MP calls for hunting act to be quashed (From Droitwich Advertiser)

MP calls for hunting act to be quashed

7:20am Saturday 18th April 2009 in Local

TOWN MP Peter Luff has called for The Hunting Act to be quashed for the sake of the animals it is trying to protect.

The 2004 act must be repealed at the earliest opportunity, according to Mr Luff and Lembit Öpik MP, co-chairs of the All Party Parliamentary Middle Way Group. Peter Luff said: “The Hunting Act fails at every level. It doesn’t improve wildlife welfare as its supporters claim – in fact it makes animal welfare worse. This is what happens when legislation is based on prejudice and political deals, not principle. “The result is a badly drafted law based on a false premise – it’s not the human that hunts, but the dog. The Hunting Act must be repealed at the earliest opportunity, leaving the way clear for a genuine debate on how we advance the welfare of all wild mammals.”

Lembit Öpik added: “The Hunting Act cost £30 million pounds of animal welfare money and consumed 700 hours of Parliamentary time to reach the statute book and yet despite this enormous effort neither the government nor the anti-hunting groups have bothered to examine the effects of this law on the very animals they claim they wish to protect. All the evidence I have seen indicates that wild animal welfare is now worse.”