{"id":776340,"date":"2024-08-19T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T13:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=776340"},"modified":"2024-08-19T09:38:40","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T13:38:40","slug":"they-belong-on-mi5s-watch-list-fox-hunters-demand-protection-from-animal-rights-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=776340","title":{"rendered":"THEY HAVE ‘BALLS’: Fox hunters demand ‘minority’ protection from animal rights groups"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t

The campaign group 'Hunting Kind' claims that people who are pro-hunting are actually a minority group who should be protected by law from animal rights activists. They cite examples of 'balls' being cancelled due to pressure from animal rights campaigners, hunts being sabotaged, and hunters facing issues with employment. Becoming a protected group would make it illegal for employers or venues providing services to discriminate against someone for having a pro-hunting stance.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

ABAGAIL BUCHANAN:<\/strong> Under the UK’s 2010 Equality Act, discrimination on the basis of characteristics including age, sex, religion or belief \u2013 including pacifism and ethical veganism \u2013 is illegal.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ed Swales, a robust, 55-year-old former Army captain from rural Northumberland, does not appear to qualify on any of the above but now the culture wars have reached the countryside, he might. Swales has mounted a legal campaign to make fox hunting a protected characteristic.<\/em><\/p>\n

Swales has spent three years gathering evidence to argue that people who are pro-hunting are actually a minority group who should be protected by law. He has also suggested that hunters could be given \u201cintangible cultural heritage\u201d status by UNESCO based on recognition of the community\u2019s spoken word and oral tradition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually as much, if not more, \u2018animal people\u2019 than the animal rights activists,\u201d he says. \u201cWe live it, eat it, breathe it and sleep it \u2013 it\u2019s our life. It\u2019s not just some sort of weird hobby.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This is red meat to anti-hunting protesters who argue fox hunting is cruel, violent and unnecessary. BBC presenter Chris Packham was among the first to comment, taking to X, formerly known as Twitter to ask his followers: \u201cWhat shall we call them \u2013 I\u2019ll go first: \u2018barbaric savages\u2019\u201d. In a subsequent post, Packham vowed to fight against it and called it an \u201coutright insult\u201d…<\/em><\/p>\n

Becoming a protected group, like Roma travellers or the LGBTQ+ community, would make it illegal for employers or venues providing services to discriminate against someone for having a pro-hunting stance. Swales\u2019 campaign group, Hunting Kind, is now looking for test cases to take to court…<\/em><\/p>\n

Where Swales lives in north Northumberland is rural and remote, so he says he has never directly encountered the type of discrimination he hears others face in more populated areas. However, he cites examples of balls being cancelled due to pressure from animal rights campaigners, hunts being sabotaged, and hunters facing issues with employment.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey have horrendous problems,\u201d he says, \u201cVehicles have been smashed up and had the windows smashed, the tyres slashed, we\u2019ve had hounds kidnapped \u2013 stolen, never to be seen again.\u201d Some animal rights groups qualify as \u201cextremists, without a doubt,\u201d he says. \u201cThey should be on the watch list of MI5″…<\/em><\/p>\n

Hunting Kind has drawn up a philosophical belief system, which states that \u201chumanity has a responsibility of stewardship towards the countryside and for sustainable wildlife management.\u201d Additionally, they believe that \u201cnatural and traditional hunting with animals for pest control and wildlife management is sustainable, ecologically sensitive, naturally selective and humane”…<\/em><\/p>\n

If you are in any doubt as to what that \u201cperceived class of people\u201d is, one citizen journalist who posted a riposte to Hunting Kind\u2019s campaign described Swales as \u201ca man who appears to believe that an overabundance of red trousers [qualifies] him and his merry band of killers as cultural pioneers”. SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

RELATED VIDEO:<\/strong><\/p>\n