, turn out to be a compelling argument in favour of bringing back hunting.
Western Morning News
.....når bare man har nok penge og krudt.....så går det ikke aldrig helt galt :-)
Favourite Quote: Vi løser ikke vore problemer ved at tænke på samme måde, som da vi skabte dem.....(Albert Einstein)
As the National Trust accepts that using hounds to deal with sick and injured deer is the most humane option the Western Morning News has produced one of the most powerful leaders yet calling for the Hunting Act to be revisited.
The WMN concludes: "Stripping away all the emotion from the hunting argument is almost impossible. But the hunts have always argued that while chasing fox, deer or hare with a pack of hounds might not be the most efficient way of killing prey species it does offer a form of natural selection which generally means the weaker animals are culled and the stronger survive. For anyone genuinely concerned about animal welfare that might well, in time, turn out to be a compelling argument in favour of bringing back hunting". Read on for the full article.
Reconsidering the hunt ban?
There is a certain irony in the decision of the National Trust to reconsider its ban on hunting with dogs because it believes using hounds to flush deer to be shot might be a more humane way of dealing with sick and injured animals. It was, after all, the NT's original decision to outlaw hunting on its land nearly ten years ago that set the scene for the Government ban which followed in 2004. Now it seems the trust is questioning the wisdom of its own decision on animal welfare grounds. If it were to allow hunting to start again on NT land on Exmoor and the Quantocks it would have to be within the current laws, using no more than two hounds to flush a deer to the gun. But it would strengthen the pro-hunt lobby's argument that the ban was misguided and had little to do with improving the welfare of wild animals.
By putting this issue before a working group the National Trust has pushed the hunting issue back up the rural agenda. And it has highlighted once again the complexities and contradictions, both in its own original decision to ban hunting on NT land and on the Government's bungling and ham-fisted efforts to crack down on a long established and generally effective means of controlling fox and deer in the countryside.
Most of the anti-hunt campaigners who succeeded in first persuading the NT to ban hunting and later to get MPs to vote to make it illegal did so from a genuine belief that the practice was cruel. Unfortunately, however, many of the mostly Labour MPs who voted the Hunting Bill through seemed less interested in the welfare of the hunted animals and more concerned about ending the spectacle of what they wrongly saw as mounted "toffs" engaging in the ritual killing of animals.
The fact that many huntsmen and women do, unashamedly, enjoy the experience of the chase and the kill and that many non-hunting people find that genuinely abhorrent has dogged this argument for decades. What the National Trust has done in re-opening the debate, however, is to concentrate purely on what's best for the animal, in this case the red deer of the Westcountry which have to be culled in order to maintain a healthy herd and preserve the landscape in which the deer live.
If, this time around, the argument can stay focussed on that aspect of the issue, without getting bogged down in the class war or whether it is right to "enjoy" a practice that ends in the death of an animal, we might hopefully arrive at a more sensible conclusion. And if the NT's working party does conclude that it is better to use hounds to hunt down sick or injured animals the pressure on government - whether this one or the next - to reconsider the use of dogs in controlling certain wild species will increase.
Stripping away all the emotion from the hunting argument is almost impossible. But the hunts have always argued that while chasing fox, deer or hare with a pack of hounds might not be the most efficient way of killing prey species it does offer a form of natural selection which generally means the weaker animals are culled and the stronger survive. For anyone genuinely concerned about animal welfare that might well, in time, turn out to be a compelling argument in favour of bringing back hunting.
Western Morning News
.....når bare man har nok penge og krudt.....så går det ikke aldrig helt galt :-)
Favourite Quote: Vi løser ikke vore problemer ved at tænke på samme måde, som da vi skabte dem.....(Albert Einstein)
.....ualmindelig velinformeret i forhold til min alder ... :-)
Favourite Quote: En humlebi ved ikke, at den ikke kan flyve......Gå ud på terrassen og vift med armene...hvis du letter må du være uvidende ;-)
Favourite Quote: En humlebi ved ikke, at den ikke kan flyve......Gå ud på terrassen og vift med armene...hvis du letter må du være uvidende ;-)