| Here in Merry Olde England, the Hunting Act has | | | | buying our lamb from New Zealand and our |
| now been in force for four years, and on any | | | | chickens from Botswana. |
| view, has been a complete waste of space. | | | | So the draftsmen of this Act inserted a number |
| You will recall that when New Labour swept to | | | | of exemptions to the ban on hunting foxes, which |
| power in 1997, they did so on the back of a large | | | | had all the elements of a Whitehall farce. In short, |
| contingent of New Labour urbanites, who for | | | | you were permitted to stalk and flush out foxes |
| reasons best known to themselves, wanted a | | | | using no more than two dogs, to be shot by a |
| ban on fox hunting. This was motivated in part by | | | | 'competent' marksman. That's the foxes, not the |
| their naïve belief that foxes were the | | | | dogs. This had all the ingredients of high fiasco, |
| creation of Walt Disney, and a barely concealed | | | | and the chances of 'Scrumpy Jack', the so called |
| contempt of big, beery Hooray Henries on big, | | | | 'competent' marksman, dispatching one of our |
| beery horses and County gels with enormous | | | | little furry friends with a single shot were about as |
| fetlocks galloping hell for leather in pursuit of their | | | | remote as Chelsea Football Club retaining the |
| little furry friends. As Oscar Wilde described them: | | | | services of their manager for longer than twelve |
| "The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable." | | | | months. |
| What is less well known is that the Act took 700 | | | | More recently, the High Court has pondered the |
| hours of parliamentary debate spread over seven | | | | wisdom of the Act, and in a thorough and far |
| years before it hit the statute books, and then in | | | | reaching judgment bordering on tedium, has ruled |
| a form that was difficult to understand and even | | | | that once the 'exemption' defence has been |
| more difficult to implement. | | | | raised, it is for the prosecution to disprove it |
| It was the classic 'square peg in round hole' | | | | beyond a reasonable doubt. With successful |
| syndrome, because there was a wealth of | | | | prosecutions already as rare as hen's teeth, I |
| evidence to show that foxes were vermin and | | | | suspect even the most determined prosecuting |
| natural born killers, rather like their human | | | | authorities will call it a day, and ride off into the |
| counterparts, and where most animals will kill to | | | | sunset, where they might find one of our little |
| eat, foxes kill for the sheer hell of it. So if foxes | | | | furry friends making its way home after a good |
| became a protected species, we would all be | | | | day's hunting, if you catch my drift. |