My Lords, I speak today in support of the ban on hunting with hounds. I am pleased to note that I am in the very good company of the Prime Minister, my noble friend Lord Whitty and the majority of Members in another place. I wish to declare an interest in that I am the vice chair of the Labour Animal Welfare Society and a joint secretary of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare.

One form of cruelty which is often overlooked in this debate is the unnecessary suffering caused to the thousands of dogs used in fox, deer, hare and mink hunting. I am in no doubt as to the immense suffering caused to wild mammals when they are chased to exhaustion, brutally savaged by a pack of hounds, or forced to fight underground with terriers. But what is often forgotten is the plight of the tools of all this cruelty, particularly the hounds and the terriers.

The plight of the foxhound starts early in its short life. When puppies that do not show aptitude for hunting, or their colouring or body shape does not meet requirements, they are usually shot by the kennelman. Those foxhounds that are fortunate enough to make the grade as puppies are then trained to chase and kill foxes during the cub hunting season, a particularly unpleasant aspect of hunting that involves the chasing and killing of fox cubs in order to teach the young hounds to kill.

Hunts will follow wherever the scent of their quarry takes them and it is this that makes the route of hunting live quarry so unpredictable. As a result, many hounds end up being run over on the roads, or even hit by speeding trains after straying onto railway lines. Others become injured on barbed wire fences or get lost from the pack for days on end.

Perhaps I may give an example. In November 1999, six hounds were electrocuted and killed as the New Forest Foxhounds trespassed across a railway line. The incident was witnessed by passengers on a London to Bournemouth train that ran over the bodies of the hounds. Not only did that incident cause the senseless loss of six hounds but also delayed the train involved, which led to another 61 trains being delayed. The Wiltshire Times reported the needless deaths of three beagles from the Wiltshire and Infantry Beagles at Steeple Ashton, near Trowbridge. A car hit two beagles as they chased a hare across the A350 between West Ashton and Stoney Gutter—with one of the beagles sustaining fatal injuries. Another dog was killed at a nearby roundabout and the third fatality occurred as the dog tried to make its way back to the pack.

When hounds reach the age of six or seven—around half their normal life expectancy—most are shot by the very people that they have loyally served since their birth. It makes a mockery of the hunts' claims that in the event of a ban on hunting with dogs, they will have no alternative but to shoot their hounds when they do so anyway. It is estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 hounds are killed in that way by hunts every year.

The RSPCA believes that a mass slaughter of hounds in the event of a ban would be totally irresponsible and unnecessary. The society has pledged to do everything it can to prevent such needless destruction at the hands of the hunts. The Committee of Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs found that,

The Government's Hunting Bill, which fell in March last year, contained such a lead-in period although the RSPCA believes that responsible hunts should start to wind down their breeding programmes immediately, to reduce the number of hounds left in the event of a ban.

When the time comes for hunts to disband, they will have three options open to them: disband and rehome their hounds; disband the hunt but keep their hounds; or convert to drag hunting. I believe that a switch to drag hunting would be the preferable option, as it would allow the hunt to retain the sport, pageantry and social side of hunting while allowing the hounds to continue to be kept in packs.

Hounds that cannot be rehomed with drag hunts should be assessed for their suitability for rehoming elsewhere. The RSPCA has offered to work with hunts to help find alternative homes.

Perhaps the most brutal and callous form of cruelty inflicted on dogs in the name of sport occurs in terrier work. Most registered fox hunts use the services of terrier men or fox diggers—individuals employed to find, dig out and kill foxes that have found an underground refuge during a hunt. That activity has become a "sport" in its own right, attracting thousands of enthusiasts who kill an estimated 50,000 foxes a year for fun.

Most people are familiar with the illegal practice of badger digging, in which terriers are sent underground to find badgers—often resulting in appalling injuries to both dog and badger. Fox digging works in exactly the same way. The only difference is that fox digging is perfectly legal because foxes are not afforded the same legal protection as badgers. The legal loophole that allows the digging out of foxes while outlawing the same practice for badgers has provided persons engaged in the illegal practice of badger baiting with a convenient alibi.

In recent years there have been several court cases where suspected badger baiters have escaped or have attempted to escape conviction by claiming they were hunting for foxes rather than badgers.

Only recently, a gang of suspected badger baiters—most of whom were Welsh, I am sorry to say—escaped conviction by exploiting that very loophole. The six men, accompanied by 12 dogs, were found at the entrance of what was believed to be a badger sett in Wales. When found by police, the men claimed that they had been digging for a fox that had gone to ground. The court heard that two of the dogs were seen trying to get into a tunnel at the bottom of the hole and that a squealing noise could be heard. When one of the dogs was pulled out of the tunnel, it was heavily bloodstained and was later found to have badger hairs in its mouth. A veterinary surgeon that examined the dog said:

The magistrates felt that it could not be proven that the accused were hunting badgers rather than foxes, so acquitted the six men.

When a fox finds an underground refuge during a hunt, terriers are sent into the earth to locate it. If the terrier finds the fox, an underground battle may ensue between the two animals—one in which both dog and fox can suffer horrific injuries. The fox is then either flushed from the earth by the terrier or is dug out and shot at close range by a waiting terrier man.

The RSPCA has successfully prosecuted a number of terrier owners for failing to seek veterinary treatment for terriers injured during such encounters. I am pleased that one recent case of that type led to recognition by the High Court that those who send terriers into earths, where an underground battle may ensue as the terrified quarry tries to defend itself, can be guilty of "cruelly ill-treating" their dogs—not to mention the suffering inflicted on the fox. Those can hardly be regarded as the activities of animal lovers.