A vindication of the rights of foxes

(... with apologies to Mary Wollstonecraft).

My housemates are underwhelmed, but I am delighted. No more fox hunting! This was practically the first thing I ever had a political view on, the first law I ever wanted changed, and 20 years later it's happened. Could even be enough to get me to vote Labour again.

All through my teens I had pictures of foxes with their guts ripped out adorning my school folders and bedroom walls. People would occasionally express discomfort at this (along with the photos of the monkeys with electrodes in their brains and rabbits with shampoo in their eyes), which was of course exactly what I was after as then I could harangue them at length. If you're uncomfortable, do something. If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem. And so on.

Over time I have switched my (declining) campaigning zeal away from animal rights and towards human ones, but I still believe. I don't eat animals, I don't buy products that are tested on them and I still argue whenever I get the opportunity that bloodsports are utterly inhumane and, moreover, utterly anachronistic in 21st century Europe. The Russians may still shoot bears from helicopters, the Spanish may still stab bulls with spikes as hordes cheer, but they won't forever.

John Rolls, the RSPCA's director of animal welfare, is quoted as saying "this bill is a watershed in the development of a more civilised society for people and animals".

I couldn't agree more.

joella