Schedule 3 - Hunting with dogs: prohibition
Hunting Bill
12:00 pm
Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)
I am very grateful, Mr. O'Hara. Your natural kindliness, tinged with a desire occasionally to exercise your authority, is respected by Members on both sides of the Committee, not least by me.
The amendment would provide greater flexibility in flushing or stalking mink and deer towards guns. The Bill does not allow the flushing of deer from cover, only that of fox, hare and rabbits. That will restrict methods of culling deer in England and Wales.
Again on the subject of representative organisations, about which Labour hon. Members are understandably sensitive, seeing that those organisations agree with us and not with them, it is important to understand what they say. I shall be sparing in invoking them, because we want to make steady progress, but I cannot miss out the opinion of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation—and the right hon. Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Mr. Michael) would not expect me to do so. That highly representative organisation is deeply versed in the countryside and has great experience of such matters. It should therefore be listened to, if not always with agreement by all members of the Committee, at any rate with the respect that it deserves. What does it say? It says:
``where the deer population—particularly muntjac and fallow—has increased excessively in areas of woodland which are impenetrable to humans, dogs are used steadily to move the deer towards waiting, static guns in order to be shot.''
That makes the BASC's position clear. Typically, as we know, terriers or spaniels are used for the purpose.
What, too, of the opinions of the British Deer Society? In its submission to the Burns inquiry, it noted:
``the use of dogs to flush deer from dense woodland is becoming increasingly common in all areas of the UK...there is certainly'',
it emphasises,
``evidence to suggest that proper and effective control of deer in newly established and replanted forests can never been achieved humanely without using dogs to flush deer and find wounded deer. The consequence'',
it goes on to say—and members of the Committee should heed this salutary advice—
``of ineffective control of deer in our expanding woodlands will be greatly increased damage to the tree crop.''
That ought to be of concern to those on the Government Benches who are—or who pose as—conservationists or environmentalists. I see that the hon. Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice) is nodding at that point—[Interruption.] If he wishes to intervene, I shall be more than happy to give way to him. No—he is reading constituency correspondence. Let him carry on if that is what he prefers.