Results 1-20 of 84 for hunting speaker:Mr Adrian Flook

Hunting Bill: Clause 1 — Hunting wild mammals with dogs (16 Nov 2004)

Mr Adrian Flook: One of the concerns about a ban on stag hunting is that it would decimate the red deer herd on Exmoor. Members who intend to vote to ban stag hunting do not appear to appreciate that.

Orders of the Day — Hunting Bill (15 Sep 2004)

Mr Adrian Flook: ...in Iraq by serving with 40 Commando? This gentleman has served our country valiantly trying to safeguard liberty, but when he returns he will discover that he is unable to participate in the hunting that he has pursued all his life. Does the hon. Gentleman think that fair?

Hunting Bill (Procedure) (15 Sep 2004)

Mr Adrian Flook: As the Minister knows, I have raised the issue of West Somerset, particularly Exmoor, many times. In that part of the country, hunting is not only a way of life but an integral part of the way in which the economy works. The economic impact of a direct ban would be at least £5 million and the employment impact would be 420 jobs. The indirect impact would be a further 600 jobs. That comes...

Hunting Bill: New Clause 1 — Compensation (9 Jul 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: As the Minister knows, I speak for many in the Exmoor communities who are gravely worried about what a ban on deer hunting would do to the numbers of deer on Exmoor and the knock-on effects that that will probably have on tourism. We have discussed the possibility of a deer management scheme, but if there is no compensation what financial help will be provided to alleviate the problems caused...

Hunting Bill: New Clause 13 — Registered Hunting: Absolute Bans: Deer, Hares, Foxes and Terrierwork (30 Jun 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: ...in mind her great history of having a different view on the issue from me, does she not believe that Parliament also includes the other place? What does she think it might say if the Bill bans hunting outright?

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: [Part II] (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way in such a gracious manner. Perhaps she is missing the quantum; if there is no hunting with hounds of deer, which are currently maintained by the hounds, many more will be shot, because the local community—500 to 600 compliant landowners—will no longer seek to protect them for hunting. The deer will be susceptible to being stalked and...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: ...He says that deer are physically capable of travelling many more miles at a trot, but that that is of no avail, because they are not fast enough to evade hounds. He adds that the average speed of a hunt is a fast human walking pace. The impression given by the hon. Member for Worcester is not the reality. Paula Radcliffe recently completed a marathon—over twice the distance of an...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: There used to be buck hounds in the New Forest, but no longer because the Forestry Commission banned hunting. The hunt was disbanded and stalking now takes place. The hon. Gentleman is arguing that the same could happen on Exmoor, but that is not the case because the Forestry Commission owns large parts of the land on which buck hounds relied in the New Forest. That is not the case on Exmoor...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: ...their surgeries in cities, because the amount of money that we spend on our domestic pets is of great importance. Does the hon. Gentleman agree, therefore, that the 400 or 500 vets in Vets for Hunting are rural vets? Does he know what percentage of rural vets they represent?

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: I am making exactly that point. There are people in my constituency, even on Exmoor, who do not like any form of hunting with hounds. I appreciate that and respect their opinion. The very fact that I mention it shows that I represent their opinion as much as that of those who go stag hunting. However, a huge majority of people on Exmoor support the idea that hunting with hounds is the way to...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: ...imagination, because the vast majority of people in my constituency are more worried about hospital waiting lists and the fact that policing is skewed towards Bristol, although we all pay for it. Hunting is not the be-all and end-all, but for people for whom it is the be-all and end-all, we should be tolerant and allow them to continue to hunt as they wish.

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: Far be it from me to argue that, although the vast majority of letters in my postbag are in favour of hunting. However, I accept that the hon. Lady's postbag is the opposite. I know that my predecessor, Mrs. Ballard, now of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, claimed that, when she was well known as a Member of Parliament with anti-hunting views, her postbag was...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: .... Gentleman has been too keen to look at the Burns report instead of listening to what I say. According to Professor Bateson, on whom the Minister has based all his incontrovertible evidence that hunting deer with hounds is cruel, the animal suffers from fatigue in the last 15 minutes of its life. Prior to that, it has not suffered from fatigue. Does that help the hon. Gentleman, who was...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: The point must be that, when deer have escaped, they have been observed to be undamaged and have returned to normal life. Vets for Hunting, a group of 400 rural vets, says: ''there is no scientific evidence, and this includes clinical observation, that deer . . . that escape hounds suffer irreversible physiological or pathological damage as a result of being chased''. That evidence is more...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: ...on instinct without sending it to the registrar. Before we instinctively ban something without sending it to the registrar and subjecting it to tests of cruelty or utility, we should include deer hunting with foxhunting and other forms of hunting, so that the registrar can examine it more closely. The cruelty element does not exist in hunting to the extent that the Minister believes,...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: I do not have the Burns report in front of me, as the hon. Gentleman does. Once again, he obviously does not know my part of the world well at all. We are talking about three countries that are hunted by the Tiverton stag hounds, the Devon and Somerset stag hounds, which hunt Exmoor, and the Quantock stag hounds. According to what the Minister said just a few moments ago, there are 4,000 deer...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: ...the Bill at all. I am sure that my hon. Friend also takes that view from a certain standpoint. Time is getting on and I want to make some progress. The letter from the four vets acknowledged that hunting has already been banned on parts of Exmoor and that the hunt can therefore neither monitor nor manage the deer. We can already see that the proportion of males to females has been...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: I hold no brief for stalking in Scotland. I am led to believe that there are many more hinds than stags with large antlers in Scotland. We are talking about hunting with hounds, and I am no expert on stalking in Scotland, because it is a long way from Somerset. Is the hon. Gentleman happy with that?

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: ...human brains. Animal fear, he says, is not equivalent to human fear. That point is largely intuitive but, anthropomorphically, people will take a view and say, ''Of course deer are suffering.'' A hunting animal is instinctively programmed to run. It cannot appreciate that it has been targeted or that its life is threatened. It has not seen television and does not know that if someone is...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 6 - Deer (11 Feb 2003)

Mr Adrian Flook: ...on the physiology of exercise—and Douglas Wise hardly backs up the word ''incontrovertible'' that the Minister has been relying on so much during the five weeks that we have been discussing hunting in this Committee and before that when he mentioned it in the House. Indeed, Professor Bateson—an animal behaviourist and not a physiologist—claimed that the strongest...