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The noble Baroness said: In moving Amendment No. 5, I shall speak to the other amendments in the group. The amendments relate to hare coursing. Amendments Nos. 5 to 9 all leave out "a" and insert "an unregistered", so that Clause 5 would read:
"A person commits an offence if he . . . participates in a hare coursing event . . . attends an unregistered hare coursing event . . . knowingly facilitates an unregistered hare coursing event, or . . . permits land which belongs to him to be used for the purpose of an unregistered hare coursing event . . . Each of the following persons commits an offence if a dog participates in an unregistered hare coursing event".
Amendment No. 50 would insert,
Amendment No. 87 is consequential on that amendment in the Long Title of the Bill.
These clauses underline the principle of registration which the Committee overwhelmingly voted for earlier this evening. It has been agreed that hunting should be put under the control of a registrar; in other words, it is up to the registrar with, one hopes, the help of a hunting tribunal, to decide whether hunting should take place under regulation or, alternatively, whether it should be banned.
We must now decide whether hunting of some animals should be banned without consulting the registrar. These clauses deal with hare coursing. I submit that we cannot have it both ways: either the registrar is a fit person to rule on animal welfare, on utility and least suffering for all wild animals, or he is not. We should not pick and choose; we have appointed a registrar to do a job, we should give him our total support to do it, and we should allow hare coursing to come under the registrar. I beg to move.
Lord Eden of Winton: I find this a very difficult issue on which to come to a decision. The noble Lord, Lord Burns, referred to hare coursing in his Second Reading speech, when he said:
"The welfare arguments against coursing are probably the clearest of all, as population control plays no part. But I have a residual worry that a ban on coursing would not eliminate the activity but would merely result in diversion into other forms of coursing".—[Official Report, 12/10/04; col. 145.]
Unfortunately, the noble Lord, Lord Burns, did not develop his case regarding what he had in mind when he referred to "other forms of coursing". I wonder whether the noble Baroness, Lady Golding, who spoke to this group of amendments, is able to shed light on that as it would certainly have an influence on the way in which I approach this subject.
I emphasise that we are talking about coursing and that we are not discussing beagling. Beagling has quite different connotations and is quite another activity, which in my view should be facilitated. However, coursing troubles me because of what was referred to on the clause stand part debate; namely, the incidence of illegal coursing activity on land, estates and properties when the owner in question has not given consent for that. That is a very troublesome activity. I have been given evidence of the kind of coercion and excessive threatening behaviour which accompanies that activity, which in my view should not be countenanced at all.
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I believe that a national body oversees coursing. I should have thought that an activity such as coursing was a prime example of an activity where registration and licensing should be imposed. There ought to be clearly defined rules of conduct. Coursing should be allowed to take place within certain clearly prescribed regulations. Perhaps that happens already, but as I have indicated—I hope for long enough—I am totally confused by this whole subject. I find it a very difficult one to fit into the context of hunting. It does not appeal to me as hunting as such, but none the less it is an activity in the country which deserves careful scrutiny and ought to be regulated properly.
Lord Best: In supporting this amendment I wish to make some comments that might be helpful to those of your Lordships who have not made up their minds on coursing. This amendment's effect would be to treat hare coursing in the same way as fox hunting, beagling and so on. Coursing would be subject to the same tests, and only if registered would it be able to continue.
If the amendment is not carried, hare coursing will be singled out for very special treatment. Irrespective of the arrangements for hunting, it would be the subject of an immediate ban. I confess that I have come very late to any knowledge of coursing, but I have now gained an understanding of it and my view is that a grave injustice would be done if hare coursing were regarded as so heinous a pursuit that draconian measures must be taken to close it down immediately.
When the previous version of the Hunting Bill was debated in your Lordships' House I felt compelled to speak up for coursing because I had been, with some trepidation, to two coursing meetings. I discovered there to my astonishment that my ideas about coursing were wildly wrong. First, I discovered that my understanding that the object was for hares to be chased and then killed by greyhounds was very wide of the mark. The objective, it turned out, was not to kill or harm a hare. The two greyhounds, coursing dogs, that race in each heat get no points for catching or killing a hare. They are tested on their speed and agility, being released by the slipper when the hare has run a hundred metres past him. I saw no hares killed at those two meetings. Subsequently my knowledge has increased and I now know that some hares are killed, and these are the facts. There were 1,380 occasions when coursing dogs at the regulated official meetings went after hares last year, and 126 hares were caught. That compares to thousands that are shot each year.
My second discovery was that the hares involved were not, as I thought, captured earlier and then taken to the coursing meeting to be released. That was entirely misguided. The hares are born and bred in the wild. For three or four coursing meetings each year, a big circle of beaters channels them to the field where the coursing dogs are. The hares are likely to enjoy the best possible conditions. Wherever there is coursing, there are many more and healthier brown hare populations. In those parts of north Yorkshire, East Anglia or wherever regulated coursing takes place under National Coursing Club rules, the farmers and
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landowners create an environment in which hares will prosper. That requires some sacrifices in modern farming practice. More land is set aside. Grass cannot be cut for silage, as that would happen in May, when the leverets lie low in the field and would be killed by the silage making. Poisoned slug pellets cannot be put down. Hedges, copses and grass verges are extended.
Moreover, in terms of enhancing the lives of hares rather than taking them, coursing involves rather more than conservation. It also protects the hare populations from the most vicious of their predators—the illegal coursing poachers, to whom the noble Viscount, Lord Astor, referred. They bring their lurchers and greyhounds to engage in a truly cruel free-for-all. The rules are simple: kill, kill, kill. It is a violent and aggressive sport. Bets are placed on which dog will kill the most hares. But hares enjoy protection on the land where organised coursing takes place and brings in an income from the participants who come to the coursing meetings. Trouble is taken to lock gates, create obstacles for intruders, and patrol the farmland. The nightmare scenario is legal coursing being unilaterally banned, with no one then paid to protect hares. If coursing is banned, those on whose land there are good stocks of hares would be well advised to shoot them as self-protection from highly undesirable elements trespassing on their land, creating damage and killing the hares.
I declare a new interest. My wife has kindly bought me a share in a greyhound puppy which I hope one day to see run. Meanwhile, I have come to the firm view that a grave injustice could be done, based on the kind of deep-seated ignorance of what modern-day, regulated and organised coursing consists of—ignorance that I displayed until recently. I cannot for the life of me see that coursing is so very different from beagling, which is also involved in hare conservation but accounts for 1,650 hares killed each year, compared with 126 for coursing.
I recognise that hare coursing is a sport, like fishing and shooting. However, shooting hares—it will be the fate of so many if they are not conserved for coursing—means that 25 per cent of those shot will be wounded and suffer a prolonged death. The noble Lord, Lord Burns, mentioned that in his report. The exponents of coursing clearly do a good deal for the countryside, as well as providing a major social occasion for people in pretty remote rural areas, many of whom cannot afford many other pleasures in life. It seems grossly unfair for the activity to be condemned on the basis of near-universal ignorance of what today's coursing comprises.
The amendment would see hare coursing taking its chances to be assessed alongside the likes of fox hunting. Only if it stands the test of that scrutiny would it continue. The Committee should give organised coursing the chance to seek registration and prove its case.
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