When Parliament was debating the ban I heard one Minister go on record to say that the ban was more about class war than cruelty. It was continuing the work started by dismantling the hereditary peers mechanisms of the House of Lords and that in terms of cruelty it rated about 162nd on the list - way below chicken battery farming. Now the class system may be a perfectly legitimate target, but I object to having it put forward as an animal welfare issue if it really is about class. The government should be honest about it's aims and not try and get people to buy into legislation for the wrong reason.
Not sure who produced this but
this website has some interesting views on cruelty etc,