On this day in vegan history · November 18, 2004
England and Wales Ban Hunting With Dogs
After a decade of parliamentary trench warfare, Britain finally banned chasing foxes, deer, and hares to death with packs of dogs, and had to break its own lawmaking rules just to get it done.
The facts
- Royal assent
- 18 November 2004
- Came into force
- 18 February 2005
- What it banned
- Hunting of foxes, deer, hares, and mink with dogs in England and Wales, with limited exemptions
- How it passed
- Forced through via the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, only the seventh statute enacted this way since 1911
The Hunting Act 2004 received royal assent on 18 November 2004, banning the hunting of foxes, deer, hares, and mink with dogs in England and Wales. The Commons had voted for a ban repeatedly, most decisively in July 2003 when it passed one by a majority of 208, only to watch the Lords reject it that October by a majority of 212. When the Lords refused again on 17 November 2004, the Speaker of the Commons, Michael Martin, invoked the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 to force the bill into law without the Lords' consent. It was only the seventh time since 1911 that Parliament had used that override to push a bill past a resistant upper chamber. The ban took effect three months later, on 18 February 2005.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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seriously compromise the welfare of the fox
The Burns Inquiry report, published in 2000, on its conclusion about fox hunting
Source: Wikipedia -
I always thought the hunting ban was a pretty bizarre piece of legislation
David Cameron, later Conservative prime minister, speaking in January 2012
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
The Act did not end hunting in Britain, foxes are still chased under loopholes and outright defiance to this day, but it was the first time Parliament decided an animal's suffering outweighed a centuries-old blood sport, and its passage showed that changing how a country treats animals sometimes means forcing the vote through anyway.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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