Schedule 3 - Hunting with Dogs: Prohibition
Hunting Bill
6:30 pm
Hon. Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex, Conservative)
My right hon. Friend makes a very good point: it is a matter of pure ignorance. How would those in a party that is based in Islington, whose thoughts are entirely of the town, have any clue about what the proposal means to people who live in and manage the countryside? They do not have clue. How otherwise could ferreting be allowed to continue? Has anyone ever seen what a ferret does to a rabbit? It is absolutely appalling. I love ferreting—one stands and watches the rabbit bolt and then one shoots the rabbit. It is a terrific sport, but if the ferret gets hold of the rabbit, the welfare of the rabbit is seriously compromised. Why do the Government do nothing about it? They do nothing because someone will have said, ``Oh God, we can't do that. There are a lot of fellows up in the north country with flat hats, good working-class chaps who love their ferrets and their dogs.'' They are quite right; there are thousands of them. Ferrets are used to help destroy and to keep the countryside free of an agricultural pest—the rabbit.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal was a distinguished Minister of Agriculture. My father was Minister of Agriculture before him. I remember very clearly when my father was Minister of Agriculture in the 1960s that the bounty for rabbits was 6p a tail. People were paid for killing the little sods— [Interruption.]—I am sorry, Mr. O'Hara. I withdraw the word ``sod'' and insert the word ``swine''. Now people no longer get paid for it. However, any farmer with an infestation of rabbits would be pleased to have Harry Soames with a .22 rifle and a good dog for the evening to clear them up. It is absolute madness that the Government do not understand the matter.
I appreciate that the Minister listens, but I want him to do something about it. I want to tell him a story of the countryside, which is very important. I assume that the members of the Committee are interested in the environment and conservation—I know that the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme is truly interested in those issues. If a person has a grouse moor and keeps the ground as free of vermin as possible in order to encourage grouse, thereby providing employment in keepering and ancillary work in places where there is no other employment, and if rabbits are allowed to get out of control in the low ground, they will attract foxes, which can be dealt with quite easily, and stoats, which are harder to deal with. Stoats are attracted by the rabbits, but when they have dealt with the rabbits, they will move on to the grouse. That starts a cycle: inadequate keepering leads to too many rabbits, the rabbits attract stoats and the stoats invade the grouse nests and eat the grouse chicks. I have seen it happen often.
The Game Conservancy—I declare an interest as a trustee of the Game Conservancy, whose work is admired across the UK and is regarded as totally impartial and above reproach—has demonstrated that in such circumstances it is absolutely essential to kill the rabbits in order to keep the stoats away. Tidying up the stoats gives the grouse a reasonable chance, apart from the hen harriers, the peregrine falcons, the golden eagles and the rest. By and large, however, the grouse has a better chance than it would otherwise.
I have described the circle of conservation. While the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme was bringing the Minister up to date on his way back from the Division, I mentioned to him—my right hon. Friend would confirm this were he present—that, to MAFF, the rabbit is a prime enemy. Rabbits do terrible damage to agricultural crops, trees and the general environment. I have seen ground destroyed by rabbits.
From that rabbit story, I exonerate Fudge, the magnificent bunny that is the property of Hattie Hitchcock, the step-daughter of the hon. Member for Nottingham, South. I am sure that Fudge is an admirable rabbit in every way, but he is a house rabbit, a respectable garden rabbit; he is not roaming around eating the Duke of Buccleugh's saplings, or indeed the municipal grass in the borough of Islington. He is in a lovely, caring, warm home in Nottingham, South—the lucky, spoiled beast. I bet he has lovely long ears, a lovely silky coat and is an absolutely charming rabbit, but his country cousin is not the same sort of thing at all. He is an awful rough thing like the hon. Member for West Ham. He has many of those same qualities, which make him an altogether endearing, but very dangerous animal—[Interruption.]