Fresh appeal to ‘scrap ban’ by joint master of Northamptonshire hunt
A JOINT master of The Grafton Hunt used the biggest date in its calendar to issue a fresh call for the controversial hunting ban to be scrapped.
Colin Richmond-Watson led the call for the 2004 Hunting Act to be repealed before the Paulerspury-based hunt set off from Easton Neston, near Towcester, on its Boxing Day meet.
About 100 riders took part in the annual Stirrup Cup, which has been unable to take place the last two years due to snow and ice.
Thousands of spectators turned out to support the hunt, proving the ban has not had an effect on its popularity with supporters.
Mr Richmond-Watson said of the ban: “I think it’s an unjust, prejudiced, ineffective, unenforceable law that needs repealing but the reality is the country has other priorities, quite rightly so, and therefore it’s unlikely to be repealed in the near future, but we still think it right it should be repealed.”
The hunt set off at 11.30am to follow trails that had been laid around Wappenham.
Hunt secretary Philippa White said: “We certainly had an extremely good crowd.
“It was a very good day. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.”
About 250,000 people turned out to 300 Boxing Day meets across the country, seven years after the ban on hunting live foxes came into force.
The Countryside Alliance welcomed a recent statement from the Rt Hon Jim Paice, MP for South East Cambridgeshire and minister of state for agriculture and food, who said: “The current law simply doesn’t work. I personally am in favour of hunting with dogs and the Coalition Agreement clearly states that we will have a free vote on whether to repeal the Act when there is time in the Parliamentary calendar to do so.”
Countryside Alliance chief executive, Alice Barnard, described the Hunting Act as “expensive and failed”.
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There are 8 comments to this article
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lady muck
Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 05:44 PMCommon Sense...you imply that our population is split into townies and country folk and that each takes opposite views on hunting. In fact, many farmers are actually opposed to hunting and many townies support hunting.
willi eckaslyke
Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 01:23 PMIf the psuedo toffs want to see & smell warm blood in an attempt to give their life some meaning, then it should be possibe to 'tow' a (strong) bagfull of the stuff around for the hounds to chase and rip up...Hold on though; there would then be a row about where the warm blood came from.
Common sense
Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 07:34 AMCountry people play country games-simple. townfolk should not tell countryfolk what to do and vice a versa.live and let live. wild animals are just that-wild
Removed by moderator
Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 04:12 AMThere are no Bears in this country. Should foxes be banned from eating rabbits? If not why not?
choochooytrain
Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 04:08 AMIf pulling a poor fox or stag to bits is their form of recreation and fun then I feel sorry for them,letting their children join in this cruel treatment of animals shows them to have little regard for how they bring their children up to treat animals. Lucky that most people in this country do not behave like savages out for their jollies,this is why this law will stay in place and remain in place as this is what the people in this country want! I see no reason why the practice of using the dogs to chase a smell on a peice of rag cannot continue as it lets the horses exercise and also the dogs to the same,all this about the dogs would have to be put down if hunting was banned was a load of rubbish ,it just shows how low these people would sink to blackmail people to get want they wanted,and their total disregard for any animal .
Common sense
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 08:56 PMWhat say MP for Towcester --MP Leadsom??
lady muck
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 06:21 PMThe ban will never be repealed. We are as likely to see bear-baiting re-established as fox-hunting.
The Old Geezer
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 04:43 PM“It was a very good day. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves." And you didn't have to rip a fox to bits to have a good time. I have no problems with foxes being culled to keep the population down but surely in an enlightened society blood sports have no place.
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