Orders of the Day — Wild Mammals (Hunting with Dogs) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:48 pm on 28 November 1997.

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Photo of Douglas Hogg Douglas Hogg Conservative, Sleaford and North Hykeham 12:48, 28 November 1997

Hon. Members have been asked to be brief, so I shall focus on just two aspects of the Bill. First, the House needs to be clear about the nature of all traditional country sports. The sports of angling, fox hunting, stag hunting, beagling and shooting are all intrinsically the same, and have identical characteristics.

I come to the debate with a degree of personal knowledge. I have shot all my life. I have shot thousands of pheasants, and I beagled. I have participated on many occasions in fishing. I am also a supporter of fox hunting, although I do not ride to hounds. I know that all those activities, without exception, involve a degree of suffering.

I tell hon. Members who try to argue that fishing does not involve suffering that they are wrong. They have only to examine the 1979 and 1994 reports of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals—I can send them copies if they do not have them—to learn that the RSPCA's conclusion is that fish feel pain, and that one cannot draw a sensible distinction in terms of pain between the activities.

If the RSPCA's conclusion is right, there is no intellectually sustainable case for distinguishing between those activities. All of them are right, or none of them is right. I believe that all of them are right.