For those people who thought the hunting debate was over, the appearance of hunts going out looking and sounding the same as before will come as a surprise. Though hunts will be acting within the law by using the numerous exemptions in the Hunting Act, this might be a suitable point to explain exactly what the legislation does and does not do and how it affects every dog owner in England and Wales. The Hunting Act states it is illegal to hunt a wild mammal with a dog, unless that hunting is exempt. What this creates is a patchwork of nonsensical rules that the dog owners will hardly understand, let alone the dogs. * It is legal to chase and kill a rabbit with a dog. * It is illegal to chase and kill a hare with a dog. * It is legal to chase and kill a rat with a dog. * It is illegal to chase and kill a mouse with a dog. * It is legal to hunt and kill a hare wounded by shooting. * It is illegal to hunt and kill a fox wounded by shooting. * It is illegal to simply chase a wild mammal away by using dogs - it must be shot. * It is illegal to chase a squirrel out of a garden using a dog. No one genuinely supportive of improving animal welfare would advocate such a ridiculous and unprincipled law. Yet the legislation proposed by the Middle Way Group to give all wild mammals protection from undue suffering was supported by the hunting world, but was not supported by those organisations obsessed with banning hunting with dogs. It is no surprise, therefore, that the former long-standing chairman of the RSPCA, John Hobhouse, has criticised that organisation for campaigning to place a "severely flawed and unworkable" law on the statute book. JAMES BARRINGTON, Consultant, All Party Parliamentary Middle Way Group | 
