Will the UK Hunting with Hounds ban be repealed in 2009?

An interesting look at hunting in the contemporary era from the telegraph:

The hounds are baying, the horses are stamping their hooves and the port is being passed around at Puckeridge Hunt.

It is a pastoral scene in rural Hertfordshire being played out in more than 200 villages across Britain as the hunting season opens. But something is different. The hounds are not baying for blood - that would be illegal - but for fox urine imported from America. Since hunting with hounds was outlawed three years ago the blood sport has had to think of increasingly creative ways to keep going without killing anything. The most popular choice is "trail hunting" where scent from a boiled fox if you happen to have one handy, or fox urine - which for some bizarre reason is harvested in the States where they keep caged foxes, is laid down for the hounds to follow like a real hunt.

Look closely and the followers of the hunt are also different. Some of the women have their hair down - shock, horror - a look that would never have been allowed in the old days of hair nets and stiff upper lips. It seems the dress code has relaxed as this most proper of pastimes has been forced to look beyond the country set for support. Many hunts have even ditched the traditional "pink"jackets, that tend to draw unwanted attention, for more practical tweeds and even waterproofs.

The police car around the corner, the animal rights "monitors" in luminescent jackets and a general atmosphere of defiance all serve to remind us that in fact hunting is a very different sport since it technically became illegal.

Yet, despite losing status, glamour - and indeed the official reason for its existence - killing foxes - the hunt is more popular than ever. Perhaps the biggest reason for this is hunting has never been just about killing foxes. "The politicians thought the huntsmen would just disappear and take up golf but that was never going to happen," says Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance. "Hunting is a way of life."

For this reason, since the ban came in hunting has enjoyed support not only from the minority who enjoy the sport but a large part of the countryside community.

Full story here