"Among the costs of banning foxhunting would be that mankind loses one of his earliest skills and some breeds of dogs pass into extinction, or worse are paraded round a ring at Crufts interbred to the point where only their appearance counts and they no longer retain any of qualities that actually marked them as a breed apart" Like the Staffordshire bull terrier, or that most British of dogs, the bulldog? They survived the ban on bull-baiting. How about the corgi, which was bred for herding cattle? There's no great cruelty issue there, but they're no loinger used for the purpose they were created for. And what human skills are involved uniquely in fox-hunting?

Perhaps more imprtantly, at what point does an issue become less urgent to the point where it is insignificant? In a democracy, how few voices can be deemed insignificant?