1. The Country Landowners Association (CLA) whose membership of 50,000 account for some 60% of the rural land in England and Wales (60% of members own 100 acres each or less), welcomes the opportunity of submitting written evidence to the inquiry.
2. The CLA has members who support hunting and some that do not. It believes that landowners and farmers should have the right to choose what methods of pest control they wish to employ and whether or not to have hunting with hounds on their land. Such choices are fundamental freedoms which should not be removed.
3. Hunting is very much an integral activity of rural areas. Recent research of Hunting Countries (areas where hunting with hounds takes place) shows that these areas cover some 77% of the surface area of England and Wales. In these areas the hunt are excluded on only 2-3% of the land at the express wish of the occupiers. In addition to that excluded land, 26% of hunting countries are not hunted for safety reasons. The average pack in England and Wales hunts just over 88% of the allotted area in each hunting country. 61% of the total surface area of England and Wales is hunted.
4. It should be remembered that a substantial number of those who live in towns also enjoy hunting and will often have several days hunting during the season, paying subscriptions directly to the hunt and thereby indirectly to the local rural economy. Whilst hunting is essentially a rural past time, it is by no means exclusively so and enjoys urban as well as rural support.
5. RURAL ECONOMY

The CLA notes the comments made by the inquiry as to whether the Cobham report has overestimated the importance of hunting to the rural economy. In the CLA’s view the report should be seen for what it is, a report commissioned from independent resource consultants and its findings should be treated accordingly.

6. In preparing this submission, however, the CLA notes that the inquiry have the findings of that report, and others, and has endeavoured to seek fresh evidence to cover the points raised by the inquiry, rather than to make reference to these past reports.
7. EVIDENCE

• THE SPECIFIC ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION TO THE LOCAL RURAL ECONOMY FROM HUNTING

• The provision of employment, both part and full time, to those directly involved with the pack (there are some 900 hunt employees);
• In many cases, the provision of accommodation to hunt staff, rather than relying upon local authority accommodation. Some 309 houses and 64 flats are owned by hunts and used for housing for hunt employees, in addition to accommodation leased by the hunt for that purpose;
• The provision of employment to those indirectly involved with the hunt - for example, vets, farriers, saddlers, clothing manufacturers, feed suppliers, public houses and hotels especially during the winter months;
• Expenditure by the hunt goes directly to the local economy;
• Effective pest control by a local hunt reduces farming and agricultural costs;
• Effective disposal of fallen stock on farms. In some areas, in the absence of the hunt, the cost of disposal of fallen stock is estimated to be in the region of £35-100 for a cow or ewe, and £7-14 for a calf or lamb, depending upon the proximity of slaughterhouse. It is estimated that some 1,000 calves per week are disposed of under the OTMS. The function of the hunt and the disposal of fallen stock is examined in more detail under paragraph 18.

8. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE OF HUNTING’S DIRECT ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION

• A fairly typical example of how this economic contribution works in practice is that of the Middleton Hunt, which is a mounted pack.

9. The Middleton Hunt area covers a large area of around 800 square miles of predominantly rural North and East Yorkshire between York and the East Coast with both arable and stock rearing agriculture.

• Financial

Thus the direct total expenditure by this hunt to the local area was some £1,071,0000.

• Employment

10. Hunting also provides crucial income, via hunt followers and participators, to trades such as the hotel and public houses during the difficult winter period.
11. HUNTING IN WALES

12. At the present time, over 100 packs of hunting hounds operate in Wales. They consist of three different types of hunting:-

1. Mounted packs followed on horses. These are to be found in the more low-lying areas of Wales.
2. Hill-hounds, which are followed on foot, due to the nature of the terrain and the wishes of the landowners.
3. Gun-packs, which have evolved in areas where sheep farmers have been hard pressed to keep fox numbers under control, due to afforestation.

13. Gun packs hunt on foot, using the hounds to "flush out" foxes into the open countryside or, in large forestry areas onto the rides dividing the blocks of woodland. Then followers, carrying shotguns, surround the woodlands and shoot the foxes as they come out of the woodland or cross the rides. The use of a shotgun for killing foxes is normally unacceptable, as there is a real likelihood of wounding, however any injured foxes are subsequently caught by the hounds coming out of the woodland. This method of fox control, using hounds and guns, has become most effective in those parts of the principality where it is not possible to follow hounds on horse back.

14. Direct Contribution made by hunting to the Rural Economy in Wales

15. DRAG HUNTING

• It is a completely different activity to hunting with hounds.

• Far Fewer Hounds can participate

• Drag Hunting requires vast tracts of land to be viable.

• No pest control benefit to the farmer or landowner

16. Given the limitations on land rider ability and interest, it is clear that drag hunting could never begin to substitute for fox hunting in terms of the numbers of people, horses and dogs involved. There is little that this sport could be expected to do to reduce the impact of a ban on hunting. There is also the practical point that should drag hunting hounds pick up the fresh scent of a fox during a chase, they are likely to pursue that rather than the scent laid down.

17. Farmers would not necessarily welcome riding for its own sake over their land on anything like the scale of hunting. There are a total of 65,000 horses used in hunting and other riding activities such as eventing, of this figure some 40,000 are used exclusively or primarily for the purpose of hunting. A likely result of a ban of hunting might be that a number of horses may be destroyed, a large number of existing horses would not be replaced which would have serious detrimental effects to the livelihoods of farriers and other trades relating to riding in the countryside.

18. AGRICULTURE AND PEST CONTROL

• Fallen Stock

19. Meat from fallen stock can only be fed to hounds and is not used in pet food. In addition to the meat eaten by the hounds there are the bones, offal and other wastes which have not been disposed of. The average hunt kennel might dispose of 100 to 200 tonnes of such waste per annum. Larger hunts might have to cope with 400 tonnes or more.

20. The waste is either collected by renderers or burnt at the kennels in incinerators. The regulations concerning the handling and disposal of Specified Risk Material (SRM) have made the disposal of these wastes very expensive for hunts. It either has to be removed at £150 per tonne, or the hunt has to buy, install and run their own incinerator. In fact 150 incinerators are owned by the recognised fox and deer hound packs.
21. A case study carried out in 1997 found that the cost of providing this disposal service varied from £15,000 in the case of a hunt in Northumberland, £24,000 for a Gloucestershire Hunt, £27,000 for a Buckinghamshire Hunt and £40,000 for a Northamptonshire Hunt.
22. 1999 figures state that a total of 264 Hunt kennels (foxhounds, staghounds, Beagles and Harriers) are registered by MAFF of which 150 have their own incinerators. There used to be 92 knackers yards before the current round of MAFF approval but it is estimated that this will fall to approximately 80 of which 30 knackers yards have small incinerators. There are 3 knackers yards in Scotland. There are 14 large commercial whole carcase incinerators in Britain.
23. Accordingly hunt kennels play a vital role in the collection and disposal of fallen stock. If hunting were to be discontinued there would therefore be a vast increase in on-farm burial, due to cost, with the attendant risks that that brings to health and the environment.

• Other interaction of hunting with agriculture and rural land management

24. Hunts are also vital in controlling foxes that are causing problems to shoots in terms of predation on game and many shoots will use the hunt to deal with the problem once the nesting season is over. Most shoots lose between 5-10% of their birds from predation, of which a significant amount is due to foxes. They are also of assistance in identifying whether or not pests, such as mink, are present on land.
25. Arable farmers will often use harriers and beagle packs to regulate numbers of hares on fields, where numbers have increased to levels where damage to crops is sustained. The vast majority of farmers welcome hares onto their land in reasonable numbers and are not keen on shooting them. Hunting and coursing therefore not only control their numbers by killing but also disperse populations to sustainable levels.
26. THE NEED FOR CONTROL

• FOXES

• DEER

27. Evidence we have received from farmers indicates that unless the deer are moved on regularly by hounds, they tend to settle in one area, with devastating consequences for the farmer on whose land they settle. This leads to intolerance for the species as a whole. Deer herd sizes, where left undisturbed, will easily reach 30-50 hinds in the lowlands, and on Exmoor herds of 100 hinds are not uncommon. Such numbers can clearly cause a lot of damage where concentrated in a small area and it is unsurprising that farmers grow intolerant of them. Stag groups are always much smaller.
28. The advantage of hunting over shooting as a means of controlling deer, is that the whole herd is moved on, and the hunt has the ability to select weaker animals – this is particularly true with stags, in contrast to stalking, where the temptation to trophy shoot can take over.
29. Stag hunting, in particular, on Exmoor, has been associated with the maintenance of a healthy deer population. The consequences of the stag hunting ban are considered under paragraphs 48-51.
30. Casualty Service for Deer

The casualty service provided by Deer Hunts is invaluable in ending the suffering of infirm and injured deer. Deer are injured in a number of ways, hit by cars, caught in wire or injured by inaccurate shooting, or they may just be old and sick. Once injured these deer go into hiding. When the hunt is told of a wounded deer the huntsman will take several hounds, track down the animal and once found, dispatch it. This service is free and operates on a 24 hour basis. Between 1993 and 1998 for every 100 deer killed by the two hunts, 83 casualty deer were also dispatched some of which had suffered from grievous wounds for prior to their dispatch.

31. HARES

32. Accordingly there is a need to control their numbers in certain areas. The advantages to the hare of hunting by dogs either by coursing or beagling are similar to those for the fox.

33. MINK

Mink are not a native species to England and Wales. They are a vicious and indiscriminate killer of game, birds and other small mammals, such as the endangered water vole. It has devastated fish stocks in some areas and there is accordingly little tolerance in rural areas for this animal. Indeed there are many who argue that they should be completely eradicated from the wild.

34. HUNTING COMPARED TO OTHER FORMS OF CONTROL

The purpose of hunting is to control not exterminate a species. In the absence of hunting, tolerance of farmers and landowners to a residual fox population and populations of other hunted animals, is likely to decrease sharply. As a result Foxes and other quarry species will be shot or snared indiscriminately with a detrimental effect on the survival of a healthy quarry populations in rural areas. Much evidence exists to indicate at present, that hunts tend to catch the older and injured animal. The fact remains that hunting is the nearest man can get to natural predation and therefore most closely aligns to the natural state. It is also selective and helps to ensure that the fox population remains healthy.

35. There are also practical difficulties which will arise if hunting as a form of pest control is banned. The obvious alternative method of control would be shooting. In most instances, save for the special circumstances surrounding the gun packs in Wales, it is not satisfactory or humane to use a shot gun for the purposes of killing a fox due to the likelihood of injury rather than a clean kill. This means that the use of a firearm is needed in the form of a rifle. Police forces will therefore be required to issue firearms licences on a more liberal and frequent basis to enable effective control to take place. This is however in conflict with a real risk arising in areas where greater public access exists. This risk is unlikely to decrease in the light of the Government’s plans to increase access to land.
36. Alternatives to shooting such as snaring, risk other wildlife as well as being largely ineffective for the purpose of controlling foxes. There is also the risk of a lingering death. Poisoning of foxes is an alternative which might be used by farmers desperate enough, in the absence of the hunt, to control a troublesome fox, but this is at considerable risk to other wildlife such as birds of prey and is indiscriminate.
37. Hunting remains the most effective means of controlling populations of pest species in such a way that they are not completely annihilated but that the necessary balance with the environment is maintained. In considering this method of control heed should be taken of the fact that hunting has evolved over the centuries to suit the particular terrain and ecology of specific areas. Overwhelming evidence would appear to exist that it is an effective and natural form of control.
38. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE

39. In addition to those who walk or ride with hounds large numbers also follow on foot or by car or other means and thereby, indirectly, will participate in the hunt itself. On Boxing Day meets, numbers in attendance can exceed 2000 people from all over a county. The Middleton Hunt, for example, estimated that some 3000 people turned up to support the hunt on Boxing Day.

40. The local hunt in many areas provides the social focus for local, and often isolated, communities through suppers and other local events which help sustain local amenities such as pubs and village halls. The local hunt also supports pony clubs and point to points which are crucial to racing and other equestrian events.

41. Hunts often raise money for local charities and amenites for example, the Belvoir Hunt raised some £20,000 from its local team chase and this money was used for local childrens clubs and the church.

42. The impact of a ban on hunting to rural communities would be devastating. Those who do not hunt, but live in the countryside, have indicated that many of them would see the ban as a curb on a fundamental freedom of choice, which is neither to the fox’s advantage nor has any justification.

43. Those who do participate in hunting, and it is estimated that there are some 230,000 of them are involved in one way or another, would feel marginalised and alienated by the urban majority who neither understand nor can accept a rural way of life and yet seek to interfere with their historic recreational and social life. Many of those who hunt, the vast majority of whom are law abiding, might resort to civil disorder as a way of expressing their opposition to such measures.

44. MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION OF WILDLIFE

• Hedge planting;
• Leaving areas uncultivated or ungrazed;
• Leaving scrub and thorn unmanaged;
• Allowing hedges and trees to grow;
• Establishing extensive field margins managed for birds and voles;
• Re-establishing grassland in arable areas of land;
• Establishing coppice and woodland.

45. Many participants in hunting maintain small farms with varied ecological systems, simply to ensure they possess an environment which enables a healthy population of foxes to be sustained and can justify the costs of keeping horses. Such occupants will have little incentive to maintain these farms and pieces of land and there is a chance that the the land will be made available for alternative uses such as intensive farming and housing development.

46. Many supporters of hunting also run small and large shoots which make a major contribution to varied populations of birds and other wildlife.

47. In addition Hunts own and manage some 6,500 acres of cover for the purposes of hunting. Over 90% of Hunts undertake conservation work such as maintenance of bridleways, gates etc..

49. The biggest threat to deer populations is unbalanced culling. Even opponents of hunting accept the need for some form of culling. Yet if culling is carried out by disparate groups without an overall control or management philosophy, the result is that greater numbers of stags are killed for hinds. It is believed that the balance is 1 hind to 4 stags.

50. The Exmoor herd of red deer is commonly acknowledged to be one of the best managed herds of deer in the western world. Continual movement of the deer caused by hunting helps to distribute the gene pool. Similarly the policy of selecting the weakest deer ensures only strong healthy deer remain. In contrast Scottish herds of deer, where only shooting is permitted suffer from over population with consequences for deer condition and quality.

51. In the two and a half years since the National Trust ban was imposed on the hunting of deer, more than double the number of deer have been shot on National Trust land at Holnicote, than were killed by a combination of hunting and shooting in the area, in the three years before the ban. There is some evidence to suggest that the health of the herd overall has declined in this relatively short space of time. The herd has become wary of people and it is now difficult for visitors to see deer in this area, thus making it less attractive to visit.

Deer counts of the total number of deer on Exmoor as a whole (these indicate a decline in of just under 10%:)

52. ANIMAL WELFARE

• Welfare of the fox

53. There is no doubt that the existence of hunting for the purpose of control rather than eradication means that a healthy population of foxes remains by virtue of the fact that it is a selective method of control. Alternative methods of control such as trapping, snaring and shooting are by contrast indiscriminate and likely to be far less humane. Any assessment as to whether hunting is cruel must also consider the alternative control methods which would have to be used if hunting was banned.

• Welfare of quarry species as a whole

• Animal Welfare Generally

IMPLEMENTATION OF A BAN

• The effects

• We would suggest that all alternatives to a legislative ban should be looked at very carefully.

• LEGISLATION

• Human Rights Implications

• Compensation

• Firearms Licensing would need to be improved and the number of licences increased

• Difficulties with dogs

ENFORCEMENT

• Further division between town and countryside

• Large numbers of Police and extra police resources will be required to enforce the ban

Date uploaded to site 14 April 2000