High Court rejects 2nd bloodsports challenge

Sporty Spikes | 29.07.2005 16:10 | Animal Liberation

The High Court have today rejected the second challenge to the ban on hunting with hounds.

The End

The "Countryside Alliance", a pro-hunting pressure group, have lost their second challenge today in the High Court against the ban on hunting with hounds. The ban stays in place.

Any hunts which want to continue hunting with hounds will now have to risk doing this without insurance, and face the possibility of prosecution, both potentially very expensive. Some hunts will soldier on for a few years, but eventually the whole business will go the way of bear-baiting and cockfighting, just another embarrassing relic of the past.

The League Against Cruel Sports today issued a press release on their website:
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The League Against Cruel Sports today welcomed the ruling by Lord Justice May and Mr Justice Moses on the claims brought by hunters that the Hunting Act breaches the European Convention on Human Rights and the freedom of movement of goods and services within the European Union. The case was rejected on the grounds that the courts felt that the ban was rational, necessary and proportionate.

League Chairman and leading barrister John Cooper said:

"We welcome this recognition that there is no human right to be cruel. The hunting fraternity has consistently challenged the Hunting Act and thrown good money after bad in an attempt to frustrate the will of the people and of the elected House of Commons. The Hunting Act is a popular act, the ban is being enforced and, most importantly, animals are no longer able to abused in the name of this barbaric bloodsport.

"What part of 'no' does the hunting fraternity not understand? This is a resounding defeat for the hunters, who need to move forward and accept the democratic will of Parliament and the majority of the general public, and learn to take no for an answer. Just to make it crystal clear to the hunters: that is 'no' to chasing animals to the point of exhaustion, 'no' to the abuse of our wildlife, and 'no' to cruelty to animals in the name of 'sport'.

"Hunting in Britain is now dead - it is time that its supporters accepted that."
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see also this article in today's Guardian:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1538882,00.html

Sporty Spikes
Homepage: http://www.league.uk.com/

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

We were conned

29.07.2005 17:02

I'm surprised that the Countryside Alliance bothered with this action, the law we all fought so hard for is so weak as to be useless. There is now more hunting than before the ban and all the publicity meant that many hunts have ended up with an increase in numbers.

We must campaign for a true ban not the sham we have now

Julia

Hmm?

29.07.2005 21:23

"There is now more hunting than before the ban and all the publicity meant that many hunts have ended up with an increase in numbers. "

I assume that you just mean in England and Wales? My understanding is that the earlier Scottish legislation was pretty much 100% effective in stopping hunting with hounds.

Boab

help...

30.07.2005 00:27

they will be out killing foxes again, legal or not, ban or not, sooner or later.

might be august. might be november, but sabs will need your help to save lives.

visit www.nels.org.uk

sab
mail e-mail: www.nels.org.uk

Just a second..

30.07.2005 06:49

I've taken a look at the Beeb and apparently there have been no "live" fox hunts in Scotland since the legal ban was introduced in August 2002 - a full three years now. So "they'll be back" isn't really borne out, is it? What are you planning to sabotage?

Bizarely, the number of foxes killed has increased overall, but these have been shot.

Boab

All of the UK

30.07.2005 08:41

I'm surprised you say there is no hunting in Scotland, one of things we were very concerned about was that England and Wales would adopt the Scottish model for the ban (as they did) because it was so weak. Hunting is commonplace in Scotland and like England and Wales has seen an increase in fox kills since the ban came into place.

We were conned over this and we must start a new campaign to bring in a real ban. Take a look at the CAE website, hunts are now better funded than they were before, they have more members, more people are hunting on a more regular basis. We achieved nothing and we were conned.

Julia

The road to a complete ban

30.07.2005 14:16

Julia, have you got any evidence on hunt numbers from sites other than the pro-hunting "Countryside Alliance"? Their data has been criticised by independent groups for poor methodology and in some cases outright twisting of data. This is not surprising really, seeing as they're a pressure group with an agenda. I can find no other data indicating a rise in hunts following the ban, apart from other pro-hunt sites quoting the same dodgy C'side Alliance data.

This was noted in an earlier article here on Indymedia:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/06/293130.html

League Against Cruel Sports (an anti-hunting pressure group) responds to some CA claims in more detail here:

http://www.league.uk.com/cruel_sports/pack_of_lies/jobs_and_participation.htm

More info on effects of hunt ban on fox population from the Mammal Society:

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~nhi775/fox_hunting_report.htm

The govt's Hunting Enquiry website has loads more related data:

http://www.huntinginquiry.gov.uk/mainsections/huntingframe.htm

But I definitely agree with you that campaigning should continue for a complete ban.

Sporty Spikes