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:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

see also this article in today's Guardian:
 http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1538882,00.html