Dwight D. Eisenhower argued that a loss of Vietnam to communism would trigger a rapid proliferation of Soviet influence in Southeast Asia. Domino theory might not be the best comparison when discussing rural policy in England, but there is no secret amongst the anti groups that if trail hunting falls they will put their entire put their entire focus onto the banning of shooting. Perhaps a better analogy would be the concentric curtains of walls in a medieval castle, but let’s stick with Ike.

When one examines the rhetoric used by anti groups when they talk about trail hunting or game shooting it becomes clear that their motivation is not animal welfare, it is a hatred of people. Indeed the comments section of most anti posts on social media has the extreme crudeness and dull wit of a medieval brothel - back to the castle analogy I suppose.

Few things bring me greater joy than putting game on the table at the end of the day. That I can avoid buying insipid supermarket meat for a significant proportion of the year is the foremost reason that I shoot game and stalk deer. For that reason alone I want to help defend trail hunting from a ban.

But the impact on shooting from the ongoing trail hunting ban consultation goes deeper than this. There is a very real chance that any trail hunting legislation could take a wrecking ball to gun dog and deer recovery dog training. I suspect that this is not the intention of the parliamentary Labour Party, but I have no doubt that the anti groups behind this have it firmly in their sights.

I am fortunate to have a four-month-old labrador puppy, which I hope is destined for greatness in the shooting field and in deer recovery. I have every intention of using a partridge wing on a dummy in her retrieval training regime along with deer’s hoof to train her in tracking shot deer. These practices are at risk of becoming an offence if shooting people do not stand up to this government’s ongoing attempt to curtail trail hunting.

If the government chooses to push a ban on trail hunting, depending on what statutory instrument is used to achieve this, all sorts of working dog uses could be at risk of being banned: ratting, terrier work to protect game birds, using dogs to flush rabbits to guns, and more.

If you care about shooting, and the ability of rural people to train and work their dogs as they currently do, sign the Countryside Alliance’s e-lobby and in doing so you will directly respond to the ongoing consultation with your opposition to a ban, and copy in your MP, letting them know that rural people still have a voice.