Crazy like a fox

I'm sorry, I just don't understand this hunting ban. I don't understand hunters. But I don't understand the ban either. As far as I can make out, it's a piece of law designed as a Great Compromise but in fact, rather than please everyone, it's angered everyone. As compromises are wont to do.

Let's think about this. Hunting is now illegal, but:
(a) hunting a simulated scent is not;
(b) "exercising hounds" is not;
(c) flushing out foxes is not;
(d) killing foxes "accidentally" (as I imagine might happen if you've got hunting-trained dogs out chasing a fox scent, simulated or not, and flushing out foxes - or are they really, really clever dogs who know that they're no longer allowed to finish the game?) is not, and
(e) apparently a bunch of other stuff isn't, because yesterday, 91 foxes were killed and only a few of those deaths were "accidental", yet they were all strictly legal.

So I don't understand.

It's not that I feel particularly strongly either way. On the one hand, killing for sport is barbaric; on the other, foxes are apparently a real problem in the countryside, and for all I know hunting really is the most effective and humane form of pest control available. I doubt it; but I really don't know anything about it. Mostly it just seems to be one of those bizarre feudal hangovers that make England so darn special. (Read the comments of angry hunters: "they hate us, they really hate us" and "I blubbed like a baby at the thought we'd never hunt again" and I defy you to think there's any rationality in the hunt lobby. Anyone else reminded of Sheri Tepper's Grass?) But you'd think if they were going to legislate on it, they'd do a better job.

Mind you, considering the legislation of shrooms... nah. I guess making sensible laws is not Britain's strongest point.