FINES of up to £5,000 are to be imposed on any huntsman who hunts without a licence and any landowner who allows illegal hunting on his land, under new powers to regulate the sport.

Anyone flouting the law on just one occasion can also face a lifetime hunting ban. Police will have powers to seize and confiscate any vehicles, dogs, guns or other equipment involved in any offence.

The penalties were set out yesterday by Alun Michael, Rural Affairs Minister, in a new Hunting Bill that bans deerhunting and hare-coursing in England and Wales but allows some hunting of foxes and mink if they can pass strict tests of utility and cruelty.

The proposals set the Government on a new collision course with anti-hunt Labour MPs, hunt supporters and rural campaigners. Activists had suspended protests believing that there would be licensing for all legal hunting and they felt cheated.

Countryside campaigners are now drawing up plans to hold low-speed protests on motorways and a spectacular demonstration with hundreds of people riding on horses in London and other cities. Edward Duke, spokesman for Real Countryside Action, a loose grouping of 500 hunt supporters, said: “We have a plan and are ready to go. There is going to be a lot of fun and games for the Government. The firemen’s strike is a doddle compared to what we are going to do against an unjust Bill, which attacks our freedoms.”

The Countryside Alliance is also extremely unhappy with the Bill and now intends to fight to save deerhunting and hare-coursing in Parliament. John Jackson, its chairman, said: “The Government is just completely wrong on the subject of deerhunting and hare-coursing. We just don’t know why they are singled out.”

The Bill offers three-year permits for any hunting organisation that can demonstrate that hunting with dogs is the most humane method of pest control.

Hunting will be allowed if it protects livestock, gamebirds, food for farm animals, crops, forestry, fisheries or other property or controls the population of various wildlife species in an area. Permits will not be granted to allow hunting for sport, recreation, social, cultural or economic reasons.

Hunting will for the first time also be included in tough wildlife protection laws and any hunter found being cruel to a fox or other wild mammal will face prosecution and a fine of up to £5,000 or six months’ imprisonment.

A regulator will be appointed to decide whether hunts can be registered for the task. Animal welfare groups will be allowed to oppose any applications from hunts and individuals and English Nature and the Countryside Council for Wales will also have a legal duty to advise the registrar.

Animal welfare groups will also be allowed to appoint hunt inspectors, who will have the right to monitor any hunt “on request” to ensure that rules are not broken. Mr Michael said it was too early to say how the regulator’s office would work, how licences would be processed or how much a licence would cost.

Main points

• Deerhunting banned
• Hare-coursing banned
• Limited fox and mink hunting
• New office of hunting registrar to be created
• Registrar to decide if hunts meet tests of cruelty and utility
• Appeals will go to a new tribunal
• Ratting and rabbiting saved

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