BRITAIN: The Blair government's ban on hunting will face a stern test today, with thousands planning to ride out and test the new law.
Rural Affairs Minister Mr Alun Michael has welcomed the declared intention of many of the 260 hunts in England and Wales to try to keep within the law by drag-hunting - where the dogs follow a scent laid out by a fox's carcass being dragged along the ground - or flushing out foxes and shooting them.
However, amid concerns that the attorney general has so far issued no instructions to police on how to deal with people who break the law, Mr Simon Hart, of the Countryside Alliance, has questioned how police will ensure that there are no violations.
"The definitions of legal and illegal hunting are so blurred that the police are being asked to make impossible judgments," Mr Hart said yesterday. "You can hunt a rat but not a mouse, a rabbit but not a hare, an artificial scent but not a real one."
Mr Michael dismissed claims of confusion, however, insisting: "The hunting community has always said that they are law-abiding members of the community, and I expect them to keep their word. From now on, if people set out to hunt a wild mammal with dogs, whether it be a fox, a mink, a hare or a deer, they will be breaking the law. There is no doubt about what the law entails, and claims by some hunts that there is confusion are simply ill-informed."
More than 100,000 people and 150 hunts took to the countryside on Thursday, before the new law came into force at midnight, and there are suggestions that even greater numbers will be out to test the law today in conjunction with plans for civil disobedience and challenges to anti-hunting Labour MPs in the forthcoming general election.
The famous Beaufort Hunt will be among those riding out, although it says that its meet will be a drag-hunt. While that is also the official position of many hunts, others have said that they will "accidentally" chase live foxes.
Under the new law, if hounds veer off a drag-hunt, the hunt will be expected to try to stop them. For a prosecution to succeed, it will have to be shown that the hunt intentionally pursued the fox. People found guilty of hunting illegally face maximum fines of £5,000 (€7,246) and the courts will have the power to confiscate and destroy dogs, vehicles and hunting equipment.
Anticipating that enforcement of the new law will not be a high priority for the police, Mr Hart commented: "No one will blame the police for prioritising crimes which have a real impact on people's lives." But the League Against Cruel Sports wrote to the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, making clear its expectation that evidence of offences under the Hunting Act would lead to prompt prosecutions. Its chairman, Mr John Cooper, said: "Just as the police have acknowledged their duty to investigate allegations of hunting offences, so we expect the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute where there is clear evidence. Political interference in the judicial process would be unthinkable."
Meanwhile, Labour MP Mr Tony Banks predicted that the issue would soon disappear. "I think we are going to find that, after a few difficulties, this is going to disappear and people in a few years' time will be wondering what on earth all the fuss was about," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Asked about possible electoral damage to the government, Mr Banks said: "Most people for whom hunting is their way of life and the most important thing in their life would not vote Labour even if Labour brought back slavery and witch-burning."