Comment from John Bryant, Animal Welfare & Wildlife Consultant to POWA "The assertion from the hunting lobby that the Hunting Act should be repealed because it is 'flawed', is a nonsense. The Badgers Act 1973, which was enacted to outlaw the gruesome 'sport' of badger digging with dogs, had to be amended by three further Acts of Parliament over a period of nineteen years before all its loop-holes were plugged. If every law found not to be as effective as legislators intended was scrapped, the result would be a criminals' paradise.
The reason the Hunting Act contains loopholes big enough to drive a pack hounds through, is firstly because of Tony Blair's seven year prevarication over his 1997 manifesto commitment, secondly the refusal to agree to the inclusion of a proper definition of 'hunting with dogs', thirdly the failure to adequately consult those who best knew and understood the hunters and how they were likely to behave in response to the proposed legislation, and finally the House of Lord's abdication of its role of scrutiny and improvement of the Bill because the majority of its members objected to the principle of banning the hunting of wild animals for sport. The Hunting Act now needs strengthening so that it does exactly what it says on the can."
