[Part II]
Hunting Bill
7:30 pm
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire, Conservative)
Quite right, Mr. Stevenson. I agree with you entirely. [Interruption.] The Minister is now sniggering from a sedentary position, but it was he who raised the matter; I merely answered his point.
A further point on amendment No. 296, which we have not covered sufficiently, concerns falconry. The Minister dismissed it rather airily, but it is worth thinking about further. Falconers use dogs to seek quarry such as grouse, hares, pheasants and rabbits and flush them from cover. The training of young dogs often occurs without a hawk so that the falconer can concentrate on the dogs. For example, two mature cocker spaniels will be run with a third, immature cocker to encourage energy and enthusiasm and to demonstrate how to flush quarry from cover and obey
the falconer's commands. Three or more dogs will often be—[Interruption.] My hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Worcestershire (Mr. Luff) has now said six or eight times from a sedentary position that I have said that already. I have often been told that the truer something is, the more it is worth repeating.