By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent
Queen guitarist and animal campaigner Brian May is set to lead a protest urging policymakers to keep the Hunting Act intact outside Westminster on Tuesday.
The musician and activist – along with May’s Save Me Trust, PETA, the RSPCA, the League Against Cruel Sports, Born Free, Lush and Humane Society International – will descend on Westminster in an attempt to make the public aware of the high stakes of the vote: that amending the existing rules to increase the number of dogs allowed to flush out wild animals would, for all intents and purposes, make fox hunting legal again.
“UK citizens have made their voices heard and support a ban on the cruel and destructive practice of hunting these vulnerable, fragile animals”, says PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi. “We’re calling on decisionmakers to heed their constituents by maintaining the current limit on hunting with dogs.”
“We are appalled and shocked that the government would try to bring back fox hunting in 2015. It is turning the clock back on cruelty and against the will of 80% of the population” says Save Me Trust CEO Anne Brummer.
Tom Quinn, Director of Campaigns for the League Against Cruel Sports says the groups coming together on Tuesday, known collectively as Team Fox, represent not only the majority of Britain but, “all the animals that are targeted by hunts, including deer and hares.” He says that “Hunters are a minority who like to make animals suffer in the name of ‘sport’. They don’t represent the countryside. Team Fox is determined to ensure that MPs understand the truth about what hunting really is, and vote the way the public want them to vote with no compromise – and keep cruelty history.”
Wednesday’s upcoming vote threatens to overturn a limit on hunting with more than two dogs – a decision that would doom countless animals to the terror of long, exhausting chases that typically end only when they’ve been torn apart.
Where: Old Palace Yard, SW1, Westminster, London
When: Tuesday, 14 July, 11 am
