PASSIONATE Cheshire hunt follower Steve Creer brands MPs behind the ban on the sport as 'bigots with no understanding of rural life.' Steve, has followed the Wynnstay Hunt, between Cheshire and North Wales, for 40 years. The advertising manager for the Chronicle in South and Mid-Cheshire, started following the hunt, which has more than 1000 members in its supporters club, at the age of five on his bicycle, and still attends meetings today on his motorbike. Steve, like many other people in his home village of Tilston, is passionate about field sports, such as hunting. 'The countryside is extremely angry at the way they have been treated by the Government and the back-lash could have very, very severe consequences,' he says. 'I, and many other people of a rural background, am astounded by the lack of knowledge the back-bench MPs, who pushed this ban through Parliament, have about the way of life in the countryside. 'I wouldn't attempt to vote on an inner-city urban issue of which I know nothing about. 'This vote that back-benchers have fudged through is bigoted because they have no understanding of rural life.' Steve says he is fascinated by the science of hunting with hounds and says very few foxes are chased to exhaustion and ripped to pieces. The 50-year-old stresses he has a clear conscience that hunting puts more back into the ecology of the countryside than it takes out. 'Those with a vested interest in any field sport also have the long-term welfare of the hunted species at heart,' he says. `Field sports enthusiasts of all denominations regularly plant thickets and fence pit holes etc to create areas of habitat for their chosen quarry species, be it fur or feather. 'Hunting keeps a balanced population of foxes and if hunting is banned, where does the interest lie for people of the rural community to help maintain the countryside? 'The ban has been forced through Parliament under the guise of cruelty, but without doubt, the alternative methods of fox control, such as gassing, trapping, shooting and snaring, are far more cruel. 'The fox can suffer for days and shooting can only be done at night, when the fox is on the move, which risks accidental shooting of domestic animals or even people. 'All field sports are completely open to scrutiny. Lord Burns was commissioned by the Government to make a full enquiry into field sports, at a hefty cost to the tax payer. 'The MPs pushing for the ban didn't have the decency to turn up to listen to the findings of the enquiry, or the full debate but made sure they were there at 10pm to vote, and that's why a lot of the rural people feel let down. 'Ordinary respected members of rural society will now all of a sudden become criminals through a completely unjust law but how on earth can hunting be policed when it takes people in rural areas many hours to get a policeman if someone is robbed? | 
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