Hunting Ban: The Pros and Cons

The hunting debate spilled over into the Hardtalk studio

In a HardTalk interview on September 18, 2003, Jon Sopel talks to Phyllis Campbell-McRae of the International Fund for Animal Rights and Simon Hart of the Countryside Alliance about a fresh attempt to ban hunting in the UK

While the debate rages in the House of Lords, the argument around fox hunting has spilled out of parliament and into the Hardtalk studio.

The Government seems confident that fox hunting with dogs will be banned sometime in the next year - a welcome thought for the International Fund for Animal Rights' Phyllis Campbell-McRae.

But seated next to her, defending this quintessentially English tradition, is Simon Hart, of the Countryside Alliance, holding his ground, refusing to consider defeat:

"As far as the likelihood of this becoming law, I don't believe we're anywhere near that," he says, maintaining his belief that this ban is never going to materialise.

Phyllis Campbell-McRae says that the ban has the support of the majority of the public.

At the end of the day, it is all about cruelty, and she says that fox hunting with dogs is not cruel. "Chasing an animal until it's exhausted, is not a quick death."

She says autopsies on foxes show that it is not "a quick nip at the back of the neck", and that these animals die slow, painful deaths.

Simon Hart's argument that the hunt is fulfilling a service does not hold any ground with IFAW.

Phyllis Campbell-McRae says that such a small amount of foxes are killed by the hunt, it does not contribute anything significant to curbing fox numbers.

Simon Hart maintains that farmers need a range of different methods to cull foxes - sometimes dogs, sometimes rifles - and that no method should be eliminated including hunting.

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