The reason for hunting mink with dogs is that the mink is an alien species over here and was initially released from fur farms by animal rights nuts and it decimated local populations of waterfowl.
These tyrants want to chip away at all our freedoms, starting with the "minority" activities like hare coursing and mounted fox hunting. There's no doubt they'll set their sights on falconry too as they have already disrupted angling competitions set up for disabled anglers. These people are devout campaigners and when they get all they say they want they are not going to simply go away. They'll be casting around for something else to ban. LIKE EATING MEAT!! This issue is'nt about animal welfare, it's about the battle between freedom of choice and social control. If we don't all stand up to defend issues like fox hunting etc. now, there may be no-one left to stand up for us when our turn comes.
George Orwell predicted a very similar scenario in his book "1984". It just took a little longer and a change of label from Marxist/communism to New Labour/socialism.
They have even used the war in Iraq and the hieghtened fear of terrorist reprisals to draft in draconian new laws that enable, for the first time, "undesirables" to be placed under house arrest at the whim of a politician instead of the judiciary. Who is this politician? Why it's Charles "Shrek" Clarke who 30 years ago was an active marxist, like so many of the strategically placed "Tony's cronies".