AN ANIMAL management lecturer has launched a petition after Basingstoke MP Maria Miller said she would vote to repeal the fox hunting ban.

As reported in The Gazette last week, Mrs Miller said she would vote to repeal the ban if a vote comes to the House of Parliament as expected under the current government.

She said the current Hunting Act, passed under a Labour government ten years ago, “does nothing to protect wild animals”.

She added that “in many cases, (it) is actually detrimental to animal welfare when other methods of control are deployed, several of which can be indiscriminate”.

But Daniel O’Loughlin, an animal management lecturer at Sparsholt College, near Winchester, said: “It really got my hackles up quite a bit when I read that.

“As a piece of legislation, the Hunting Act is actually good. To say that fox hunting is good for animal management is a lie put forward by the hunting lobby. It goes against all the scientific evidence.”

The 29-year-old from Oakridge said he tried to contact Mrs Miller’s office after reading the story in The Gazette but got no response. He said he has now written her a letter.

Mr O’Loughlin set up the petition using the 38 degrees website, which calls on Mrs Miller to vote to keep the ban on fox hunting.

More than 350 people had signed it by the time The Gazette went to press, and Mr O’Loughlin said he would like to hand it to Mrs Miller before Westminster politicians break for their summer holidays this month.

He added it would be a “success” if the petition leads Mrs Miller to abstain in any vote to repeal the ban. He also said that it was not a political move, despite the fact that he is a member of the Labour party and stood for election in Rooksdown in the recent local elections.

The controversial topic has returned to the political agenda after the Conservative Party pledged to hold a free vote on repealing the law in its manifesto, before it won the general election in May. Mrs Miller’s views were aired in a letter to a constituent who had raised concerns about the possibility of a free vote.

The Gazette asked both North East Hampshire MP Ranil Jayawardena and North West Hampshire MP Kit Malthouse for their views on what they would do if a vote came to parliament.

Mr Jayawardena said he was yet to decide and Mr Malthouse said he would vote to repeal the ban.