Countryside Alliance - Grass e-route release
13th February 2002
ALLIANCE SERVES NOTICE OF LEGAL CHALLENGES TO NEW SCOTTISH HUNTING LEGISLATION
The Countryside Alliance today condemned as a "shambles" the attempt by the Scottish Parliament to criminalize hunting in Scotland.
The Chairman of the Countryside Alliance Campaign for Hunting, Sam Butler, said "Tonight's result merely confirms what we already knew - that the bill is a disreputable shambles".
He continued, "It is not clear what the bill does. But what is clear is that the bill is a vindictive and shoddy piece of legislation which needlessly declares war on decent, hard-working people and seeks to put many of them out of work without a penny of compensation".
Mr. Butler said, "This attempted infringement of human freedoms will be challenged in the Scottish courts as incompatible with the European Convention of Human Rights now enshrined in Scottish law". He called on all in the UK who care about civil liberty and tolerance to raise their voices in protest to help safeguard the freedoms of the Scottish people.
Alliance Chief Executive Richard Burge, echoing Mr. Butler's criticisms this evening, said the bill proved the folly of trying to create legislation based on personal moral value judgments. "This bill's sponsors long ago abandoned any pretence that it was about animal welfare", he said. "The bill is now revealed as a blatant attempt to seek to interfere with human thought and behavior. Competent politicians should know better than to try to frame legislation that merely seeks to impose their own personal opinion on the community - and especially on cultural minorities. That is why this bill was destined from the first to be an unworkable mess - and the lesson should not be lost on politicians beyond Scotland".
For Countryside Ireland's views on the ban in Scotland, click here.
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