| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Maria Eagle: The hon. Gentleman is probably not aware that, this morning, I did an interview on BBC Radio Stoke with the chairman of the Fur Breeders Association of the United Kingdom, who spoke overtly for all the farmers. He said that neither he nor they opposed the passage of the Bill: although they regretted it, they saw the writing on the wall and wanted to co-operate in implementing the legislation. They were more concerned about proper compensation, which is fair enough.
Mr. Loughton: I am not at all surprised by those comments. I fear that I am not a regular listener to Radio Stoke, but I am sure that the many people who are benefit greatly from it.
I support the Bill because it is simple: it has only seven clauses and seeks solely to end the farming of fur in the UK after a realistic winding-down period. It includes mechanisms to pay due compensation, which is a matter that should be closely examined in Committee, because it might prove to be a major bone of contention which will need thrashing out. The Bill does not in any way pass judgment or impose restrictions on the wearing of fur or on the trading of fur. It does not make provision regarding the capture of animals for fur in the wild; nor does it make any attempt to restrict the import of fur. It is not an
attempt to further some sort of ideological class-war terrorism against fur-wearing fat cats, who will be entitled to continue to wear fur, if they so choose.
Mrs. Teresa Gorman (Billericay):
I have a fur coat.
Mr. Loughton:
That may be so, but I would never describe my hon. Friend as a fur-wearing fat cat.
Any of the features or omissions that I have described would be creditable and credible in current or future legislation. The hon. Member for Garston has gone out of her way to make the Bill acceptable, practical and simple, so as to allay the fears and concerns of many hon. Members.
It could be said that one may not object to the Bill because it was a Labour election commitment to ban fur farming. In that case, it is a shame that, yet again, as with so many of the animal welfare pledges that Labour made before the general election, the Government have not produced the goods, but have instead relied on a Back Bencher to bring the measure before the House. I have received a great deal of post on the subject, almost all of it in favour of backing the Bill. I was happy to be able to write back saying, "Not only am I backing the Bill, but I am sponsoring it, hope to speak on it and will vote for it, if I am given the opportunity to do so." However, a number of people have said that they feel that they have been let down by the Government on animal welfare issues, because the Government have not delivered and their promises turned out to be hot air.
There might be a modicum of justification for fur farming if it produced some sort of essential foodstuff that provided sustenance, but it does not. Fur farming exists purely to produce a luxury item for which there are many artificial alternatives, or for which the buyer should be prepared to pay a higher market price, if that enabled animals to be reared in conditions that take proper account of their welfare during their lifetime, rather than in the current conditions, which have been described as a fate worse than death. As the RSPCA has said, its opposition to fur farming is based on the knowledge that it causes considerable suffering to produce an unnecessary luxury product.
Even if, as one of the bullet points being touted by the British fur industry states, there is a law in Russia requiring people to wear fur hats in temperatures below minus 20 deg C, that law should be changed to allow a different sort of hat to be worn by the good burghers of Russia, Siberia or anywhere else. In any case, even the Labour Government have not become nanny enough to introduce the compulsory wearing of headgear in this country--at least, not yet, but there is plenty of time for them to do so.
Last week, I took part in a radio programme with a representative of the British fur industry, who described in detail, with great relish and glee, his recent visit to a fur farm. He said that he had found mink that were
Mr. Loughton:
I cannot remember the name; it was not Mr. Robert Morgan, but it appears that he has bedfellows who also make seriously fatuous statements.
The man I met went on to challenge the case made by those who support the Bill, that fur is an unnecessary luxury item, by asking what the difference was between farming for a luxury item and buying an expensive luxury steak derived from an animal reared solely for its meat. For a start, I would not expect to buy a steak produced from a steer kept in a wire cage 70 cm by 45 cm by 40 cm; and when I pay up for the best sort of steak, it is because it typically comes from an animal reared in conditions that are as natural as possible, and if the meat bears the RSPCA "freedom foods" badge--which we should all look out for in our supermarkets--I can be certain that the animal had been so reared.
Mrs. Gorman:
The phrase "luxury item" has come up more than once in the debate. Does my hon. Friend agree that, if people are determined to own fur--we all crave some luxury, whether it is a fur, a Porsche or a Ferrari--they will attain it by shooting animals in the wild? People who want mink will still have it. The humane raising of animals for which there is a demand and a market is a sensible alternative that conservationists advocate for animals threatened by extinction because of hunting. The corollary is that, if we provided humane conditions, the rest of the Bill would be negated.
Mr. Loughton:
I got a little lost during my hon. Friend's intervention. The point is that the Bill would in no way ban people who legitimately hold licences from shooting mink in the wild. It is purely about mink and other animals that are kept in small cages on fur farms.
While we are on the subject of luxury items, my hon. Friend may be interested to know that a well-known underwear retail store is currently advertising fake-fur-trimmed knickers that she can buy quite cheaply. My point is that there are alternatives to fur, but I shall give my hon. Friend the details of the store, the prices and the available colours after the debate.
Mr. Loughton:
Indeed, I could lend her my own.
Let me return to food labelling. Following the excellent action taken by the then Conservative Government, who received little credit for it, British veal no longer comes from wholly unacceptable veal crates.
There are many practical reasons to end fur farming in the United Kingdom. My hon. Friend the Member for New Forest, West (Mr. Swayne) is understandably obsessed with the New Forest and the havoc wreaked there by the disgraceful actions of some lunatic so-called animal liberationists who released mink from a farm in
his constituency; those actions have annoyed the brigadier who writes prolifically to my hon. Friend, and we have heard from the brigadier many times this morning.
When mink escape or are released, they wreak havoc in the wild. They are not native to this country, and in Hampshire they have attacked wild and domestic animals and birds. They can spread diseases such as Aleution disease and distemper. An Oxford university study has blamed mink for the virtual disappearance of water voles from most English rivers over the past 15 years. The animals that we seek to support through the Bill are not really very nice.
Serious questions have been raised about killing practices, and I shall not repeat what other hon. Members have said. However, no qualifications or training are required in the United Kingdom for those who carry out the killing, and that may require consideration.
Compensation costs will not be considerable because the remaining industry is minimal, and the Treasury will not pay much attention to the costs. In 1997, legal opinion from a counsel used by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food concluded that no legal bar existed to banning mink farming immediately without compensation. As with many other matters, I should much prefer to use properly scrutinised primary legislation to bring that about rather than relying on the secondary regulations that the Government use all too often, even in matters of taxation. The Bill could end up helping to bail out a dying industry.
Some 60 per cent. of world trade in fur pelts is done through London. Fur traders do not believe that they will be negatively affected by the ban proposed in the Bill. The fur farming industry cannot legitimately be described as a traditional country pursuit, although that case has been put forward by opponents of the Bill. Mink were introduced here only 70 years ago; they are not native to this country. The demise of fur farms, and the affect that it would have on unemployment, would have no serious impact on rural economies; it is unlike the serious case that I could make on the impact that the end of fox hunting would have.
"relaxed, inquisitive, lively, even cheerful".
I think that one of the rather fairyland phrases he used was:
"Mink all lined up in their little cages."
5 Mar 1999 : Column 1370
I do not know which mink farm he visited, but it struck me that, when he drove up the M1, he must have taken the turning marked "Fantasy Island", because his is not the sort of description that one readily associates with a mink farm, on which animals live in wire cages.
Maria Eagle:
Is that gentleman Mr. Robert Morgan, who in the Daily Mail the other morning described the Bill as a threat to the bacon butty?
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |