The Support Hunting Association is one of the UK's most prominent pro-hunting organisations, now incorporating issues related to Game Shooting, Fox Hunting and Angling.
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Police View of a hunting ban - Two chief constables voice their concern on a ban on hunting.
Timelines -On the current Hunting Bill, the attempts to ban hunting, and on the ban in Scotland.
Hunting vs. Human Rights - Parliament has advised that the Hunting Bill is incompatible with the Human Rights Act.
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Quotes
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The ban has guaranteed that the time and money invested by the League Against Cruel Sports and the RSPCA has increased animal suffering. We told them this would happen. This rise in suffering since the ban is the cost of ignoring that warning!
Daily Telegraph
3 May 2005.
Numerous police officers accompanied the more than 250 hunts which took place yesterday, the first day that the sport became illegal. Despite the friendly exchanges between officers and huntsmen and women, the presence of the police posed a question: what public good were they trying to uphold?
Daily Telegraph
20 February 2005.
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| Hunting Bill clears the Commons - 16 September 2004 |
MPs have voted to ban hunting with dogs despite mass demonstrations and the debate in the House of Commons being interrupted by protesters.
Bill passed by 339 votes to 155.
10,000+ demonstrate outside the Palace of Westminster.
8 protestors break into the House of Commons.
Ban to come into force on 31st July 2006.
 MP's have voted by a majority of 184 to ban hunting with hounds in England & Wales. The ban is expected to come into force on 31st July 2006 - the last possible date for a general election.
Alun Michael - the rural affairs minister - said that the delay in the ban on fox hunting was to give hunts adequate time to adjust and give up their activity. Hare coursing and stag hunting will be banned three months after the Hunting Bill becomes law - expected to be November.
The bill will now go to the House of Lords and be debated there after the recess for the Conference period.
During the debate, Alun Michael urged the House of Lords to behave democratically once they received Bill.
Parliament Act
And he reiterated the government's intention to use the Parliament Act to push the bill through if it was rejected by peers: "I still hope that peers will engage with the Hunting Bill this time around.
"If they fail to do so the only way in which the matter can be properly resolved at this stage is for the will of this House to prevail under the provision of the Parliament Act."
Urging hunt supporters not to break any ban he said:
"The rightness or the wrongness of a particular piece of legislation is always subject to argument in this House and our parliamentary processes are the means with which these issues are argued through in the legislative process.
"The Parliament Act is part of that legislative process and part of the structure of our democracy - used sparingly, used only under provocation."
 But, Conservative environment, food and rural affairs spokesman Mr Gray said: "I think the nation and the world as a whole will be looking at our procedures with some amazement and some horror.
"With the world in the state it is in, with the million patients waiting for treatment on the NHS, with the Middle East and Iraq in turmoil, with Beslan and Darfur so much in our minds, people will not understand Labour's warped priorities and their fixation with the issue of banning hunting with hounds."
The ban would probably lead to an increase in the numbers of foxes being killed, he told MPs.
But they would be killed by poisoning, gassing, snaring and shooting which were "a great deal more cruel" than hunting, he warned.
Protests
During the debate, protestors gathered outside the Palace of Westminster on Parliament Square. Estimates of the number of supporters ranged from 8,000 to 20,000.
Minor scuffles erupted on several occasions as thousands of supporters descended on the capital to urge MPs not to give the green light to the Hunting Bill.
 At one point, eight protesters breached tight Commons security to burst on to the floor of the chamber, halting the debate. Scotland Yard said 11 people were arrested in clashes outside Westminster and a total of 19 people – including two police officers –suffered “minor injuries”.
Of the 11 people arrested, three were for suspicion of violent disorder, two for harassment, alarm and distress, one for affray, two for public order offences, and three for breach of the peace.
Two of those arrested for breach of the peace were later released with no further action taken.
Violence first erupted at about 3.30pm as demonstrators tried to break through the police cordon in the south-west corner of Parliament Square, the Yard said.
The scuffle was soon brought under control but a major clash erupted again at about 6pm after MPs voted in favour of banning fox hunting and hare coursing.
Tony Blair’s official spokesman said the Prime Minister recognised there were strong emotions on all sides of the debate.
“He also recognised there was a legitimate right to peaceful protest, but the emphasis must be on peaceful protest,” the spokesman said.
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The government has chosen the path of prejudice and spite - the reaction it unleashes will be entirely its own responsibility.
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Simon Hart
Countryside Alliance |
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Mr Blair believed the police had had a very difficult task but he backed them fully, his spokesman said.
But protesters claimed they had not come to fight and many accused the police of heavy-handed tactics and attacking them for no reason.
Thomas Brown, a 34-year-old steel erector from Leeds, bleeding from a large cut to the head, said: “This is supposed to be a free country – bloody hell.”
Andrew Vernon, 25, from Ayrshire, Scotland, who was hit, said: “I saw girls getting hit just like me.“There were probably about 20 of us getting hit up there. It was just disgusting.”
But Simon Kenney, a professional huntsman from Durham, bleeding from the head, warned: “I just want to tell Tony Blair that there will be much more trouble like this if they ban hunting.”
Condemnation
Simon Hart, the Countryside Alliance’s chief executive, said: “That is 20,000 people who believe passionately in the right to a free country – and that outnumbered the 200 or 300 Labour bigots in their Parliament.”
 The organisation also condemned those who entered the chamber of the House of Commons: "We condemn this demonstration, which was selfish and self indulgent and took away from the actions of 20,000 law abiding protesters."
The protesters came from across the country and many wore fancy dress or brought placards to make their point.
TV cook Clarissa Dixon-Wright branded Parliament a “bribed sewer of second-rate minds” while Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons said he was “ashamed of this legislation”.
With protests almost certain to continue up to the implementation of the bill, ministers said the election gave opponents of a ban the chance to register their protest at the ballot box rather than on the streets.
Vote Results:
Second Reading: 356 to 166
Implement the ban on 31/07/06: 342 to 15
Third Reading: 339 to 155
How did my MP vote?
Newspaper articles on hunting for September.
Click here to read the passionate speech by Kate Hoey, Labour MP.
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