Countryside Alliance discuss the future of hunting on BBC Radio 4 Farming Today

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive, Tim Bonner, appeared on BBC Radio 4 Farming Today this morning to debate the Hunting Act and the future of hunting.

To listen to the interview, follow this link (Tim in on between 5:25-10:10mins): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084thdt

During the interview, Tim made the following points:

"The Hunting Act makes no sense whatsoever. It's completely illogical and always has been. Everybody knows that. It was all about politics, it was not a logical attempt to deal with an issue on the basis of animal welfare concerns.

"Last year we saw a reasonable attempt to amend the legislation in a way that should have been perfectly acceptable to all sane people. We know that the SNP MPs, for reasons they can explain, decided to conduct a 180 degree turn on their previous commitment not to involve themselves in legislation that had nothing to do with Scotland. And for that reason it's difficult to see in the near future how there is a way of taking this forward.

"But it's not going to go away ever because this is about more than just packs of hounds and foxes. It's about the principle and how we legislate on animal welfare and manage the countryside. This will therefore remain on the political agenda in this Parliament, the next Parliament and the one after that.

"Is this a debate about animal welfare or is it a debate about imposing one set of peoples morality upon another set of people? Clearly the Hunting Act is about the latter. This is about a judgement on people, rather than a judgement on the activity or whether it benefits animal welfare."