NEWS
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This page was last updated on Monday, August 20, 2007
countryside ireland encourages its members, and anyone else in Ireland, to urgently lobby peers in the UK about the proposed total ban on all hunting. Find out how to do it here.
We understand that Irish residents can (and should!) write to Lord Whitty (The Rt Hon. Lord Whitty) and Lord Williams (The Rt. Hon. Lord Williams of Moysten).
The following is advice supplied by the Countryside Alliance in the UK:-
Background
On 30 June 2003, the Government cleared the way for 362 MPs to vote for a total ban on hunting. The Bill will go back for further consideration in the House of Commons, and is expected to proceed to the House of Lords with a Second Reading debate likely in September.
It is essential that Alliance members and supporters write to their allocated Peers in defence of all forms of hunting. In March 2002, the vast majority of peers voted in favour of the continuance of hunting. This was largely due to the letter writing campaign.
Instructions for lobbying peers
1. You will have been allocated a number of peers to write to according to where you live. These can also be obtained from your local hunt, Alliance Regional Director or from the Alliance Action Office (Email grassroute@countryside-alliance.org or telephone 01367 850 488).
2. Write to your local peer(s) at House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW.
3. Your letter should ideally be short, hand written and polite. Please use an appropriate selection of the points opposite as a guide.
4. Peers do not always have the same secretarial support as MPs, so while you may not get a reply, please note that your letter will count. It is essential that all peers are lobbied, but to those who are known to be supportive, please suggest that no reply is necessary.
Points to include in your letter:
- Liberty and tolerance - a ban represents an attack on an entire culture and the rural way of life with no evidence to support a ban.
- Hunting is the most humane and natural method of management; over 500 vets say a ban would be detrimental to animal welfare. At no point does the Burns Report conclude that hunting is 'cruel'. Lord Burns himself stated "there was not sufficient verifiable evidence or data safely to reach views about cruelty".
- More pressing problems face your rural community such as limited provision of public transport, schools, policing, health facilities and the state of the rural economy.
- If you are a member of hunt staff, a farmer, or are involved in a rural business dependent on hunting, explain the importance of hunting to your livelihood.
- An NOP poll conducted in December 2002 found that 59% of people believed that hunting should be allowed to continue.
- An NOP poll conducted in May 2003 found that just 2% of people believe hunting should be a political priority.
- A recently published study conducted by the University of Kent has shown that hunting makes an important contribution to the UK's rural habitat and species conservation.
- Organisations such as the LACS and the RSPCA have all expressed their opposition to fishing and/or shooting. Most have claimed their campaign to ban these sports would begin should hunting be banned.
- Following the EU's banning of on-farm burial of fallen stock, 78% of disposal methods in the UK are provided by hunt kennels. If hunting is banned, the number of legal disposal outlets will be severely reduced.
- The majority of people who hunt do so on foot. Drag hunting is not an alternative nor could it replace the jobs or community life lost from a hunting ban.
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For information on How to Address Peers, please click here.