Caroline Flint welcomes chance to end hunting

10 September 2004

Don Valley MP Caroline Flint has welcomed Government moves to bring the Hunting Bill to a conclusion using the Parliament Act.

Said Ms Flint: "Parliament has voted to ban hunting with dogs on several occasions, only to be thwarted by the unelected House of Lords. It's time we ended this unnecessary cruelty once and for all.

"It is very rare for the Government to have to use the Parliament Act to override the Lords, but never has the Lords shown its true values so clearly as on hunting. The Lords repeatedly back the landed gentry against the people. Their 17th century attitudes have led to this issue being dragged on into the 21st century, despite clear parliamentary majority for a ban since 1997.

"Apart from letters about the airport, no other issue has provoked so many people to write to me urging a change in the law as hunting. And on this issue I am in agreement."

Ms Flint also accepts the reasons for allowing a two year period before the new law is enforced. "I hope that much of the organised hunting will end before the two year deadline, but the Government recognises that there are businesses linked to hunting, such as stables and farriers, and to give them two years to find new business is reasonable. This is no less than we did when the Government banned fur farms, and changed the law on rabies quarantine, both of which affected businesses in my constituency. In the interests of animal welfare, it also gives time for dogs to be rehomed wherever possible to avoid dogs being put down unnecessarily."

The Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare produced a report in July 2004 concluding that hounds can be retrained as domestic pets. Many hunting dogs live with families as puppies and many hunting dogs are kept by families outside of the hunting season before rejoining the pack for the start of the hunting season.

Ms Flint, a former Patron of the Doncaster and District RSPCA, has consistently voted for ban on hunting, since her election in 1997. Opinion polls have shown a consistent majority of people in rural areas and in towns supporting a ban. The Conservatives have pledged to reverse any ban imposed by this parliament if they won a general election.

The Parliament Act allows the Commons to override the Lords, when a Bill is repeatedly blocked by the unelected House, by introducing the same Bill again and invoking this Act.