"The Beginning of the End"
700 riders, dressed in hunting costumes, astride horses with combed manes and braided tails, passed at a trot in a protest march through the town of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. Traffic on the main street was stopped. People who had gathered to watch the graceful procession applauded its participants.
Before the hunting horn sounded, several speakers addressed the riders, among whom stood out Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons and former sports minister, now a Labour Party member of parliament, Kate Hoey.
The speakers urged people to be patient and keep the hunting community united until parliament succeeds in repealing the law. "Today is the beginning of the end of the ban on fox hunting," Kate Hoey promised. "This whole affair has led to a crisis of trust. We have stopped trusting the government, national institutions, and laws," said John Jackson, chairman of the Countryside Alliance, an organization that advocates for fox hunting. According to him, to demonstrate "the law's inconsistency," on February 18 tens of thousands of people gathered in 270 hunting grounds of good old England and, despite the ban, indulged in their favorite pastime – chasing a fox.
Loopholes in the Law
150 km northwest of London, in Warwickshire, a 17th-century hunting estate, 200 riders and more than two thousand spectators gathered. "We do not intend to hunt," warned Simon Jackson, the estate's gamekeeper. "We are simply walking our dogs, but if a fox crosses our path, a chase is unavoidable." Indeed, the recently enacted law cannot prohibit the mere trotting on horseback accompanied by a pack of hounds, nor does it ban fox hunting itself or any other game. However, under the new rules, no more than two dogs may chase an animal, and the hunter must necessarily kill the prey with a gunshot, not give it to the dogs to tear apart.
In this regard, representatives of the Countryside Alliance reported that on February 20, hunters killed 91 foxes, and did so without breaking the law. "True, some foxes were accidentally killed by terriers in their burrows, some were shot by hunters, and one or two were accidentally torn apart by dogs already outside," the organization's representatives calmly stated. However, the Alliance urged hunters not to break the law, but at the same time doubted that the police would be able to monitor compliance with it.
Observers in the Ditch
On Sunday, in the places where fox hunting enthusiasts gathered, there were few police officers, and they were more concerned with public order than with the hunting itself. The fact is that the new law does not specify how violators should be punished, and Britain's attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, has only promised to devise enforcement measures.
The main opponents of fox hunting – members of the League Against Cruel Sports – consider this activity a barbaric relic. Mike Hobday, a representative of the organization, said that on Sunday they sent 100 of their observers to the hunting grounds. However, one of the minibuses with the "inspectors" was attacked by an unknown jeep, which pushed the animal rights activists into a ditch. Sussex Police is investigating the incident.
The Fox Hunting Industry
English fox hunting is a true ritual, involving trainers, dog breeders, veterinarians, grooms, owners, and support staff of hunting estates. Specially for this sport, elite breeds of hounds were developed, such as the Exmoor, Devonshire, Somerset, and Dulverton West. Only to provide hunters with the appropriate ritual attire, hundreds of factories and workshops operate throughout Great Britain. During the parliamentary debate on restrictions on fox hunting, mass riots and clashes with police took place in front of the Palace of Westminster. Five hunters even managed to break into the chamber of the House of Commons and personally voice their protest to MPs. According to one fox hunting supporter who gave an interview to the BBC, the ban is "not animal protection, but the destruction of a class of people."