The Ban

[ferret23]

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Can someone go in to detail and explain in plain English for a simpleton (me) about what effects the ban will have on everyone. I understand that all hunting with dogs will be banned but I am unsure of when the date is. My friend doesn't think that this information is correct. I think he is confused because all the media focus on is fox hunting. Therefore he only thinks people who go out on the foxhunts will be effected. I am sure that as the Waterloo cup draws near coursing will be brought in to the spotlight.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Hi Ferret,

The ban will come in on the 18th February (my birthday for those wanting to send cards )

it's very difficult to say for sure where Hare Coursing stands as the way it's wrote you can read a lot into it.

Rabbiting is still allowed (and legal) as long as you are doing it for pest control or food (you must not be doing it just for pleasure?)

 

[BeeJay]

I've posted this article elsewhere but since you've asked. It's as clear as mud. The link to the BBC web page is at the bottom if you want to go and read the article there.

>'No-one can define new hunt ban'

The new law banning hunting with dogs is "so poorly drafted" no-one can define the offence, pro-hunt MPs say.

The accusation came after it emerged a Devon man had been told he could use his four dogs to "chase away unwanted animals" from his farm.

Because he did not intend to kill deer or foxes it was not hunting.

Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik said ministers had invented a new category of hunting - chasing away - and asked how police were supposed to interpret the rules.

If Mr Bradshaw is setting his dogs to chase wild animals then he is hunting them

Mike Hobday

League Against Cruel Sports

North Devon landowner Giles Bradshaw was put in touch with the Middle Way Group, of which Mr Opik is a co-chairman, after he had been in contact with the rural affairs ministry, Defra.

He had asked whether his technique of using his four dogs to frighten off deer and foxes would be outlawed under the Hunting Act.

Mr Bradshaw was initially told it was an offence - prompting him to complain.

The Middle Way group also said Mr Bradshaw would be put in a position where he would have to buy a rifle to shoot animals that would have previously gone free.

In a later conversation Mr Bradshaw was told that according to Defra's lawyers chasing away unwanted animals was "not in fact hunting as described in the Hunting Act 2004 therefore you would not be committing an offence".

Disastrous?

Mr Opik said: "Hunting with dogs and flushing are not defined in the Hunting Act.

"Now Defra have also invented a completely new category of hunting - 'chasing away' which isn't even covered by the Act.

"However, all these activities involve the use of dogs to chase wild mammals.

"How is the village bobby who sees a group of people with dogs supposed to distinguish between illegal hunting, exempt hunting, drag hunting, unintentional hunting, a hunt exercising hounds or simply chasing away?"

Tory MP Peter Luff, another co-chairman of Middle Way, said that the legislation was "so poorly drafted nobody appears able to properly define the offence".

'Common sense'

"It is no wonder the government desperately wants to move on from this disastrous law. However, I seriously doubt the countryside will be that accommodating."

Mike Hobday, of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "There is no confusion, it is a matter of simple common sense.

"If Mr Bradshaw is setting his dogs to chase wild animals then he is hunting them and that will be a criminal offence.

"If all the dogs are doing is barking at the deer, then nobody can define that as hunting."

BBC News

Published: 2004/12/10 10:16:59 GMT

 

[Mark Roberts]

Just watched the mid day news as I wrote this, a Scottish Hunts man has just walked clear from the Scottish Courts after being accused of Fox Hunting?, The court accepted he was only useing the hounds to flush not hunt the fox for the waiting guns and so they cleared him of any offence

 

[Mark Roberts]

The Full Story.

HUNT MASTER IS CLEARED

The first huntsman to be prosecuted under Scotland's controversial anti-hunting laws has been found not guilty.

Trevor Adams - joint master of Scotland's largest hunt - used dogs to flush out foxes which were then shot dead before they could be torn apart by the pack.

The court ruled that was allowed under the law.

Mr Adams was charged with deliberately hunting a fox with 20 dogs at Courthill, near Kelso on October 16, 2002.

"I am very relieved by the ruling," he told Sky News after being cleared.

"I am very glad justice has prevailed. I am looking forward to getting on with my job - which is my life.

"It means a great deal for my family - and my hounds. I am looking forward to getting on with a normal life."

The 46-year-old was charged just two months after the Scottish Parliament brought in a ban.

He offered what he called a fox control service.

Jedburgh Sheriff Court heard evidence from an alleged incident in 2002 when police were called by a member of the public.

Mr Adams told police that during a hunt he would have guns ready to shoot the fox as soon as it was flushed out.

The law banning the use of hounds to kill foxes came into force in Scotland in 2003.

However, a loophole allows the use of dogs to flush foxes from cover, provided any killing is done by shooting.

 

[John E Greenwood]

Exemptions from the ban.....

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/l...12.5-9.html#j02

 

[tlewis]

I've
>'No-one can define new hunt ban'

The new law banning hunting with dogs is "so poorly drafted" no-one can define the offence, pro-hunt MPs say.

The accusation came after it emerged a Devon man had been told he could use his four dogs to "chase away unwanted animals" from his farm.

Are you sure Monty Python isn't writing this bill?

Run away! Run away!

 

[Mike from Hereford]

Good piece in Countrymans Weekly, your ok to kill pests ie.Rats and Rabbits with dogs but you need to be covering pest-control options and not coursing.Now don,t ask me if a rabbit that has been bolted by a ferret and then caught by a dog is coursing ??