The Countryside Alliance (CA) is a British organization claiming to promote the interests of what it prefers to call "Country Sports" (hunting with dogs, shooting and fishing) but also takes an interest in other issues of relevance to people living in rural areas.

It was formed in 1998 from the British Field Sports Society, the Countryside Business Group and the Countryside Movement.

Of late the focus of its campaigning has been to defend the right to hunt, opposing plans to outlaw fox hunting and other forms of hunting with dogs. The CA and its members regard such laws as unnecessary and undesirable urban interference in rural affairs. The organization does not have purely a pro-hunting agenda, and they point out that only one of the three merged organizations had hunting as its focus. They claim that the current campaign is a response to the government's "preoccupation with the issue".

Supporters of legislation have questioned the credibility of the Countryside Alliance claims to speak for the countryside when polls suggest people in rural areas are divided in their support for/opposition to hunting with dogs in much the same proportion as the urban population.

In response the Countryside Alliance points to its campaigns try to preserve rural life in other ways, such as encouraging tourism (particularly important after the 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease), encouraging consumption of local, seasonal food, and trying to keep rural Post Offices and pubs open.

The CA claims 100,000 members (October 2002), and also claims that 400,000 supporters participated in its September 22, 2002 "Liberty & Livelihood March" in London, although the Metropolitan Police Service estimated the crowd at closer to 200,000.

Although not affiliated to any particular party, its supporters -- although not its leadership -- are overwhelmingly Conservative Party voters. According to disclosures in the UK Data Protection Register, the CA carries out research on the backgrounds of those it considers to be its opponents.

The Countryside Alliance has recently stated that it will mount a series of legal challenges to the Hunting Act 2004 that bans hunting with dogs (integral to the sport of, for example, fox hunting) in England & Wales from February 18, 2005.

See also

• UK topics
• Pressure groups in the United Kingdom

External links

• Countryside Alliance official site
• Countryside alliance official site: reference to name change
• The Guardian: Hunt lobby holds personal files on thousands
• Corporate Watch: The Countryside Alliance – Voice of the Rural Dispossessed?!