What the people of Exmoor said to the Press .

What the people of Exmoor said to the Press ...............

"These MPs are voting with their hearts, not with their heads.. Hunting people are not going to give in to this - we will continue to try and reason with people who do not want to listen to reason at the moment. This vote has not been about hunting - it has been about freedom of choice and civil liberties, about tearing the heart out of the countryside without any foresight at all".
Diana Scott,
Joint Master, Devon & Somerset Staghounds

"They know as much about hunting and country life as I do about jet engines - which is nothing. They are acting from a complete basis of ignorance. This has nothing to do with people. They are targeting people who go hunting and live in the country. It is the wild animals that will suffer from this ban - it will be miles and miles worse for them than being caught at the end of a hunt when the animal can escape or it will be dead. Even experienced shooters admit they don't hit the target every time and one slightly inaccurate shot can cause far more suffering. We will keep fighting - we are not beaten yet by a long way. This could finish up in the European courts".
Dick Lloyd,
President, Devon & Somerset Staghounds

"We shall certainly not stop hunting - why should we? There has been overwhelming support throughout the countryside for this sport. I think it will put a great strain on the countryside, a great strain on the police and a great strain on the politicians. I can't think what they are up to - we all have votes".
Captain Ronnie Wallace,
Master, Exmoor Foxhounds

"I have three children aged between seven and ten and they love hunting. We are sheep farmers and foxes need to be controlled or they will kill lambs".
Banger Milton,
Farmer on Exmoor

"If the ban goes ahead we will lose our home and all our animals".
Sue Allibone,
Employee, Dulverton East Foxhounds

"My partner is a farrier, and as the season is from the end of July to the start of May, we would lose perhaps 70 per cent of our income".
Libby Porch,
Minehead

"The strength of feeling is such that defiant is the only way to describe it. The result of the vote was not unexpected but it still hasn't really sunk in. I'm 66 and I've hunted all my life - it's a way of life and it would be a disaster for areas like West Somerset, both socially and economically. But it's not the end of the road and we haven't given up".
Sid Westcott,
Master, Minehead Harriers

"Our message is that if the Government wants to ban hunting then let them go ahead and try - but then the fight will really begin. We are not going to sit back and let them ruin people's lives and livelihoods. The real issue of animal welfare is that the alternative methods of management are really cruel".
jeanette Branton,
Chairman, Endangered Exmoor

"The Government will have a hell of a job to police it if it becomes law. If we want to go up on the moor to hunt I don't see how anyone can stop us".
John Kent,
Farrier, Exmoor

"A lot of people on Exmoor and in this area feel very strongly about this. Any victory will be a hollow one for the opponents, but there's still a long way to go and a lot of questions to be answered. Even if the ban goes through we can take it to the European Court of Human Rights, and how would they implement it anyway. There is many a successful martyr who makes a hero".
Paddy Groves,
Master, Quantock Staghounds

"It was a complete farce and a cynical exercise by the Government to appease their back-benchers. The debate only served to reveal the depths of ignorance about the countryside. The issues have not been thought through and this legislation would prove unworkable. In an area like West Somerset hunting is so much part of the fabric of the countryside. A ban would upset the balance of deer and fox management, and the various methods of control have serious drawbacks".
Tom King, MP
Bridgwater

"A ban would change everything .......... hunting is what makes the village and countryside work. It's a way of life, and I like my life, it's what I choose to do".
Sue Jones,
Groom, Exmoor

"The glee of those MPs who turned hunters with dogs into criminals was sad to witness. They may have voted according to their consciences but they did not vote at the behest of the people they represent. Nor did they study alternative death options for foxes or give thought to the huge cost of a ban to the countryside in terms of ground-bird extinction, unemployment, and how farmers will dispose of dead livestock currently dealt with by hunts as hound feed."
Ranulph Fiennes,
Exmoor

And one from the past ....................
"Never under-estimate the minority".
Sir Winston Churchill

More Quotes from Exmoor People