Princess defends foxhunting

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34119, 3 April 1976, Page 15

Princess defends foxhunting

I (N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright} I LONDON, April 2. Princess Anne has defied Britain’s animal lovers, and defended her Tight to hunt foxes on horseback. “1 sometimes wonder.’" she said in an interview yesterday, “if those people who complain about cruelty to the fox ever wonder about the chicken or the egg they are eating, and the conditions in which they are produced.” The 25-year-old Princess suggested that Fox hunting was really no worse than fishing with rod and line. Her remarks, published in the “Bristol Evening Post,” brought an immediate counter-blast from Mrs Tessa Hirst, of the Animal Protection Trust. “She seems to think she is doing everybody a favour by • killing the fox,” Mrs Hirst (said. She said the Princess and her husband Captain (Mark Phillips, claimed to be (controlling foxes, but, "used

I that as an excuse to go out [and enjoy the sport." The Anima) Protection I Trust recently claimed that hundreds of foxes were ripped to bits by hounds each (year for lhe sadistic pleasure of hunters. In the interview, Captain Phillips said: “If foxhunting ’were stopped, the farmer would still have to kill the fox with gassing or some other method which is cruel. “The fox,” he added “is a pest.” The Princess said it would be a pity if the anti-hunting cause were taken up completely by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — Britain’s biggest animal protection society. She said that if this happened, then R.S.P.C.A. officials might find them- ■ selves shunned by country folk who regarded fox hunting as part of their heritage. The Press Association rethat Princess Anne’s i comments were welcomed iby the hunting fraternity. Captain Ronnie Wallace, ’chairman of the Master of (Foxhounds’ Association. ' said: “She has put the case I forcibly and sensibly."