Schedule 3 - Hunting with Dogs: Prohibition
Hunting Bill
11:15 am
Mr David Lidington (Aylesbury, Conservative)
The Minister's response has been characterised by a readiness to listen to the concerns expressed by various members of the Committee in this debate. However, although I acknowledge that he has given various assurances in good faith, those on this side of the argument are right to be somewhat cautious—particularly in the light of the Parliamentary Secretary's letter—about accepting that those assurances will in practice be reflected in the Bill's wording.
The Minister said that it is not necessary to amend the schedule to make it clear that a person is not obliged to shoot an animal and kill it immediately when to do so would be unsafe. He argued that such a defence would be included in the requirement that the conduct of the person in question must be unreasonable for an offence to have been committed. Under that requirement, the prosecution would have to show that it was unreasonable to argue that it was not safe to shoot, say, the hare or rabbit.
The Minister said that to accept the amendments would go too far towards admitting the principle that it was legitimate for a quarry to be pursued and killed by a dog, rather than dispatched by a gun. However, those on our side of the argument would say that a prime motive in tabling the amendments was our belief that there are circumstances in which it is in the interests of a quick kill—and therefore of animal welfare itself—that the dog be permitted to catch and kill the quarry animal. To wait an indeterminate time could lead to the various uncertainties associated with a hunter's identifying and then killing the quarry animal.
Much of this morning's debate has centred on the impact of the schedule on deer stalking. Many members of the Committee feel that the schedule's phrasing will not deliver the prohibitions in the circumscribed form that both Ministers assured us was the intention of the Committee of the whole House.
I am grateful to the Parliamentary Secretary for responding promptly, courteously and in detail to the points that were raised last Thursday. However, the content of her letter is extraordinary. It is near unbelievable that it has taken until now for the Government to become aware that one consequence of the Bill would be to outlaw deer hunting. One does not have to look far for an explanation of the Deer Act 1991—a layman's summary of it is on page 211 of the Burns report. Clearly, the Act concerns the conditions under which killing deer is unlawful. Therefore, a general prohibition on pursuing and hunting deer with dogs will override the terms and conditions of the Act. As one considers the revelation in the Parliamentary Secretary's letter, one is led to consider other unforeseen consequences of part II of the schedule.
The Parliamentary Secretary referred to wild boar in last Thursday's debate. That was when the thought first struck me that perhaps—although I do not know—in order to control feral wild boar people may need to use dogs to track them down in their woodland habitat. There are wild boar living in Kent, Sussex and Dorset that can endanger both human beings and other species.