Clause 8 - Tests for registration: utility and
Hunting Bill
10:30 am
Mr Adrian Flook (Taunton, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman refers to incidental benefits. I am talking about some of the incidental benefits that make up the whole. There is not one killer argument for or against hunting. It is part of a broader theme, part of which is wildlife conservation and management. At a previous sitting I referred to the importance of hedgerows and EC directive 92/42 EEC and planning policy guidance 9. Many hedgerows are kept up by farmers to encourage and allow hunting to continue, which provide a habitat for the nesting of birds and the jumps for hunters. We also referred on Thursday to Dr. David Macdonald of Oxford university, who carried out a survey in 1987 of 800 farmers where foxhunting took place. He found that the destruction of hedgerows was some 35 per cent. less than in areas where hunting did not take place.