Hundreds of pro-hunting campaigners staged a noisy sit-down protest in London's Parliament Square yesterday as the British government confirmed plans to introduce a Bill allowing MPs a free vote on the future of hunting with dogs in England and Wales.
As the demonstrators handed in a 400,000-name petition to the House of Commons urging the government to preserve hunting, the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, told MPs the Bill would contain a range of choices, expected to include a total ban, a partial ban or no ban on hunting with dogs.
Animal welfare campaigners welcomed the decision. The RSPCA said hunting "boils down to an issue of cruelty, that is nonnegotiable. We are either a civilised society that will have nothing to do with cruelty or we are not".
The widely trailed announcement followed the publication of a report into hunting by the independent Committee of Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs, chaired by the former civil servant, Lord Burns.
The report indicated that current practices used to hunt foxes were cruel, upholding the concerns of animal welfare campaigners when it said hunting with dogs "seriously compromises the welfare of the fox".
It suggested that shooting, instead of hunting with dogs, could be a more humane method of killing foxes. "The evidence which we have seen suggests that in the case of the killing of a fox by hounds above ground, the death is not always effected by a single bite to the neck or shoulders," the report said. "In a proportion of cases it results from massive injuries to the chest and vital organs."
A debate on the Burns report is expected before the July recess and Mr Straw indicated that the Bill is likely to be introduced in the next session of Parliament, probably in the autumn. The Bill is a government one, which means Labour can resort to using the Parliament Act to force the legislation through the Lords even if a majority of peers vote against it.
The Conservatives criticised the announcement as a ploy to distract voters from recent political difficulties and key issues such as the health service. The Conservative home affairs spokesman, Mr David Lidington, who replied to Mr Straw instead of the shadow home secretary, Ms Ann Widdecombe, who is anti-hunting, said: "The fact remains that for the Government to bring forward a Bill on hunting is a distraction from the issues that really matter to the people whom we represent."
However, Mr Straw rejected Tory accusations that the Bill was a PR exercise and would not be passed before the next general election, insisting it could be law within six months "which even on the most fevered of speculation about when a general election takes place could ensure that this Bill becomes law".
www.huntinquiry.gov.uk and www.homeoffice.gov.uk
PA adds: Almost two thirds of the British electorate believes that the government should ban fox hunting before the next general election, according to an opinion poll released yesterday. In all, 62 per cent of adults polled for Channel 4's Powerhouse programme said they would welcome a ban, against 29 per cent who said they would oppose it.