Clause 9 - The Registrar
Hunting Bill
9:15 am
Mr Edward Garnier (Harborough, Conservative)
We should all be concerned about the unrestricted use of high-velocity rifles, whether in rural areas deep in the Brecon Beacons or more marginal areas with higher population densities in Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. In any event, I suspect that the population of rural Wales would not welcome a move to restrict the use of firearms to the culling of foxes and the control of pests. I look forward to hearing from the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik), who represents a rural farming area, on that subject.
I shall quote from the Burns report, although I hesitate to do so because Committee members probably know it by heart. It says that
''over a third of the cull of foxes in mid-Wales is the result of terrier work''.
I suspect that an even higher proportion of the cull of foxes for pest control reasons in the Principality is carried out with the use of dogs of one kind or another.