They also put in a good word for stoats and
weasels (the former, surely, are unusually numerous this year ?). "It is signi- ficant" (says the Report), "that, although several of the animal welfare organisations pointed out that stoats and weasels were caught in traps set for rabbits, they did not 3ppear to be particu- larly concerned about the suffering which might be caused to them. They are, in fact, good examples of the little-known animals, or those regarded as yermin, about whose fate the majority of people are quite indifferent." Since the extracts I have quoted may sound as though the Committee's attitude towards the " abolitionists " was tinged with scepticism, it may be as well to add that the arguments put forward by the sup- porters of field sports were scrutinised with the same slightly sardonic objectivity. Claims, for instance, that hunting and other sports deserved consideration because they employed a certain number of people were examined in the light of the Standard Industrial Classification of Employment Statistics. It emerged that hunt servants and so on belong to the same statistical group as people employed in "horse-racing, dog-racing, golf, pro- fessional football, cricket, tennis and all other forms of indoor and outdoor sport " ; that the total strength of this group was (in 1948) 35,000, or .17 per cent. of the working population ; and that, since only a very small fraction of this fraction were em- ployed in field sports, "the employment factor is not one to which any special importance should be attached." * *
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