Councillor out to stop hunting links
A GREEN Party member and St Ives town councillor wants to sever all official links between the council and a local hunt group.
Paula Richards, who runs the Bean Inn vegetarian restaurant, hopes to persuade fellow members to snub the Western Hunt during annual Feast celebrations.
She says fellow Greens already avoid drinking the traditional stirrup cup, when riders and hounds gather at Royal Square, and wants to make a formal break with the ancient tradition.
"Every time I see the hunt it offends me," she said. "I find it incongruous that we are appearing to condone fox hunting by meeting with them on Feast day.".
"I am very uncomfortable with it and want to find out what my fellow councillors feel.
"Many of us were quite shocked on taking office when we found out it was part of the celebrations and I want to see if there is enough support to stop it."
Cllr Richards will make her case at the monthly meeting of the town council tonight at the Guildhall.
She says her mind was made up when residents came to her 'ranting and raving' after a cat was torn apart by hounds which strayed into its owner's garden. Around 12 dogs broke from the main pack after a Western Hunt meeting at Sennen in February before catching and killing the 15-year-old pet.
Town Clerk Louise Dowe said the mayor had offered a glass of punch to riders on Feast Monday every February 'since time immemorial'.
"It is traditionally the day people would have had off and gone hunting," she said.
"The council's involvement is that we invite the hunt down and the mayor offers them a stirrup cup."
With three town councillors offering apologies for absence from the meeting and a full contingent expected from the Green Party a vote on the proposal is expected to be close.
The meeting will take place on June 18 in the Guildhall council chamber at 7pm.
No-one from the hunt was available for comment.
2 Comments
by Kate Horrill, Carbis Bay
Monday, June 22 2009, 2:03PM
“In response to Wyllieboy's idiotic comment, no, all vegetarians are not 'totalitarians nutters'. Did he just see that Councillor Richards runs a vegetarian restaurant and then dismiss her views because of his uneducated prejudice against vegetarians? This is not an argument about vegetarianism, but an argument about The role of The Western Hunt on Feast Day in St Ives. It is pathetic that he doesn't realize that it took a great deal of courage to stand up and speak passinately about what she, and countless others, believe in. Like many pro-hunters, Wyllieboy has been completely unable to produce a reasonable defence of hunting, instead resosorting to a personal attack on someone he has never met and knows nothing about. Surely someone living in Pendeen is more affected by the arrangements for Feast Day in St Just, not St Ives. I feel that it is the views of the locals that should matter and be listened to. Hunting is an extremely controversial issue and, by welcoming the hunt at the celebrations, the council is offending many locals. Meeting the hunt is a tradition, but surely when a tradition disgusts many people and becomes devisive, rather than bonding a community, it is time to question the appropriateness of that tradition. The Council has not been asked to criticize hunting, it has simply been asked not to actively support it.”
by Wyllieboy, Pendeen
Thursday, June 18 2009, 4:50PM
“Does being a vegetarian make you into a proscriptive fascist or are all totalitarians nutters over fond of vegetables¿?”