Ginni Beard photo
As 2010 closes, two pieces of good news should bring cheer to all supporters of hunting. A Hunting Bill in Northern Ireland has been rejected, and a case against the Sinnington Foxhounds in Yorkshire has failed.
Northern Ireland
Yesterday evening the Northern Ireland Assembly rejected a Hunting Bill that was introduced into the Assembly by Green Party Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Brian Wilson. This Private Member’s Bill was virtually identical to the Hunting Act of 2004 in England and Wales, so its rejection by the Assembly sends a strong and clear message to Westminster: the Hunting Act is a bad law, and we in Northern Ireland do not wish to repeat the mistake.
Robust debate by MLAs in the chamber emphasised this point, with DUP Newry and Armagh MLA William Irwin branding the bill a “waste of assembly time and resources. The Green Party is out of touch with rural Northern Ireland. As a rural dweller and farmer myself I oppose this bill. I reject this bill and hope it ends up in a paper recycling centre which would be in line with Green Party policy.”
Also opposing the Bill, Ulster Unionist South Down MLA John McCallister said, “I am concerned that this bill is the thin edge of the wedge for our rural way of life. First this bill, then shooting, then fishing. You do not want to go down that road. Why would you tie up police resources when you have many other issues to deal with? It criminalises some of our most law-abiding citizens.”
Hear, hear!
The Sinnington Foxhounds
Also this week, the first Hunting Act prosecution involving a hunt in Yorkshire failed. The case against three members of the Sinnington Foxhounds was heard in Scarborough Magistrates Court last week, with the judgment being given on Monday 13th December. District Judge Simon Hickey ruled that whipper-in Caroline Scott had “no case to answer” after the prosecution presented its case. He then returned not guilty verdicts on the other two defendants, huntsman Tony Winter and hunt supporter Wilf Gamble.
We are very pleased for Tony, Caroline, Wilf and all supporters of the Sinnington Hunt. But there have to be questions surrounding why this case ever got to court. The case has taken up police and CPS time and three days in a Magistrates Court at taxpayers’ expense, all over a video of a fox that was not being hunted. The sort of expensive, resource-sapping mess, in fact, that the Northern Ireland Assembly has wisely prevented.
This news should give us all hope and cheer, but we cannot be complacent. A case against the Fernie Hunt in Leicestershire is ongoing and the Hunting Act’s confused and contradictory demands remain a threat to all hunts operating in England and Wales. Repeal of the Hunting Act is still our goal and the case for it has never been clearer.
January 4, 2011