News Week UK

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Note: This article starts off with references to

militant actions activists have taken against hunters.

 

Unfortunately, this does not tell the whole story. It

does not mention that this escalated after a hunter

ran his car into, and killed, an animal rights

activist in the UK.

 

It does not mention that the same thing happened

again, but this time to a 15 year old animal rights

activist.

 

It does not mention that anti hunt protesters have

regularly been attacked with steel pipes and chains by

thugs hired by hunts to keep non violent activists

from laying false scents to lure the dogs away from

the fox that is to be torn apart.

 

This article also talks about the " liberty " involved

with fox hunting. The funny thing is that the

cockfighters use the same argument.

 

Freedom should never be construed to mean that one has

the right to cause unnecessary suffering to an animal,

simply because one enjoys it.

------

(Newsweek takes letters at letters )

 

Story at:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/516104.asp

 

NEWSWEEK

January 22, 2001, Atlantic Edition

EUROPE; Britain; Pg. 39

Gunning for the Hunt

By William Underhill

 

With a vote looming, a culture war gets political

 

Fox hunting is a dangerous pastime--and not just for

the foxes. Ask Mark

Sprake. Over the last five years his outings with the

Surrey Union hunt have

twice ended in the hospital. But don't blame the high

hedgerows or ditches of

the English countryside just south of London's

suburban sprawl. Sprake's

injuries--including a life-threatening ruptured

kidney--followed attacks by

anti-hunt protesters who side with the prey against

its pursuers. " They talk

about [our] cruelty but there is a ferocity and a

viciousness there, " says

Sprake, referring to the protesters. Neighboring hunts

have suffered worse.

Last week the cars of a retired doctor with family

links to hunting were

firebombed by the extreme Animal Liberation Front in

Surrey. And in Kent,

activists abducted and " liberated " a pack of 47

hunting beagles from their

kennels. Says Sprake: " The general public just don't

understand what we do or

why we do it. "

 

If so, it's a misunderstanding that may cost the sport

its future. Violent

protesters are rare, but most polls suggest a majority

of Brits favors a ban.

That's not new. For more than 50 years legislators,

the media and the

animal-welfare lobby have bickered over the morality

of hunting. But this

time the Labour government, scenting a popular cause,

has chosen to act. With

an election looming, its found time for a bill that

might end all hunting

with dogs in England and Wales. Observers expect

abolitionists will carry the

day when M.P.s vote this week, despite some fierce

opposition from

Conservatives. It's about time, says Douglas Batchelor

of the League Against

Cruel Sports. " The logic is clear. Parliament will

simply be extending the

same protection to hunted animals as it already does

to farm and domestic

animals. "

 

The hunts won't go quietly. To advocates, the sport

represents British

tradition. The sound of the hunting horn is as much a

part of rustic life as

the peal of bells from a steepled village church.

Across the country, this

season's traditional Boxing Day meets attracted more

than 300,000 supporters,

mounted or on foot. " For most of us, hunting and the

countryside are very

precious, " says Simon Hart of the Countryside

Alliance, a lobby group that's

emerged to fight the latest threat to hunting. " They

are trying to make a

criminal offense out of something that people believe

in as passionately as

religion. " Maybe, say the antis, but why kill foxes?

The hounds might just as

well follow a man-laid scent without a live quarry.

" They could keep all the

pageantry and tradition, " says Lisa Dewhurst of the

Royal Society for the

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. " It just wouldn't

involve the grisly kill. "

 

But the alliance rests its case on more than

sentiment. Their view is that

the fox is a chicken-slaying predator that must be

killed anyway. Hunting is

just one more way of culling vermin. The sport's

champions say the real

reason for their persecution is Labour's desire to buy

votes by bashing an

old stereotype. In the public mind, the red-coated

horseman is often

emblematic of the Conservative Party and its gentried

elite. " This is a good

old-fashioned piece of class warfare, " says

Conservative M.P. James Gray.

" Blair wants something to throw to the left wing so he

can say 'we are still

socialists'. "

 

The voices of the hunting folks from beyond the

suburbs can't be easily

ignored. The alliance is calling a mass rally in

London in March, ahead of

the expected May election. A similar march three years

ago attracted more

than 300,000 people. This time there's talk of half a

million, united under

the slogan " Liberty and Livelihood. " The crunch issue

is hunting, but

organizers can count on a wider set of grievances to

boost the turnout. They

say the big thinkers behind Tony Blair's New Labour

are " townies " with little

sympathy for the countryside. As a result, they've

been slow to help rural

communities battered by the effects of mad-cow

disease, collapsing world

prices for farm products, a strong pound and vile

weather. Farm incomes have

dropped by 75 percent since 1995, according to the

National Union of Farmers,

which last week urged members to turn out for the

rally.

 

The government appears rattled and divided. Blair

looks set to vote for a

ban; Home Secretary Jack Straw has announced that he

favors a compromise

solution that would merely demand tighter regulation.

And this week's vote

may not quite decide the issue. Even after it's passed

by the House of

Commons, the bill will still need the support of the

House of Lords, which

will likely use its powers to stall its progress.

" I'll believe in a ban when

I see it, " says Robin Webb of the Animal Liberation

Front. For good measure,

there's talk of a legal challenge by the Countryside

Alliance. And as every

countryman knows, the hunted beast is at his meanest

when cornered.

 

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Hallowed tradition or brutal play? A

party sets off with the

hounds; the prey (inset)

 

 

 

 

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