Poisoning and shooting protected birds is still illegal, but as the article subtly points out, there is almost zero chance of it being prosecuted.
The foxhunting issue is still ongoing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-468...
Since the article was written in 2005 the obvious analogy was the Iraq war; today it would be Brexit.
A review of the situation in 2019 would be interesting to see. What did the saboteurs achieve, was it long term and what lessons could be applied to stop the continuing cruelty being meted out to wildlife on a daily basis which is still legal - the poisoning and shooting of protected birds of prey to satisfy the demand for driven grouse shooting being a good example.