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Hunt
Bill tests ‘could be extended’ - Fishing and
farming would fail ‘utility’ test claims leading vet
FISHING
AND shooting, as well as commercial farming to produce meat,
poultry, fish or eggs would have to be banned if the tests enshrined
in the Government's Hunting With Dogs Bill were applied to other
activities, a leading vet has told MPs.
In a paper sent to MPs and peers for the second day of the Hunting
Bill's committee stage last week, Dr Douglas Wise, a lecturer
from Cambridge University, criticised the Bill's tests of "utility"
and "least suffering" as likely to create legal precedents
for other activities.
Dr Wise gave evidence to the Burns inquiry into hunting and
as well as to the televised hearings chaired by Alun Michael,
the rural affairs minister, in September.
He said that the Bill's test of "utility" - whether
hunting served a useful purpose - excluded economic, environmental,
social or cultural reasons why hunting might usefully be conducted.
"Were the new definition to be applied generally, farming
to produce meat, poultry, fish or eggs, not to mention fishing
or shooting, would have insufficient utilitarian value to be
justified," he said.
Dr Wise criticised those drafting the Bill for the "misconception"
that hunting could never be justified as a recreational activity
and should only be conducted for purposes of pest control rather
than population management. Dr Wise said: "This approach
is only appropriate if one starts with the presumption that
hunting unquestionably causes more animal suffering than other
activities or, alternatively, is more morally corrupting.
Inconsistent
"The
Government's presumption that it is wrong to take the lives
of wild animals for recreation or entertainment is inconsistent
with its declared commitment not to interfere with other field
sports. It is impossible to legislate where recreation begins
and ends".
An example was used where, it was argued, a gamekeeper controlling
foxes with a terrier would, reasonably, experience pleasure
for a job well done. The ratio of "sport" to "work"
would vary with the seasons.
The Bill as it stands says that hunting should only be allowed
where killing foxes is necessary and hunting is the least
cruel way of achieving this.
Peter Luff, the Tory MP for Mid Worcestershire, said the tests
should operate in a different way, and that hunting should
be allowed if the utility arguments outweighed the cruelty
ones.
"Unless we get these tests right, there will be those
who will take the tests and seek to apply them to other types
of animal and other types of activity," he said.
He said that, as they stood, the tests could be used to ban
angling and racing events such as the Grand National.
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