Schedule 3 - Hunting with Dogs: Prohibition
Hunting Bill
3:15 pm
Mr John Maples (Stratford-on-Avon, Conservative)
I was led astray by the intervention.
The amendment would remove paragraph 3 from the Bill. We must try to explain why the paragraph is unworkable and ask why it is in the Bill, because it does not seem necessary to the primary purpose of the Bill. I am trying—it may be a vain attempt—to persuade some right hon. and hon. Members opposite to ask themselves why paragraph 3 is in the Bill and to vote for the amendment.
The Government did not come up with the provision. Deadline 2000 came up with it, as the Minister said repeatedly last week. Deadline 2000 turns out to be an umbrella group for the RSPCA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the League Against Cruel Sports, all of which have lobbied long and hard against foxhunting, but not, as far as I know, against dogs in the garden going off and chasing a rabbit. Why is the scope of the Bill being widened so much? The provision before us, and several other provisions, seem to be in the Bill to make an anti-foxhunting measure look like an animal welfare measure.