A new campaign aims to stop the deluge of hunts attacking cats, dogs and farmed animals
It honours a cat killed by a Cornish hunt.
The Western Hunt, based near Penzance in Cornwall, made national news in early March after its hounds attacked and killed Mini, a domestic cat. Mini’s companion Carly Jose said the death left her “heartbroken”. So, rather than accept the hunt’s cynical offer of cash for Mini’s death, Carly Jose has started a campaign for Mini’s Law, which aims to prevent such incidents happening again. And its being supported by anti-hunting organisations Keep The Ban and Action Against Foxhunting.
Safety first
On 29th April 2021, a petition for Mini’s Law went up on the government’s website. Officially called the Public and Animal Safety Bill 2021, the petition says that:
Legislation should be introduced to prohibit any activity involving hunting hounds, such as trail hunts and hound exercise, taking place in a residential area or in any other public place.
The Citro asked Keep The Ban for further details regarding the law. It said:
The bulk of the legislation revolves around where hunts can and can't go and will ensure that residents and animals are put first as opposed to it often being the other way around. Hunts will not be allowed to roam free across busy residential streets and terrorise local neighbourhoods as if they're above the law. The key parts of the proposed bill were outlined above.
And expanded further, saying:
The proposed legislation will see three key changes in the law.
No hunting activity that uses a live animal can take place in a residential area or in any other place where a portion of the public might be.
No hunting activity can take place on public roads or footpaths.
All hunting activities must be pre-planned with dates and location meets made publicly available.
While its own law focusing on the protection of domestic animals, Mini’s Law appears to build on related issues highlighted by other anti-hunting groups. One notable example is the problem of hunts on roads, covered in depth by Hounds Off.
‘Rare’
The problem of ‘hunt havoc’ manifests in multiple ways. One of the most egregious of these is hound interference of non-target creatures such as domestic and farmed animals.
After killing Mini, the Western Hunt issued a statement saying:
Incidents of this nature involving hounds are incredibly rare due to the professionalism with which the hounds are managed
An overview of such incidents suggests otherwise. Indeed, as hunting database Wildlife Guardian points out, the Western Hunt attacked and killed a domestic cat in 1995, also during hound exercise. But it doesn’t require looking back 25 years to find further examples.
Sheffield Hunt Saboteurs said on 28th April 2021 that “ex High Peak Harriers huntsman Phillip Watts will attend court to enter a plea for livestock worrying”. Accompanying video shows hounds chasing a cow and calf across a field.
Keep The Ban told The Citro that in the six months prior to March 2021, “there was an incident involving hounds and domestic/farm animals on average every two weeks”. A report compiled by the group and seen by The Citro lays out these incidents. They include:
The Braes of Derwent Hunt chasing and killing a cat at Tendercare boarding kennels in County Durham on 1st October 2020.
The Cheshire Forest Hunt chasing sheep across a field on 17th October 2020.
The Cury Hunt chasing a domestic dog “for miles” in Lizard Point, Cornwall, on 16th October 2020.
The Tynedale Hunt cornering young alpacas in Northumberland, reported on 5th January 2021.
Keep The Ban told The Citro that it’s clear, despite what the Western Hunt may have said, that Mini’s death “was not a freak one off occurrence but just the latest in a long line of innocent animals being killed by hunting hounds”.
No such thing as an accident
Mini’s Law is not the first attempt to shore up some of the Hunting Act’s loopholes. The long-running Campaign to Strengthen the Hunting Act has aimed to make the 2004 legislation more robust, for example through the inclusion of a ‘recklessness’ clause.
The Citro asked Keep The Ban what makes Mini’s Law different and why the organisation is backing it:
The strengths of this campaign are that it comes at the issue of hunting and out of control hounds from a new angle. As opposed to campaigning for changes in the 2004 Hunting Act which would be very hard to succeed with under a Conservative government, this proposed bill circumnavigates the complexities of existing wildlife legislation. It is a very simple law and focuses on the protection of people and domestic animals in areas where hunts have no need to be accessing.
And responding to what Keep The Ban will bring to the campaign, the group said:
As an organisation we have the experience of running a successful petition campaign and Keep The Ban is also able to provide the resources behind the scenes to ensure decision makers and influencers are targeted.
Despite its stoic image, hunting relies on a large degree of chaos. The industry inadvertently admits this when claiming the killing of foxes and hares is an ‘accident’ of so-called trail hunting. But the regular hunting of domestic and farmed animals exposes how uncontrollable hunting hounds are.
Hunts are masterful at slipping between the cracks in the law. But pushing them out of public spaces will continue tightening the noose around the industry’s neck. And that could take another big stride forwards with Mini’s Law.
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Mini’s Law