Schedule 3 - Hunting with dogs: prohibition
Hunting Bill
4:00 pm
Mr David Rendel (Newbury, Liberal Democrat)
As my right hon. Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed knows, during the lunchtime break I told him that in some ways I was sympathetic to his suggestion that we should include goats in the paragraph rather than goats and/or other mammals. However, in the light of the debate I have reversed that opinion.
The letter from the Parliamentary Secretary makes it clear that hunting does not necessarily include killing. I accept that. Sometimes a hunt may be unable to track down the animal that it is hunting. However, the actions of the goatherd must necessarily include not killing. It would be odd for a goatherd to go out with a dog to find the goats with the intention of killing them. There is therefore a clear distinction between hunting with a dog, in which there is at least the possibility of a kill, and the work of a goatherd.