CHARLES: HUNTING FOXES IS ROMANTIC
Prince’s PM plea to halt ban
PRINCE Charles called fox hunting “romantic” as he tried to stop it being banned, it has emerged.
The country-loving royal lobbied PM Tony Blair not to outlaw the bloodsport in a letter in 2002. He wrote that there was “complete bewilderment” the Government was heeding calls to ban a pursuit that was “environmentally friendly and non- polluting”. And he suggested hunt opponents were not driven by concern for foxes so much as hatred of the upper classes.
The letter, released under Freedom of Information rules, claimed hunting was “completely natural – in that it relies entirely on man’s ancient and, indeed, romantic relationship with dogs and horses”.
It claimed ex-hunt saboteurs had come to realise that allowing it to continue was the best way of ensuring foxes’ welfare, adding: “Their fellow opponents are chiefly driven by antipathy to the type of person who they think goes hunting.”
Despite Charles’ intervention, which was revealed in a Sunday newspaper report yesterday, the Hunting Act became law in 2005 and made chasing wild mammals with hounds illegal. Last night Philippa King of the League Against Cruel Sports said: “Seeing a fox ripped out of a hole and thrown to the hounds is not my idea of romantic.”
A spokesman for Charles said he was “simply encouraging the Government to take the views of the countryside on board”.
DEER are still being chased for miles and killed in stag hunts which are branded “research” to exempt them from the ban, animal cruelty campaigners say.