Committee of Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs
PO Box 31010
LONDON
SW 1 H 9ZL

8 February 2000

Dear Sirs,

We are responsible for the management of 90,000 acres of rural land.

It is of great concern that MPs may be required to vote on legislation banning fox hunting without fully appreciating how necessary it is to adequately control fox numbers. When considering nature and the countryside, there is no room for emotion and actions must be taken in the full knowledge of the economic and social impact on our fragile countryside economies.

The fox has no natural predator in this country and therefore control is vital to allow farming and sporting businesses to survive. With often large areas of woodland bordering on farm land and sporting grouse moors, there has to be a way of flushing foxes from their cover to allow them to be destroyed. In many cases, the use of dogs is the only effective way this problem can be addressed. The object is not for the hounds to make the kill and the event is not a sporting occasion but an effective and efficient means to an end.

It is essential that the Committee appreciate that countryside businesses survive in a fragile environment and the use of dogs in fox control helps support the financial viability of many rural industries thereby maintaining employment. It is vital to appreciate that the conservation and sustainable management of the countryside depends on these businesses and without them the countryside will never continue to be managed and thereby as attractive as we would wish to preserve it.

The Committee must appreciate that the problems of fox control is not only associated with land management of the larger arable areas surrounding the centres of population. The damage caused by foxes goes well beyond that and failure to control numbers will impact on the viability of the diversification within estates, which has proved to be resilient in previous generations.

Yours faithfully,

Alexander S Lewis

Chief Executive

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Date uploaded to site 24 May 2000