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For three hundred years gentlemen in red coats have ridden
behind packs of dogs, chasing foxes across the English countryside. However,
now one of England's most colorful and traditional sights is in danger of vanishing
forever. A number of important politicians think that
fox hunting is cruel and should be banned; most people who love animals would
agree with this, but is there another way of looking at this matter? Firstly,
banning fox hunting would result in about 33,000 hunt staff losing their jobs,
although the real figure would be much higher. Many
more people such as blacksmiths, saddle-makers, feed suppliers and others are
dependent on the hunt for a living and would lose a lot of their business if the
hunt were to close. In addition, fishermen and people
who enjoy shooting are worried that people will want to ban their sports as well
if fox hunting is banned. Its critics say that fox
hunting is cruel, but the hunters argue that other methods of controlling foxes
such as gassing or trapping are much worse. They also
say that farmers and hunters work together to preserve parts of the countryside,
which would otherwise be lost. Furthermore, hunters
say that it is not strictly an upper-class sport and say that people from all
walks of life enjoy hunting foxes on a regular basis. | 
