Letter: Life for the fox, brown hare and red deer of Exmoor has become considerably worse - for a variety of reasons - since the Hunting Act was introduced, research shows
A letter from Jim Barrington:
The letter from Fiona Norris states that the refusal of the NI Assembly to ban hunting with hounds is shameful (NI ban on hunting with hounds long overdue, October 22), but she fails to mention one of the most pressing reasons why this has not come about.
Surely any sensible politician considering such a step, regardless of how they may feel about hunting, would look at the available evidence from elsewhere in the UK.
The only research into the effects of the Hunting Act in England and Wales and published in the book Rural Wrongs (Pye-Smith, 2023) shows that life for the fox, brown hare and red deer of Exmoor (the three main hunted species) has become considerably worse for a variety of reasons.
The findings of this study are briefly laid out in the document Broken Countryside, which can be found at: wearehunting.com. It is easy to call for simplistic measures, but as a former executive director of the League Against Cruel Sports, I am fully aware that such actions can have unintended consequences.
If those who oppose hunting with hound are genuine in their belief that wild animals should not suffer unnecessarily, surely such diligence is not too much to ask.
Jim Barrington, animal welfare advisor to the Countryside Alliance