The Clean Boot Club
					29th April 2000
	(NB Links have been removed from the Online version for publication on the Inquiries website)
	Dear Lord Burns,
	I respond to the 7th May deadline set for those not included in the Research Seminars.  I am grateful for being allowed to attend these in a non-participatory capacity.  When I have judged bloodhound trials,1 I have been criticised for the length of my discourse.  Hence I will restrict this submission, to one sheet of A4, but hope that you will find the links of the online version useful for further explanation. In July 1999, I was prompted to write to the Home Secretary and PM, following the success of renewed lobbying by the animal rights movement.  Like most field sport enthusiasts, we would wish our sport to be excluded from political agenda of those who find sport in an arena. It is unfortunate that the Kennel Club registered bloodhound was not represented, to counter the derogatory remarks of Sir Richard Body.2  However, we appreciate the contribution made by Phil Broughton and Dr. Wallis of the MDBA, who do not represent those who hunt the clean boot on foot.  In his last contribution,3  the latter speaker touched on what has been a taboo subject for both sides of the argument; implementation and enforcement. There are no better protectors for the interests of hunted species than the hunters themselves.  There is no doubt that to criminalise hunting would induce more cruelty not less, by removing those that hunt in the open through the law abiding associations.  There are those on your committee who have not digested the evidence of Roger Harris4  and still see chasing an animal as cruel.  In fact, the Deer Society acknowledged that the Hunt should be an integral part of the future management of deer.5  The stress implications of the prolonged chase can (in General Davies words 6),  be ‘managed out’.  Since the resurgence of the animal rights lobby, what was once part of the comaraderie of boosting about one's own hounds and sport has been taken as fodder for the agenda of the ‘antis’.  Many of the arguments used by the mass of urban support of a ban could be used against bloodhound hunting to restrict our sport to the drag.  Perhaps like the lady in the audience, who wished to defend the rights of the earthworm even at the end, vested interests were not moved by the powerful arguments presented by the other side.
	Those that represent the legal hunting of Deer, Fox, Mink and Hare,           deserve protection of the law for the valuable contribution to their                          community and conservation, not imprisonment.
				Yours Respectfully,
				Nick Sutcliffe

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Date uploaded to website 31 May 2000