Summer 2024
In a nice nod to the film Apocalypse Now, the Chair’s introduction begins, “I love the smell of citronella in the morning; it smells like victory.” Chris Packham is pictured in conversation with a sab on the front cover and the editor refers to him as “the real leader of the opposition, the Right Honourable Mr Chris Packham.” His article within is superb. The sense of entitlement which means that some feel they are above the law and the persecution of those decent, caring people who seek to uphold it and protect wildlife are repugnant, he says. The end of fox hunting won’t solve everything but it will be symbolically and hugely significant. Killing wildlife for fun will be seen as “socially abhorrent. The children and the grandchildren of contemporary fox hunters will deny their heritage, they will be ashamed, just as the descendants of slave owners and traffickers seek to bury their rotten history.” Their time is up, they are on their knees, lashing out because they know what’s coming. Two hunts have already folded since the election.
The HSA will keep up the pressure until the forthcoming glorious moment (first celebrated in 2004 when the Hunting Act was passed, but it turned out to be, deliberately (thanks to Tony Bliar), totally ineffective) but afterwards will be far from idle. There will still be those who will carry on their vile pastime who will need monitoring and sabbing, and they will continue to address many other issues, such as hare coursing, beagling, animal experimentation and the shooting industry.
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