COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE

Sara Rutherford, Countryside Alliance regional director for the Midlands, wrote about the Hunting Act for the Gloucestershire Echo in early October. Sara wrote: As the new season approaches I would remind readers of a comment the Prime Minister made earlier this year: "Everyone knows the Hunting Act isn't working." Mr Cameron joins politicians from all parties, the media, the police, judges, vets and senior civil servants in holding this view. Hunts continue to operate within the law as best they can but have been placed in an intolerable position. The law is confusing, hard to interpret and has made wildlife management a far harder task than it has ever has been.The hunting community was never going to merely pack up and stop, so adapting to life under the Hunting Act has been a short term and difficult strategy.However, hunt staff are also living with continual harassment from animal rights activists and are under threat of prosecution every time they leave kennels with hounds. Repeal of the Hunting Act is needed so that they can continue to carry out their jobs.The Government is committed to "holding a free vote on a motion on the Hunting Act". However, we all understand that hunting cannot be a top political priority. So repeal, while explicitly on the agenda, is not imminent. Some people question whether the pursuit of repeal is necessary. With a law so flawed and unworkable, they argue, why risk a vote?Simple: if we want hunting to prosper long term, we must have repeal.Ninety seven per cent of Hunting Act convictions since the Act came into force in 2005 relate to poaching or other casual hunting activities, including at least seven people who have been convicted of hunting rats. In Gloucestershire the conviction figure is zero.The Hunting Act is being used by the police to tackle poaching, lending a veneer of success-through-numbers to an Act that is now almost unanimously regarded as a dismal failure. Poaching was illegal before the Act and would continue to be illegal without it.The Countryside Alliance and the hunting community have worked hard and have proved the case against the Hunting Act, but we must hold our nerve and work hard for repeal of the Act to secure a long term future.

The original piece appeared online, with opposing argument.