Clause 8
Hunting Bill
8:55 am
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire, Conservative)
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for allowing me the opportunity to explain the argument to her in simpler terms than those I have used so far this morning. If there is a good reason for applying the
tests to hunting with dogs, we must try to discover whether the tests would produce an end result that none of us wants if they were applied to other human activities. If the tests were applied to fishing, shooting, dog racing, racing horses and most modern farming practices, we would have to conclude that those practices were immoral, cruel or wicked, in which case at some point down the road people would try to ban them. That is why it is important that we should consider the correctness—the rightness or wrongness—of the principles behind issues of utility or cruelty by referring to other activities.