Some individuals in favor of fox hunting in Great Britain are threatening a campaign of illegal actions in response to the recently passed ban on fox hunting that will likely phase out the practice by 2005.
The Observer cites former Countryside Alliance executive Edward Duke who is now at the helm of the Real Countryside Alliance, a breakaway group of the Countryside Alliance, which is threatening such actions.
The Observer quotes Duke as saying,
It will be spectacular. We will target backbench MPs, block in their cars, chant in their surgeries and heckle them wherever they go. We will target government offices, county halls and Parliament. There will be transportation blockages — we have all learnt from the French lorry drivers.
As if there isn’t already enough extremism centered around animal issues in the UK.
Credit goes to Countryside Action Network head Janet George, however, who tells The Observer that her group wants no part of any acts of violence,
There is quite a serious risk that a few hotheaded individuals are going to do something damn stupid. People are so angry. But I think it would be a disaster for the hunting cause if it were to happen.
According to The Observer, however, her group is likely to engage in traffic stoppages.
Sources:
Hunt activists to hound ministers . Stuart Millar, The Guardian, July 5, 2003.
Pro-hunt extremists threaten to wreck reservoirs and railways. Anushka Asthana and Paul Harris, The Observer, July 6, 2003.