Murky world of hunting revealed on new ‘huntmap’
Six years on and Hunting Act is going from strength to strength, according to charity
The charity which led the campaign to make hunting with hounds illegal six years ago has launched an innovative ‘huntmap’ to illustrate hunt behaviour in Britain. By harnessing the power of social networking site Twitter, the League Against Cruel Sports will plot incidents of suspicious or illegal hunting as well as hunt havoc reported through tweets onto a map of Britain. The League has over 7,500 followers on Twitter.
Today marks the sixth anniversary of the Hunting Act which the League’s chief executive Douglas Batchelor believes “is going from strength to strength”. The historic legislation which bans hunting has faced opposition from the hunting lobby determined to see it repealed. Mr Batchelor said: “This time last year the hunters were claiming the law which curtails their bloodsport wouldn’t reach its sixth anniversary yet here we are. The truth is that there is simply no appetite to repeal an Act which would turn the clock back to cruelty and allow hunting of wild animals with dogs. The public wholeheartedly support the Hunting Act and we will continue to celebrate its anniversary for years to come”.
Polling carried by Ipsos MORI in December last year shows 76% of people think fox hunting should remain illegal and 84% do not think deer hunting and hare hunting and coursing should be made legal again. Political support is also firmly in favour or retaining the Act with figures showing that if a vote were to be held in Westminster on whether to repeal the Act it would be lost by around 60 votes.
There has now been over 150 convictions under the Hunting Act with last season (2009/2010) seeing the highest number of convictions since the legislation’s inception.