England: Political Clown Labels Anti-Hunting Activists as Extremists
Trying to stop something that is already illegal now makes you an extremist.
Boris Johnson suggests that extremism rules should apply to anti-fox hunting activists. The Prime Minister told the Countryside Alliance that anti-hunting groups could face rules designed for domestic terrorist organizations..
Mr. Johnson made the proposal in response to a question from the blood sport-promoting lobby group “Countryside Alliance” during one of his campaign events, according to the Mirror.
Mr. Johnson told the group, which advocates for hunting, that anti-fox hunting activists who disrupt their events could face consequences developed by the government in response to recommendations from the Commission for Countering Extremism.
The group said they had asked him: “Will you commit to taking measures to combat extremism in the area of animal rights, including relevant recommendations from the government’s Commission for Countering Extremism, which is due to report this summer?»
In response, Mr. Johnson said: “While I am committed to protecting animal welfare, I will not tolerate extremism, intimidation, and abuse, regardless of the motives behind them.»
According to the Farmer’s Guardian, he added: “I will consider all recommendations coming from the Commission for Countering Extremism.»
When Boris Johnson was still an MP for the Henley constituency, he repeatedly voted against a ban on fox hunting.
Hunting wildlife with hounds was banned in England and Wales in 2004, after animal welfare advocates argued that it only leads to unnecessary animal suffering.
If Boris Johnson wants to talk about extreme violence, he should first watch recreational hunters’ hounds senselessly tearing apart a fox. That is violence and terror.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
