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12
Sept 2023
Ripon councillor likens trail hunting ban to 1930s Germany
A campaign pressing for a ban on trail hunting on publicly-owned land across North Yorkshire has been rejected after being likened to an act of the German government in the 1930s.
Members of North Yorkshire Council’s ruling Conservative group and two Independent councillors who have formed an understanding with them voted to recommend the notice of motion not be supported when it goes before a full meeting of the authority in November.
After the vote by the authority’s corporate and partnerships scrutiny committee, Polly Portwin, director of the Countryside Alliance’s Action for Hunting campaign said it was “a victory for common sense”.
She said:
Labour councillor Rich Maw, who had proposed the motion, said the result had been politically motivated.
Cllr Maw said the law surrounding hunting was persistently being flouted across council land and that the League Against Cruel Sports had collated 29 witness reports of suspected illegal hunting, including eight incidents of cub hunting in the county.
He told members trail hunting was being used as a cover for illegal hunting, enabling “the inevitable chasing and killing of animals to be labelled accidental”.
Cllr Maw, who represents Weaponness and Ramshill, was accused of pursuing a “personal crusade”. He said:
The meeting heard claims some 78 per cent of the public supported new laws on hunting to protect animals and called on the council to display a pro-active, preventative approach to animal cruelty, environmental damage and antisocial behaviour associated with hunting.
Labour group leader Cllr Steve Shaw-Wright said the council needed to support the will of the majority of residents.
Read more:
- Call for ban on trail hunting on North Yorkshire Council land
- Call to ban trail hunting on North Yorkshire Council land ‘waste of time’, says former animal welfare campaigner
- North Yorkshire trail hunting ban ‘unenforceable, but the right thing to do’
However, Damian Readman, a joint-master of the Derwent Hunt, told the meeting how the hunt accessed council-owned land “throughout the season” and that tenant farmers should be able to make their own decisions regarding the land for which they are responsible.
He said:
Tory members questioned the campaigners’ evidence and described the notice of motion as “utterly ridiculous”. They said there was “a danger of prohibiting lawful behaviour”, before claiming there was a “hint of the class war about it”.
After an hour of fierce debate in County Hall’s council chamber, its chairman Cllr Andrew Williams said the proposal would be “largely ineffective and unenforceable”.
He said those behind the proposal were trying to get the council involved in gestures and gimmicks that had no actual meaning.
The Ripon councillor added:
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