http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991226/re/britain_hunting_1.html

Sunday December 26 9:14 AM ET

British Celebrities Press for Ban on Fox Hunting

                By Ralph Gowling

                LONDON (Reuters) - Pop star Noel Gallagher and other British celebrities wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair Sunday calling for a ban on fox hunting.

                Gallagher, frontman and songwriter for chart-topping band Oasis, chose to draw attention to the issue on the eve of hundreds of traditional Christmas season hunts across Britain on Monday.

                The sight of red-coated huntsmen riding after foxes with packs of hounds has been a traditional feature of country life in Britain for more than 300 years and raises strong passions among both supporters and animal rights activists.

``At the dawn of the new millennium outdated and barbaric activities such as hunting should be consigned to the history books,'' Gallagher said in his letter.

Other celebrities who sent letters backing the lobby group Campaign for the Protection of Hunted Animals Sunday were astronomer Patrick Moore and television scriptwriter Carla Lane.

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and leading actress Dame Judi Dench are among stars who have already given their support to the campaign.

Blair's Labor government said in November it would back legislation to ban fox hunting but would not push it through parliament itself.

Home Secretary Jack Straw said the government had decided to help an individual politician get a bill on to the statute book once an inquiry had been completed into the effects on rural life of a ban.

Private member's bills -- introduced by individual members of parliament -- have next to no chance of success unless the government gives them enough time in the crowded timetable of parliament.

One such bill to ban fox hunting was introduced in 1997 but ran into the sand when the government, spooked by a highly vocal countryside campaign, quietly let it die even though a large majority of MPs backed it.

Pro-hunting countryside lobbyists have been highly vocal in the past few months and say a ban would jeopardize 16,000 jobs.

Heir to the throne Prince Charles angered anti-blood sports activists in November by taking his son Prince William out for a day's hunt.