Schedule 1 - Exempt hunting
Hunting Bill
3:00 pm
Hon. Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex, Conservative)
I will, indeed, Mr. Stevenson. Thank you for flagging that up. I merely wanted to draw the Committee's attention to the NGO's concerns about the amendment.
There is a limit of two dogs if stalking or flushing is to qualify as exempt. That will prevent people from taking out a small pack of dogs to trap and kill foxes, mink and stoats. It will also make the use of dogs in the beating line on shoot days highly dangerous because, if several of them flush and chase a wild mammal, an offence could be committed.
To return to the specifics of the clause, it is frequent practice for a line of guns, beaters and dogs to walk through fields of cover, especially sugar beet, in search of game. It is not unusual, especially in areas where the hare population is high, for dogs to flush and chase a hare, even if their owners or handlers do not wish them to do so. It is a natural instinct of dogs to give chase. Furthermore, we return to the entirely innocuous practice of someone flushing hares with a dog to shoot it for the pot.
The question of grey squirrels also arises. The Minister is a known wildlife expert, so I should be grateful if he would tell me whether he knows the difference between a weasel and a stoat, how dogs are to be prevented from failing to do what they are told and chasing en masse after a weasel or stoat, and whether an offence will have been committed if that happens?