Schedule 3 - Hunting with dogs: prohibition
Hunting Bill
12:00 pm
Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)
I stand corrected. I confess that I cannot be certain what he is reading, so I accept your admonition in the spirit in which it was administered, Mr. O'Hara. Suffice it to say that the hon. Gentleman was attempting to read something.
The consequence of ineffective deer control in our woodlands would be greatly increased damage to the tree crop. That should not be a matter of hilarity or of indifference to any member of the Committee. The BDS goes on to say:
``Deer will also maraud''
—it uses that word advisedly—
``onto nearby farmland.''
Conversely, the Bill allows the use of dogs to track injured animals, thereby allowing dogs to be used to locate deer that were not shot dead. Where is the distinction—I put this to the Committee seek its response—in welfare terms, between flushing out a deer towards a gun and tracking one that has been shot? Why is the one considered ethical and the other unethical? That is not clear to me.