Sportsmen hound queen after Britain bans fox hunting

LONDON – Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales Thursday as elected legislators won a dramatic standoff with the House of Lords to ban a popular country sport that is despised by many urbanites. Some hunting supporters vowed to defy the ban.

The years-long debate over outlawing a sport opponents see as simply cruel has been highly charged and deeply divisive. Scotland previously outlawed hound hunting.

The chamber invoked the rarely used 1949 Parliament Act to force the ban into law despite the opposition of the unelected House of Lords. After the Lords rejected one last compromise gesture, to postpone the effective date until 2006, Speaker of the Commons Michael Martin announced the bill had been passed. The formality of royal assent followed within 45 minutes.

Proponents of fox hunting pledged to go to court to fight the ban, which takes affect in three months. “True civil disobedience is now on the horizon,” John Jackson, chairman of the pro-hunting Countryside Alliance, said as the House of Commons voted.

Several hundred whistling, banner-waving hunting supporters gathered Thursday night outside Windsor Castle, where Queen Elizabeth II was staging a banquet in honor of French President Jacques Chirac.

“There are a lot of angry people here, people of all ages and from all backgrounds, who are fed up with being ignored,” said Ian Agnew, chairman of the Surrey Union Hunt.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had vainly promoted a compromise to regulate hunting, agreed with both sides in predicting that the battle would quickly move to the courts.

While it will still be legal to shoot foxes, the legislation bans all hunting with hounds, including the pursuit of rabbits and deer.

Opponents of hunting with hounds say it is unacceptably cruel since the dogs kill foxes by tearing them apart. They also deride it as a mainly aristocratic pastime. Prince Charles and other royals are among the most prominent participants.