Britain's House of Commons has approved a controversial ban on fox-hunting but the debate was overshadowed by the foot-and-mouth crisis gripping the countryside.
The ban, which had been fiercely opposed by country-dwellers, was passed by 319 votes to 140 - a comfortable majority of 179.
The Bill will go to the House of Lords which has to approve it before it can become law.
It is widely expected that the ban will become bogged down in the Lords, where pro-hunting Conservatives are in the majority.
Animal rights campaigners welcomed the fact that the ban had passed this far.
"This is a very important day for animal welfare and a major step forward in the campaign to end the cruelty of hunting," said Mr Douglas Batchelor, chairman of the Campaign for the Protection of Hunted Animals.
AFP