Essex county councillors have voted against a motion calling for trail-hunting to be banned on council-owned land, after a “pointless and divisive” debate.

At a full council meeting yesterday (14 May) councillors voted down Lee Scordis’s motion to ban trail-hunting and exercising hounds on the public land.

As he proposed the motion, “This council notes that the hunting of wild animals with dogs is illegal under the terms of the Hunting Act 2004, except where an exemption applies. This council therefore calls upon the cabinet not to allow any future trail-hunting and exercising of packs of foxhounds on Essex County Council land”, Cllr Scordis told colleagues trail-hunting is often used as a “guise to flout the law”.

The Labour councillor said in the most recent season, the League Against Cruel Sports had “had 282 reports of illegal hunting”, and that hunting of foxes had “rightly been banned”.

He also claimed 85% of the UK and 81% of people in rural areas are against foxhunting, although he did not cite the sources of these figures, and said he had been the victim of online abuse since he posted his motion on his Facebook page.

“I’ve been trolled by people from all over the UK, who have told others to complain about me to the council for ridiculous reasons,” he said. “I’ve been accused of being prejudiced and a bigot, by people who don’t know me. I’ve been called a ‘lefty whinger’ and: ‘keep your geeky snout out of business that doesn’t concern you’.

“Can I ask you to stand with the majority in the UK and support me in tightening the law?”

But in the debate, although Labour group leader Ivan Henderson backed Cllr Scordis, other speakers did not. Independent councillor Kerry Smith said the motion was “legally unsound”, as it “seeks to indirectly remove the right of the common man to use public rights of way”, while independent Jo Beavis pointed out that no huntsman in Essex has ever been questioned by police over illegal hunting issues, and that huntsmen were confused by the bringing of the “entirely illogical motion”, which was brought “without any serious reasons”.

Continued below…

Hunt hound enjoys R&R at canine hydrotherapy pool

‘He makes everyone laugh when he rejoins the pack after a shampoo and blow dry,’

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Countryside Alliance chief executive Tim Bonner said: “We are very pleased the council voted against a motion to ban the legal activities of trail-hunting and hound exercise. It is a great shame that councillors had to waste time on such a pointless and divisive debate, but we are very grateful that they rejected the proposal.

“Hunts in Essex have been hunting an artificial scent perfectly legally since the Hunting Act came into force in 2005. There are at least eight packs of hounds operating in the county yet none has ever been charged with a hunting offence, let alone convicted of one, so the suggestion that they are not hunting lawfully is completely unfounded.

“Hunting continues to attract support across Essex as people continue to enjoy following and watching hounds working in the countryside.”

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Questions have been raised about the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) spending following an investigation.

The Times published an investigation into the charity’s spending yesterday (March 29).

It accused the organisation of “squandering cash on a failed prosecution, foreign travel, hotel bills and pay rises” — which the charity denies.

The League responded to the article, saying the claims are “malicious nonsense”.

The Times has reported the charity went on a “spending spree” after being left £3.5m in a will from supporter Stan Hales — an industrialist who died in 2013.

The charity then allegedly gave its entire staff a 10% pay rise.

But LACS said that 2014 marked the first pay rise for staff in three years, which it added was justified and overdue, and denied it has spent any of the £3.5m.

“The suggestion that we were ‘saved’ by the legacy is completely unfounded,” said a LACS spokesman.

“It has arrived in instalments, the last of which arrived in January 2016, so we are now deciding how to spend the money.”

Its private prosecution of six members of the Lamerton Hunt — which collapsed three days into its 10-day scheduled trial in December (news, 10 December 2015) — reportedly cost the charity £25,000.

Devon and Cornwall Police had decided the hunt members had no case to answer 18 months previously.

The paper also reported that members of the charity has made repeated trips to Malta to campaign against the shooting of wild birds as well as a trip to America to discuss welfare in greyhound racing with charity Grey2K USA Worldwide.

This is despite claims on the Charity Commission’s website that the League’s areas of operation are England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

In its 1,500-word response, the organisation said and the overseas visits were “totally justifiable”.

“While we focus our work on the UK and only have staff in the UK we also campaign on other international issues that are important to our supporters,” said LACS.

It also said that Grey2K contributed “significant research” to a joint report regarding greyhound cruelty in the UK, which wouldn’t have been possible without a face-to-face meeting.

The Times said “whistleblowers” were allegedly dismissed, which LACS contests.

“It is absolutely wrong to suggest that any individual has been dismissed or faced detrimental treatment for whistleblowing. This is categorically untrue,” said the League’s statement.

One of the “whistleblowers” is reported to have volunteered to hand over evidence to the Charity Commission, but the regulator declined to get involved.

“The issue is why the Charity Commission did not take more seriously complaints about the League that were brought to its attention by a whistleblower,” reads The Times’ leading article.

“It was not as if they were starved of detail. The whistleblower offered chapter and verse on what they believed were failings and misgovernance.”

A spokesman for the Charity Commission said it did receive complaints regarding the use of LACS funds.

“These were matters within the administration of the charity and therefore a decision for the trustees,” he said.

“Although the Commission’s functions include encouraging and facilitating the better administration of charities, and taking remedial action to tackle misconduct or mismanagement, the law prohibits the Commission from acting directly in the administration of a charity.

“The decision-making process of how to apply the charity’s funds rests directly with the trustees of the charity.”

He added that after further concerns were raised, the Commission has contacted the charity and will be meeting its trustees to “clarify these claims” and find out if there are any regulatory issues.

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There are now no registered hunts with Hunting Act cases outstanding against them after the final case collapsed today (Thursday 3 December).

A case against the Lamerton Hunt collapsed three days into a scheduled 10-day trial at Newton Abbot Magistrates’ Court, when private prosecutors, the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), withdrew all evidence.

Yesterday (Wednesday, 2 December) the court sought confirmation from absent LACS acting chief executive Rachel Newman, a qualified solicitor, that she had advised expert witness Professor Stephen Harris not to disclose a close personal relationship between himself and LACS head of operations Paul Tillsley.

Professor Harris had also been accused of embellishing his experience of hunting while giving evidence. The LACS this morning withdrew all charges.

In a private prosecution, the LACS had summoned six members of the Lamerton Hunt in West Devon to face allegations of illegal hunting and pursued them through the courts for more than 18 months after Devon and Cornwall Police correctly ruled that they had no case to answer.

“We were confident from the start that we had done nothing wrong and that all our hunting was legal, but our names and the allegations that the LACS were making were all over the local papers,” said David Lewis, huntsman of the Lamerton Hunt.

“The whole thing seemed to go on forever and whilst we are happy it is now all over it was not a pleasant experience.”

The defendants were represented by barrister Peter Glenser and solicitor Jamie Foster.

The Countryside Alliance’s Tim Bonner added: “This appalling case raises a series of fundamental questions about the abuse of the criminal justice system by vindictive private prosecutors. LACS spent more than a £100,000 of charitable funds on a case that the police had correctly judged simply did not stand up. In desperation it has then sought to present as independent an expert witness who was clearly deeply prejudiced against the defendants.

“LACS sought to corrupt the criminal justice system and use it to harass six innocent people over an 18-month period. Questions need to be asked about this abuse at the highest levels.”

This was the last outstanding case from the 2013/14 season, while there were no prosecutions in the 2014/15 season.

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The Countryside Alliance (CA) has told H&H it is “confident” that there is no connection between the Middleton Hunt and video footage of fox cubs being found in a barn in North Yorkshire.

A man was arrested after 16 fox cubs were found in the barn. He has since been released on police bail.

The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) claims the cubs, who were between six and eight weeks old, were being reared by the hunt.

However, both the hunt and the Countryside Alliance refutes these claims.

Covertly filmed video footage, shot last month, shows a man entering a barn, which the activist group claims, is linked to the Middleton hunt in North Yorkshire. The activist group then released this footage to the press.

However, the CA’s director of campaigns, Tim Bonner, said: “The building concerned is neither owned nor leased by the Middleton hunt. The hunt has assisted the police with their inquiries and is very confident, as are we, that no one employed by or connected to it has committed any offence.”

Major Tim Easby, director of the Master of Fox Hounds Association (MFHA) told H&H: “This is a police matter and the hunt has offered its full cooperation. The MFHA is confident that no offences have been committed.”

The cubs were taken by the North Yorkshire Police on 31 May. The police are currently investigating the situation.

“Acting on intelligence, North Yorkshire Police officers conducted a search of an outbuilding, under the Animal Welfare Act,” said a police spokesman.

“Officers rescued the cubs and they are now being cared for in an animal sanctuary outside North Yorkshire.

“The foxes were being fed and had access to water, but police need further information as to how they got in the barn, why they were there, and who put them there.”

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Another Hunting Act case, brought to court because of evidence supplied by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), failed in court today (Thursday 12 February).

Middleton hunt master and huntsman Tom Holt, 28, was found not guilty of a Hunting Act offence during a trial at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court.

Employees of LACS had filmed Mr Holt undercover on 19 February 2014 near Malton in North Yorkshire and made allegations of illegal hunting.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) brought the prosecution but after after a one-day trial a district judge ruled there was not enough evidence.

The court heard claims that the footage showed Mr Holt chasing a fox “with a pack of hounds as bugles blared”. Mr Holt maintained that the video had been taken while he was legally following a trail.

Tim Bonner, director of campaigns at the Countryside Alliance (CA), said: “This is the second failed hunt prosecution brought by North Yorkshire CPS on the basis of allegations made by LACS employees in a matter of weeks.

“We are increasingly concerned that innocent people are being dragged through the courts at the behest of animal rights activists, and that taxpayers have to pick up the bill.

“The police and CPS must urgently review their relationship with animal rights groups like LACS.

“Allegations made by biased witnesses based on unauthorised covert surveillance are no basis for a sound prosecution.”

Last month (21 January) another case brought by the CPS on LACS evidence collapsed at York Magistrates Court.

Two members of the Lunesdale hunt — Terence “Ted” Potter and Paul Whitehead — were both accused of one charge of hunting a wild mammal with a dog on 18 February 2014

However, following an application by the Lunesdale’s lawyer Stephen Welford, the magistrates ruled there was no case to answer as there was no evidence that either man was even present on the day in question.

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Charges against a West Country hunt have been dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The charges related to alleged incidents of hunting with dogs against the huntsman and two joint-masters of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds.

Donald Summersgill, Rupert Andrews MSH and David Greenwood MSH faced a total of four charges relating to alleged incidents on 14 September and 24 October 2013.

Avon and Somerset CPS brought the charges based on unauthorised covert surveillance evidence supplied by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), however the defendants solicitors were advised last Thursday (13 November) that the charges had been dropped.

A previous prosecution involving Mr Summersgill and other Devon and Somerset Staghounds members collapsed before trial in 2009.

“This case has always been fundamentally flawed and the decision to bring charges was very difficult to understand,” said Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance.

“Avon and Somerset CPS have brought three prosecutions based on LACS covert surveillance in the past two years and all three have now failed.

“It has taken far too long, but at least now the CPS has finally stood up to the inappropriate pressure being exerted by animal rights organisations and saved the taxpayer the cost of a lengthy and pointless trial.

“The Devon and Somerset Staghounds have continued to research and manage the deer of Exmoor since the Hunting Act came into force nearly 10 years ago. After this second failed prosecution against them it is time for everyone to accept that their activities are entirely legal.”

Earlier this year charges against two other hunts were dropped.

Charges under the Protection of Badgers Act against three men connected to the York & Ainsty South Hunt were dropped on 8 September.

The case, brought by the CPS, followed on from an allegation made by hunt saboteurs that the accused were interfering with an active badger sett during a meet at Escrick Park, near Selby, North Yorks on 28 December 2013.

The same month the CPS confirmed that all charges relating to members of the Melbreak Hunt — including their huntsman Edward Liddle — were also dropped following an offence that allegedly took place under the Hunting Act and Dangerous Dog Act in Buttermere, Cumbria on 9 March.

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The RSPCA appears to be showing no signs of changing its prosecution policy after it emerged that it is mounting a fresh case against the Cattistock.

William Bryer (pictured), who is joint-master and huntsman of the Cattistock, is accused of one offence of breaching the 2004 Hunting Act on 11 March this year and is to appear at Weymouth Magistrates Court later this month (27 October).

This is the first prosecution since an independent review into the RSPCA’s policy suggested that the charity needed to consider the significant costs of mounting such prosecutions.

The report, carried out by former chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Stephen Wooler, made 33 recommendations on the charity’s investigation and prosecution activity.

The Countryside Alliance (CA) argues that such prosecutions should be left to the CPS .

“It is quite extraordinary that just days after the RSPCA’s own independent review accepted that there were serious difficulties with the society bringing private prosecutions against hunts it should launch proceedings against another pack,” said the CA’s Tim Bonner.

“We are confident that the case will fail, as do 80% of prosecutions launched by the RSPCA against hunts.”

LACS prosecute

The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has also launched a private prosecution against the Lamerton Hunt, which operates on the Devon and Cornwall border.

LACS alleges that the hunt broke the 2004 Hunting Act in an incident near Lydford in Devon on 26 March.

Six members of the hunt have been asked to appear before magistrates in Plymouth next month (21 November).

A statement from the League said it had been left with “no option” but to prosecute after Devon and Cornwall Police “failed to deal” with the evidence supplied by the charity.

“The League has obtained written independent legal advice that there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and that it would be in the public interest to prosecute,” it added.

However, Mr Bonner argues that the prosecution is an “ongoing campaign of harassment against the hunting community”.

“We don’t believe there is any evidence to justify a prosecution, let alone a conviction,” he told H&H.

“There is also a wider question of the abuse of ‘charitable funds’. How on earth can a charity justify wasting donations on such a pointless vendetta?”

This news stroy was first published in H&H magazine (16 October 2014).

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Three members of the College Valley and North Northumberland were found guilty of one charge under the 2004 Hunting Act yesterday (14 October).

Joint-masters Ian McKie and Timothy Smalley and kennel huntsman Andrew Proe all appeared at Berwick Magistrates Court in connection with an incident on 27 February.

The three had been secretly filmed by League Against Cruel Sports investigators during a meet of the College Valley and North Northumberland in and around West Kyloe Farm near Lowick.

District Judge Bernard Begley concluded that they had intentionally hunted a fox by encouraging hounds to chase it.

The defendants had argued they were following a legal scent trail of fox urine laid that morning and the foxes were disturbed unintentionally.

McKie was fined £1,150 and must pay a £115 victim surcharge and £385 court costs. Smalley’s fine was £2,075 with a victim surcharge of £120 and £385 court costs.

Proe must pay a £480 fine with a £48 victim surcharge and £385 costs. A fourth member was acquitted.

Tim Bonner, director of campaigns at the Countryside Alliance, said: “We are surprised by this judgement and will support the individuals from the College Valley in whatever further action they may decide to take.

“We believe that the hunt was operating openly and that no attempt was made to break the Hunting Act.”

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The Countryside Alliance (CA) has condemned the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) after the anti-hunting group appealed to members of the public to help catch individuals involved in illegal hunting.

LACS has offered a reward for information directly leading to a conviction under the Hunting Act 2004 in England and Wales or the Protection of Wild Mammals Act 2002 (in Scotland).

LACS chief executive Joe Duckworth said; “Our work relies on good intelligence such as when and where illegal hunting is taking place.”

However a CA spokesman countered; “This smacks of increasing desperation from LACS, who are desperately trying to support their failing campaigns against hunting.

“Offering rewards of this kind could be seen as an incitement to further bullying and harassment of hunts as they go about their business, perfectly legally and within the Hunting Act.”

This news story was first published in H&H magazine on 18 September 2014

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A case against Ledbury huntsman Will Goffe was dropped on 7 November due to lack of evidence.

The prosecution brought by the RSPCA was based on evidence collected in March 2013 by the League Against Cruel Sports. This is the fourth failed RSPCA hunt prosecution this year.

“The taxpayer will pick up the bill for this farce and, despite clear warnings having already been given to the Government, there remains absolutely no process by which it can control or regulate this behaviour,” said Tim Bonner from the Countryside Alliance.

“The RSPCA is abusing the criminal justice system.”

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (14 November 2013)

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Earlier this year, the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) announced it would deploy surveillance drones to monitor hunts next season. So should hunts be worried or is it just a scare tactic?

According to the Countryside Alliance (CA), this is nothing but a “PR stunt”.

Speaking in March, LACS chief executive Joe Duckworth said drones were “a necessary tactic to help catch [those] illegally hunting”.

He said the devices would “enhance the charity’s tactics by providing support to the teams operating on the ground, gathering intelligence and evidence of illegal activity”.

But Tim Bonner, campaigns director at the CA, dismissed the threat.

“No one who understands the difficulties in collecting evidence against alleged illegal hunting activity really believes [LACS] will use this technology,” he told H&H.

“It’s a sign of the pressure it is under to get back into the headlines,” he added.

The drones LACS says it will use are similar to model aircraft and will be subject to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) rules.

“One major reason why they won’t work for hunting is that CAA rules specify that the operator must be in the line of sight,” said Mr Bonner.

“A hunt ranges over many miles. It’s just not practical.”

LACS said the drones would be used alongside its current “monitoring” equipment, “operating within the law and CAA guidance”. But it could not be specific as to when it will start using the equipment, due “to intelligence and tactical considerations”.

Duke of Beaufort’s hunt follower Netia Walker said it was “a ridiculous idea”.

“With any luck the antis will do the usual of giving it all the chat and then it comes to nothing,” she said.

Mr Bonner warned hunts not to be tempted to retaliate if they do see a drone.

“Avoid the temptation to do anything that would leave you open to malicious allegation,” he said. “This is not a serious attempt to ‘enforce’ the Hunting Act, as [LACS] sees it, it just wants to get a story.”

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (23 May 2013)

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Another Hunting Act case brought by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has collapsed, meaning the group has not seen a single successful prosecution in the past two seasons. This is despite increased “monitoring” of packs.

A judge threw out the attempt by LACS to prosecute George Milton, joint-master and huntsman of the Weston and Banwell Harriers, saying “there was no case to answer”.

Mr Milton was accused of hunting a fox on 11 February 2012, near Cheddar. LACS investigating officer Graham Floyd claimed to have witnessed the incident.

But at the trial on 8 April at Taunton Magistrates Court, magistrates found that Mr Floyd had not been close enough to have identified Mr Milton, saw no fox until 25min after he claimed to have seen the defendant and that Mr Milton was 1km away at the time of the alleged offence.

The Countryside Alliance (CA) said the case was “proof that the LACS is increasingly desperate to justify its massive spend on covert surveillance”.

“LACS spends hundreds of thousands of pounds of its members’ money running such ‘operations’ every year,” said the CA’s Tim Bonner.

“Yet there has not been a single successful Hunting Act prosecution as a result of its activity in the past two seasons.”

He added that campaigns run by LACS and other animal rights groups were “nothing more than harassment”.

Joe Duckworth of LACS told H&H he was “disappointed” with the outcome but added: “This was an old case from the 2011-12 season. We now have a large number of cases of illegal hunting from 2012-13, which we are progressing with the police.”

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (18 April 2013)

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The former head of communications for the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), Steve Taylor, has been sentenced to 16 months in prison – after admitting stealing more than £14,000 from the anti-hunting charity.

Taylor, aged 36 of Saltash, Cornwall, was sentenced at a hearing at Guildford Crown Court today (7 September).

Prosecuting, Nicholas Bull, told the court that between 2 January 2010 and and 29 October 2011, Taylor used his LACS credit card more than 300 times for his personal use.

The court heard that Taylor had previous convictions for dishonesty and had served 12 months in jail for deception and forgery.

There will be more on this story in the next issue of H&H, out on 13 September

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The League Against Cruel Sports’ former chief spin doctor, Steve Taylor, has pleaded guilty to fraud.

Taylor, 35, of Saltash, Cornwall, pleaded guilty at a hearing in Guildford Crown Court on Friday, 27 July.

He was arrested last year, following an investigation into financial irregularities at the charity.

He is due to be sentenced on 7 September.

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (10 August 2012)

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Hunting within the law is not enough – hunts must make sure they carefully record evidence of their legal activities.

That was the central message from this year’s Master of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) annual meeting (29 May) in the light of recent prosecutions and efforts by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) to step up its campaign against hunting.

Addressing the meeting at Cheltenham racecourse, MFHA chairman Stephen Lambert said: “The pace of our opponents’ endeavours has risen by several gears in the last few weeks.

Therefore we must ensure that at all times we have full evidence that we are hunting within the law.”

Three members of the Crawley and Horsham were convicted of Hunting Act offences last month, while the RSPCA issued 52 summonses against the Heythrop.

Meanwhile, LACS recently appointed an additional eight “investigations officers” – making a total of 10 – who will work in pairs around the country.

At the AGM – which was also addressed by Countryside Alliance chairman Sir Barney White-Spunner and Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames – Mr Lambert issued a stark warning to hunts.

“The RSPCA has adopted a scattergun approach [against the Heythrop],” he said. “This tactic could snowball unless hunts diligently keep daily records to demonstrate their legal activity with hounds.”

Masters were warned by Mr Lambert that covert camera operators have been at work in the majority of hunt countries, attempting to catch hunts out. And that covert surveillance is set to increase next season.

Louise Robertson of LACS told H&H that most of the investigations officers were ex-policemen or RSPCA inspectors.

“We have revamped our whole intelligence system and everything we do from now

on will be intelligence-led,” she said.

“They [the officers] won’t just pick a hunt we don’t like and go after it; they’ll go anywhere we’ve got intelligence that there is suspicious activity.”

But in his closing comments to the AGM, Mr Lambert urged hunts not to be disheartened by the heightened activity of antis.

“The all-out attack by the opposition gives us an opportunity to demonstrate what a ridiculous law this is,” he said.

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (7 June 2012)

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The former head of campaigns and communications at the League Against Cruel Sports has been charged with fraud.

It follows a police investigation into financial irregularities at the charity.

Steve Taylor, 35, of Saltash in Cornwall, was charged on 2 April and bailed. He is accused of one count of fraud by false representation. He is due to appear before magistrates on 20 April.

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (5 April 2012)

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The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has been admonished by the Charity Commission for what the Hunting Office termed “a campaign of intimidation of… the West Somerset Vale hunt”.

LACS was reported to the Charity Commission by the Hunting Office after a blog on the LACS website in September stated it would “target [the hunt’s] corporate sponsors until [the hunt] see fit to discipline a member of their staff who while on duty assaulted a person lawfully going about their business”.

This referred to whipper-in David Bevan, who pleaded guilty on 6 September to assaulting “hunt monitor” Paul Tillsley. He was given a 12 month conditional discharge.

A Charity Commission spokesman said: “We have reminded [LACS] that any activity carried out in their name must be in accordance with the charity’s aims.

“We have also referred the charity trustees to our guidance on trustees’ roles and responsibilities.”

A LACS spokesman said: “It’s an over-reaction. We are sorry the Charity Commission has been dragged into this.”

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (15 December 2011)

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The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) is set to return a £66k deficit in 2011, despite ploughing in £730,592 raised from selling offland, papers leaked to H&H show.

And the cash-strapped organisation plans to dispose of a further £1.23m-worth of land in 2012.

The land sell-off is a highly controversial move said Tim Bonner of the Hunting Office.

In the leaked financial papers, that were presented to its board of trustees in the summer, LACS was forecast to make a £796,414 loss in 2011 before the £730,592 raised from selling land goes into the bank, dropping the deficit to £66,822.

LACS narrowly escaped a loss in 2010 by selling more land reserves, accounts recently lodged with the Charity Commission show.

If it had not sold £286,441 of property over the year it would have been in the red by £137,052. Instead it showed a balance of £149,389.

LACS spokesman Louise Robertson said: “The land sale is not new. The original purpose was to stop hunting on pockets of land [across the West Country].

That is no longer necessary and we need to look at our assets.”

She said the sporting rights on the land would not be sold, meaning it cannot be used for hunting or shooting.

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (8 December 2011)

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A leading anti has been arrested by police on suspicion of fraud.

Steve Taylor, 35, was sacked last Tuesday (15 November) by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) for gross misconduct.

The former head of campaigns and communications at LACS was dismissed following a disciplinary investigation concerning his expenses claims.

Mr Taylor was arrested on Monday (21 November) and released on bail until 10 January.

Surrey Police said: “A man has been arrested on suspicion of fraud after we received concerns regarding financial irregularities at an organization based in Waverley.”

For a full report, see Horse & Hound, out this Thursday (24 November)

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Unguarded talk and gossip from hunt supporters is providing antis with vital intelligence, the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has said.

The League told H&H it is receiving up to 10% of its information from people either within hunts or close to them.

Steve Taylor from LACS said he was “amazed” at how forthcoming hunt supporters could be.

“A great deal of information comes from what you might call ‘unusual’ sources,” he said.

“We get a lot of good tip-offs from people within hunts. It’s stuff they don’t realise is useful to us – ‘we meet every Wednesday in one of these three places at this time’ – that sort of thing.

“Ten years ago you’d get 10 times the number of meets advertised in Horse & Hound. You don’t get that now, and hunts don’t tend to publicise meets on their websites.”

He said that LACS also gleans information from social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook – and from online forums.

H&H reported last month that LACS is intending to increase its activities this season (news, 15 September) and has recruited a former Special Branch police officer to lead its intelligence section. LACS said the work will include infiltration of hunts.

Mr Taylor also said LACS would publish the findings of a “major investigation” at the end of the month – with help from hunt supporters.

“Most of the intelligence we worked from came from people within or close to hunts,” he said.

So should hunt followers be wary of loose talk?

Tim Bonner of the Hunting Office says he has no problem with hunts publicising their activities and meets.

“It is a difficult judgement,” he told H&H. “The antis would love to drive us underground, but we are out and proud.

“Hunts are working within the law and are perfectly entitled to publicise meets.

“We wouldn’t suggest that people should hide.”

This news story was first published in the current issue of Horse & Hound (13 October, 2011)

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“We’ve more people on the ground, our biggest investigations team ever and better links with the police, so be careful.”

That’s the warning from the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), which has told H&H it is ‘upping the ante’ with its monitoring activities this season.

New chairman Joe Duckworth has declared that his focus will be very much on ‘pushing for prosecutions for hunting offences’.

To this end, LACS says it has taken on more personnel — including a former Special Branch officer to head up its intelligence department — and invested in a new database and monitoring equipment.

It is also building up a £1.5m fund for when the vote on repeal comes.

But Tim Bonner from the Hunting Office dismisses the claims as ‘bravado’.

He said: “The bottom line is that for all this effort and all their talk, it’s unlikely that LACS will achieve a single prosecution from the 2010-11 season.”

Two hunts currently face separate prosecutions under the Hunting Act.

And Mr Bonner says levels of activity by monitors and saboteurs are still way down from their heyday in the 1980s.

“It’s now a very small rump,” he said. “On an average Saturday, there’ll be 40 to 60 out around the country, whereas 20 years ago, a single hunt could get more than 100.”

But he cautions that hunts must still know the law ‘inside and out’.

There is some anecdotal evidence that anti activity is creeping up.

H&H’s hunting editor Catherine Austen said: “I was surprised to see them out at 6am recently and more of them than usual.”

Mark Sprake, who is joint-master of the Surrey Union, said that while antis haven’t troubled them this season, he has noticed their numbers increasing.

“They quietened down immediately after the ban,” he told H&H. “But they have gradually come back over the past couple of seasons. It’s the same old faces.”

For Michael Thompson, master of the Blencathra, it’s a different story.

He says the level of attention the ‘John Peel hunt’ has attracted has been “consistently bad the whole way through”.

“You have got to be professional at all times,” he said. “You are only as good as your last game. We act as if they are there all the time.”

This news story was first published in the current issue of Horse & Hound (15 September, 2011)

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A kennel huntsman who hit the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) head of operations with the stock of his whip has been given a conditional discharge by a Somerset court.

David Bevan, of the West Somerset Vale, appeared at Taunton Magistrates Court on Tuesday 6 September.

He pleaded guilty to assaulting LACS employee Paul Tillsley on 29 March.

Mr Tillsley had been filming the hunt on a bridleway at Woodlands Hill when Mr Bevan struck him on the head and arm.

Mr Bevan was given a one-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £150 compensation and £85 costs.

This news story was first published in the current issue of Horse & Hound (15 September, 2011)

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Sparks may fly when BBC Radio 4 brings hunting supporters and antis together for its Sunday morning programme, The Reunion on 4 September.

The show will reunite those involved on both sides of the hunting movement around the time of the Hyde Park Rally and the 1997 Labour government victory.

The Reunion, presented by Sue MacGregor describes itself as “a series that reunites a group of people intimately involved in a moment of modern history”.

In this episode it brings together Robin Hanbury-Tenison, then chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, hunting campaigner Darren Hughes, Lindsay Hill of the Union of Country Sports Workers, John Rolls of the RSPCA and the League Against Cruel Sports’ John Cooper.

• The show goes out at 11.14am on 4 September and is repeated on Friday 9 September at 9am. It will also be available online through the BBC’s Listen Again service for a week after transmission.

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The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has appointed the controversial former head of Newnham Council, Joe Duckworth, as its new chief executive.

Mr Duckworth will replace current head Douglas Batchelor this summer.

He was the second highest earner in local government last year, with a salary of £241,483 — more than David Cameron.

But he is likely to have to take a cut with LACS. Mr Batchelor reportedly earns around £120,000 each year.

This news story was first published in the current issue of Horse & Hound (24 March, 2011)

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South Devon hunt countryman Andrew Bellamy has been found guilty of two charges of interfering with a badger sett.

Mr Bellamy, 39, of Yelverton, was fined £500 with £500 costs, at South Devon Magistrates Court on 1 February.

He had denied being the man caught on covert filming by the League Against Cruel Sports.

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The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) is planning to sell some of the 2,000 acres it owns on Exmoor to fund a £1million campaign against repeal of the Hunting Act.

Since the hunting ban LACS membership has dropped and the charity has sold off a number of assets.

“We are absolutely focused and determined in our aim to ensure the Hunting Act remains,” said the chief executive of the charity Douglas Batchelor.

Countryside Alliance (CA) spokesman Tim Bonner said: “LACS has between 4,000 and 5,000 members, according to the latest figures, and seems to continue to exist only by selling off the family silver. It is difficult to see how it can carry on.”

LACS will retain sporting rights over all the land it sells, most of which was purchased in the 1960s and 1970s, to ensure that hunting and shooting cannot ever take place there.

The sale follows the disposal of the charity’s London and Somerset headquarters and land sales in 2005.

LACS has just published its accounts for 2009. They show a surplus for the year of £425,000 which includes £379,000 raised by the sale of the Somerset property — St Nicholas’ Priory on its Baronsdown estate.

Former LACS director Jim Barrington, who is now a welfare adviser to the CA, said: “Selling off sanctuary land is an issue that always divides the League’s membership.

“Many members feel the land should not be sold. It has led to some big bust-ups within the charity in the past.”

No date has yet been set for a free vote on the Act in the House of Commons.

This article was first published in Horse & Hound (26 August, ’10)

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The hunting community has countered claims made in the League Against Cruel Sports’ (LACS) annual hunting report that almost two-thirds of hunts in England and Wales continue to hunt wild mammals and that stricter policing is needed.

But Countryside Alliance spokesman Tim Bonner says thousands of hours of police time have already been wasted “investigating pointless allegations”.

“The last hunt successfully prosecuted under the Hunting Act was in January 2008. Since then a series of hunting cases have collapsed and the law has proved, as we always said, to be unworkable.

“There is no justification for any organisation wasting further public funding, especially when public service is under such financial pressure.”

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (10 June 2010)

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The Charity Commission has censured the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) for being party political for a second time.

LACS commissioned a YouGov poll last May that asked: “Do you think the Conservative pledge to hold a vote on whether to make hunting with dogs…legal again is MORE in keeping with a ‘nasty party’ or a ‘compassionate Conservative’ party?”

The result was then reported in a press release headed “Poll reveals Tories firmly viewed as ‘nasty party’ on hunting”.

In a report of its investigation into the breaking of rules, the commission said: “The question appeared to be designed to elicit a particular response for the purpose of criticising the [Conservative] party.”

Chief executive of the commission Andrew Hind said: “Charities must not encourage, or discourage, support for any political party.”

The commission will take no further action, but LACS had to promise to be neutral in future.

This comes after the charities’ watchdog was forced to rule on a LACS advert that was deemed party political.

LACS had proposed an advertising campaign that highlighted letters in the slogan “Keep Cruelty History” so it read “Cruel Tory” but was advised this was overly political.

Countryside Alliance spokesman Tim Bonner said: “We believe a lot of what LACS does isn’t very charitable — including paying people to hide in hedges and spy on hunts.

“But if it wants the financial advantages of being a charity, it has to stick to the rules.”

LACS chief executive Douglas Batchelor said LACS accepted the commission’s guidance and, ahead of the general election, would publish candidates’ views on the repeal of the Hunting Act — but would keep to the rules.

“We will be focusing a great deal on this campaign in the run up to the election,” he said.

This article was first published in Horse & Hound (8 April, ’10)

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Video evidence by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) may no longer be admissible in court, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has ruled.

New guidelines drawn up by the CPS say antis may video hunts “for their own purposes”, but if a police force is aware a group is “conducting covert surveillance” and intends to use it in court, Home Office authorisation should be sought.

This clarification will put an end to the cosy relationship between police forces and anti-hunt groups, said Countryside Alliance spokesman, Tim Bonner.

“The police can’t claim not to know what LACS and IFAW are doing. Even the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) guidance on the Hunting Act [the Hunting Act Investigators’ Manual] says they rely on evidence from non-government organisations,” he added.

Earlier this month a judge in the case against a Dorset hunt terrier man asked for guidance as to whether secret filming by antis was subject to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) — which gives police and local authorities permission to undertake surveillance (news, 7 January).

The CPS clarification adds that if the police force does not encourage or initiate the surveillance, authorisation is not necessary. But that evidence may not stand up in court.

Mr Bonner said: “Under the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) groups like LACS and IFAW sign up to support the police and combat wildlife crime. LACS even has a dedicated email address on the Home Office secure network to report suspected crimes.

“The police and these groups now know they are in dangerous territory under human rights legislation if they use unauthorised covert film evidence in court and could be sued,” Mr Bonner added.

The guidance follows the collapse of the case against South Dorset hunt terrier man Christopher Leadbeater at Bournemouth Magistrates Court on Thursday (21 January).

Mr Leadbeater had been accused of interfering with a badger sett and the prosecution relied on covert filming of him digging taken by LACS.

Mr Leadbeater had been exempt fox hunting within the Hunting Act, said his solicitor Jamie Foster, of Clarke Willmott LLP.

District judge Philip Gillibrand — ruled the evidence of the expert witness in the case, Andrew Parr, must be disregarded as he had a long association with LACS and was a former hunt saboteur.

Mr Gillibrand asked for clarification of RIPA, as he felt anti-hunt groups were breaking human rights law.

But Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of LACS, says his group will not change its tactics.

He said: “If anyone breaches the conditions of the Hunting Act evidence supplied by monitors can and will be used by the police and the CPS to support the prosecution process.”

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A second case against South Dorset terrierman Christopher Leadbetter has dramatically been dropped, the day before it was due to go to trial.

The cases involved covert surveillance carried out by the League Against Cruel Sports and had already led to a review of the legitimacy of secret filming as court evidence.

Mr Leadbeater of Dorchester was due to be tried today on a charge under the Badgers Act at Bournemouth Magistrates Court.

But yesterday the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told Mr Leadbeater’s lawyers that it no longer had sufficient evidence to justify the prosecution.

Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance, said: “The prosecutions of Mr Leadbetter have raised hugely important questions about the legal process.

“A completely innocent man has spent two years clearing his name at the cost of over £250,000 to the taxpayer all because the police and CPS chose to pursue prosecutions based on the spurious allegations and unauthorised surveillance evidence of animal rights activists.

“If any good can come of this situation it is an acceptance that the police and the CPS, not animal rights activists, should uphold, investigate and prosecute the law.

“The role the League Against Cruel Sports played in these prosecutions meant that a fair and proper trial process was impossible”.

Commenting on its website a LACS spokesman said: “The League’s role is to collect evidence and pass this to the police, and the CPS have confirmed that it is legal for us to do this. Whether or not to prosecute someone is the decision of the CPS and in this case the CPS proceeded but later decided they had insufficient evidence.”

The initial case against Mr Leadbeater was dropped last month after the judge ruled there was no case to answer.

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The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has been rapped by the Charity Commission for a second time over adverts to be aired in the run-up to the general election.

The banned advert highlighted letters in the slogan Keep Cruelty History so it read Cruel Tory, which was deemed too political by the Commission.

LACS had already been warned about being party political by the charity watchdog in August 2009.

Now a spokesman for the Commission told H&H it would be using LACS as a case study of how not to behave as an example to other charities.

She said: “We have been engaging with the charity with regards to their campaigning — charities can campaign, but cannot be party political.”

Countryside Alliance spokesman Tim Bonner said: “LACS cannot have it both ways. By moving its entire operation into charitable status it has attracted significant tax benefits, but it must then abide by the rules.

“There are real questions about how such an overtly political organisation can be a charity, but we are glad to see the Commission is keeping a close eye on LACS’s activities.”

LACS spokesman Louise Robertson told H&H: “The advert was checked and the Commission felt highlighting the text was too political.”

Ms Robertson added that the advert had “not been banned”, but had to be redesigned before it could be used.

The campaign follows pledges from Tory leader David Cameron that if elected his government would allow a free vote on the issue of hunting with dogs.

Shadow Secretary of State Nick Herbert MP called the Hunting Act “an affront to civil liberties”, saying a Conservative government would consider introducing a regulatory body for hunting in order to minimise animal suffering.

PR company Bright Young Things has been hired by LACS to run its campaign supporting the Hunting Act.

The company claims it will recruit “major celebrities” to campaign and will be using “cutting edge” viral videos to target younger audiences.

This article was first published in Horse & Hound (4 February, ’10)

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The National Trust has denied claims that they have an arrangement to provide the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) with details of hunting and other sporting, activities on Trust land.

LACS sumitted a motion to the National Trust annual meeting on 7 November, asking the Trust to make public all dates when hunts will be trail hunting on their land. The motion was defeated by 7,056 votes.

But in a statement on its website LACS had claimed: “whatever the outcome of the vote an agreement has been reached [with the National Trust] whereby this information will be made available to [us]”.

Trust spokesman Andrew McLaughlin told H&H: “This is absolutely not the case. There is no agreement with LACS.”

He said the only information the National Trust provides to the public is the contact number of the organiser of the sporting event so they can make their own enquiries.

Speaking about the defeat of the LACS motion Countryside Alliance chief executive Simon Hart said: “This is a very sensible decision by National Trust members who have rejected a resolution which would have served no purpose other than to created problems for the Trust.

“Animal rights activists should now accept that it is for the Trust, not them, to monitor the legal activities of license holders.

“In the five years the Hunting Act has been in force there has never been a successful prosecution involving a hunt on National Trust land and the likely repeal of the Act will simplify the process of licensing hunting in future.”

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Anti-hunt campaigners the League Against Cruel Sport (LACS) wants the National Trust to publish the times and dates when hunts will be trail hunting on their properties, to help LACS’ self-styled “monitors”.

But the National Trust has rejected the request as “unworkable”.

Now LACS has tabled a motion to the National Trust’s annual meeting on 7 November.

LACS chief executive Douglas Batchelor told H&H: “We don’t think there is any reason why this information should not be in the public domain.

“Other big land-owners like the MoD manage to do it.”

He said the move would help his activists “monitor” hunts. LACS has a policy of using video cameras in a bid to gain evidence of law-breaking.

National Trust spokesman Andrew McLaughlin said: “The resolution refers to sporting activities, not hunting explicitly.

“The logistics of listing every activity on National Trust land are unworkable. The trustees have recommended the resolution be rejected on the practicalities of carrying it out.”

Director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association Alastair Jackson said: “The National Trust wants to be transparent and helpful to the public, but what LACS has asked for isn’t practical or reasonable.”

When granting hunts a licence, the National Trust asks them to provide a contact so that any public queries can be passed back to the hunt.

“The Trust is very helpful when liaising with us, and always has been,” added Mr Jackson.

This article was first published in Horse & Hound (1 October, ’09)

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The hunting community is hopeful it’s one step closer to a repeal of the Hunting Act after a case involving organised hunting has been dismissed.

The case against Ullswater foxhounds huntsman John Harrison collapsed on 17 September after district judge Gerald Chalk ruled there was no evidence that he had pursued an “identifiable mammal at any stage”.

This follows a clarification of the Hunting Act made by High Court judges earlier this year (news, 12 February).

Mr Harrison appeared before Penrith magistrates accused of hunting with dogs on two counts on 19 November 2008, but denied the allegations.

“It’s a huge relief for me and the whole hunting community in Cumbria,” said Mr Harrison.

“The Ullswater will be hunting within the law again this season and we are looking forward to the repeal of the Act so that we can resume hunting free from this terrible legislation.”

Six “hunt monitors” from the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) gave evidence against Mr Harrison, with video footage of the two alleged incidents.

An IFAW witness claimed footage showed a fox being dug out then pursued by hounds. But this could not be proved.

Stephen Welford, Mr Harrison’s solicitor, told H&H: “It is a great shame so much time, effort and expense has gone into prosecuting when evidence clearly doesn’t exist.”

Countryside Alliance spokesman Tim Bonner said there have only been three successful prosecutions against hunting in the four years since the Hunting Act and that there are no more prosecutions pending.

He added:“LACS and the antis are on their knees, it’s a real body blow for them. They have failed again — and in spectacular style.”

But the Hunting Office believes that monitors may be trying to create a high-profile public order incident to destabilise the chances of repeal, so it has sent a memo to hunts.

Tim Easby from the Hunting Office said: “What monitors would love is a reaction, so we are urging hunts not to be intimidated or aggravated. We must keep one step ahead and maintain the excellent discipline demonstrated so far.”

A LACS spokesman said: “We are disappointed with the decision, but obviously we have to respect what the judge says.”

This news story was first published in H&H (24 September, ’09)

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Tesco has removed adverts for its equestrian clothing range from pro-hunting website The Master’s Voice after pressure from the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS).

But the furore around the ads, which featured a blonde woman dressed in all black standing next to a horse, has seen traffic to The Master’s Voice website (www.themastersvoice.co.uk) boosted.

Editor Midge Todhunter said: “Clicks on the website seem to be growing every month.

“The ad was click-through marketing which wasn’t really working for us so I was planning to take it off the website anyway, but we did get a new advertiser on the back of all the publicity in The Mirror.

“We are not promoting anything illegal so I can’t see what LACS’s problem was with us.”

The story in the Mirror (on 27 July), which quoted LACS chief executive Douglas Batchelor calling the ads “horrendously stupid” and “inappropriate”, forced the multi-national grocer to can the ads immediately and blame its online marketing company, TradeDoubler, for placing them.

A spokesperson for Tesco said: “We don’t have a view on the subject. We have a lot of customers with sorts of different views.

“The ads were placed by our affiliate marketing company TradeDoubler. We didn’t place the ads.”

TradeDoubler was contacted by H&H but failed to return our calls.

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THE popularity of the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has hit a new low with the news it is still looking for a tenant to share its Godalming HQ, almost a year after moving there from London.

The anti-hunting group sold its properties in Southwark, London (pictured right) and St Nicholas’ Priory at its Baronsdown deer sanctuary on Exmoor last year and moved to Surrey in July (news, 22 May 2008).

Accounts at the 2007 LACS AGM showed a £1million hole in the charity’s coffers and membership stands at just 7,000 this year.

The plan was to buy the Guildford building — New Sparling House in Holloway Hill — and rent out half the space. But the “to let” signs are still there nine months on.

LACS spokesman Louise Robertson said: “We are definitely not moving again or closing down. We own the whole building and it was always our intention to rent out the space we did not need.”

She was unable to comment on whether the society is in talks with any potential lessees.

But the Countryside Alliance feels this is further evidence that LACS is out of public favour.

“It’s no surprise to us that the league cannot find anyone to share a building with them,” said spokesman Tim Bonner.

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (28 May, ’09)

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Charges of illegal hunting have been dropped against four men connected with the Isle of Wight hunt who were arrested in dawn raids two years ago.

The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) dropped its private prosecution of the Isle of Wight hunt last week, saying its evidence was “no longer of sufficient quality and quantity to support a case”.

The decision comes despite LACS maintaining to H&H for months that it would continue with the case.

In May 2007, Isle of Wight huntsman Stuart Trousdale, falconer Jamie Butcher, amateur whipper-in Liam Thom and field master Malcolm Purcell were all charged with hunting a fox with dogs.

Hampshire Police carried out dawn raids on 3 May 2007, including one on the hunt’s kennels at Gatcombe in Newport, to arrest the men. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) later decided not to prosecute, so the case was taken up privately by LACS.

The prosecution is the last to be dropped following High Court clarification of the Hunting Act earlier this year.

Prosecutions against the Heythrop hunt and Devon and Somerset Staghounds have already been discontinued.

Countryside Alliance chief executive Simon Hart said the news was the “clearest possible evidence that the Hunting Act is on borrowed time”.

“LACS told us that practically every time hounds leave their kennels an offence is being committed. They have told us that the ‘exemptions’ [in the Hunting Act] are so tightly drawn and that hunting with a bird of prey cannot be done,” said Mr Hart.

“Well they made the decision to prosecute this case on the basis that it was the strongest they had and yet it has not even gone to trial.”

He added: “They have admitted what we have known for a long time — the Hunting Act 2004 is unworkable.”

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A former director of the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), Jim Barrington, has joined the Countryside Alliance as an animal welfare consultant on the fourth anniversary of the Hunting Act (18 February).

Mr Barrington has been consultant to the Parliamentary Middle Way Group, a cross-party body that campaigned for a workable compromise on hunting, and will continue in that role while working for the Alliance.

Mr Barrington said: “Working with the Countryside Alliance seems like a logical progression as the Hunting Act has been revealed as pointless and damaging to animal welfare.

“My ex-colleagues in the anti-hunting movement are increasingly frustrated by the failure of the Act, but it is their law. After literally decades of campaigning, millions of pounds spent and numerous bills and debates, they got it wrong.

“The Act is sheer nonsense and I cannot understand or accept the proposition that it even addresses the issue of animal welfare.

“There is only one answer. The Hunting Act must be repealed. Only then can the welfare of wild mammals start to be properly addressed.”

Simon Hart, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: “Four years after the Hunting Act came into force the question is when, not if, it will be repealed.

“We are thrilled that James has agreed to work with us to achieve that goal.”

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The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) is relocating from central London to Godalming, Surrey, amid suggestions that the group has money problems and plummeting membership.

Former LACS director-turned hunting supporter Jim Barrington says that in 1995 it had 18,000 members now LACS spokesman Barry Hugill says it has just 4,500.

“Membership is not as high as it was before the Hunting Act,” Mr Hugill told H&H.

At an extraordinary general meeting on 26 April, LACS members agreed to amalgamate the LACS Ltd with its charity arm, The League Trust. Mr Hughill said this is in common with many other groups taking advantage of changes made under the Charities Act 2006.

LACS also made a number of staff cuts before Christmas, including head of legal and political affairs Mike Hobday, who had been very involved in campaigning for a hunting ban.

It is selling St Nicholas’ Priory, at its Baronsdown deer sanctuary on Exmoor and, in July, will be moving to Godalming, a move that the Countryside Alliance (CA) feels proves LACS is in trouble.

“We have twice as many members in Devon as it has in the whole country,” said CA spokesman Tim Bonner. “If you look at its accounts it relies very heavily on legacies to keep it going and, if membership is dwindling, it follows that legacies will, too.”

Accounts presented to LACS’ annual meeting in July 2007 show a hole in the organisation’s coffers of almost £1million.

LACS’ charity arm, The League Trust, recorded income of £182,060, but outgoings of £616,776 and £538,830 owed to creditors. LACS Ltd recorded £237,679 profit.

But Mr Hughill, who is shortly to retire, denies LACS has money problems and says the move from Southwark is a positive one.

He said: “Our present offices can best be described as a charming Dickensian slum. We are in a position where we can buy new offices in Godalming.”

But Mr Barrington believes LACS has become a victim of its perceived success.

He said: “LACS has been geared up to [securing] a hunting ban and, now the Hunting Act is here, people think ‘job done’ and move on.”

Mr Barrington added that the LACS HQ — bought in 1980 for £80,000 — was mortgaged in 1997 to allow the group to support MP Michael Foster’s failed Wild Mammals (Hunting with Dogs) Bill.

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (22 May, ’08)

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The Isle of Wight hunt has voluntarily agreed to suspend hunting on Forestry Commission (FC) land until the end of the season following allegations of a breach of FC licence conditions.

The agreement was reached after the League Against Cruel Sports sent footage to the FC of the hunt on its land during January and February.

The FC has 1,080 hectares of land on the Isle of Wight, which the hunt uses for a few days each season.

A spokesman for the FC said it would look at the incident with the hunt during the closed season. “ We usually enjoy good relations with the hunt,” he added.

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (13 March, ’08)

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The first huntsman to be prosecuted under the Hunting Act 2004 appeared in court yesterday to appeal his conviction.

Tony Wright, huntsman of the Exmoor Foxhounds, appeared in Exeter Crown Court for the first day of his appeal. Like the Quantock Staghounds case last month, Tony Wright’s appeal hinges on the exemption of flushing a fox using two hounds.

He was convicted by Barnstable Magistrates Court in August 2006 of hunting a wild mammal with dogs, in a prosecution brought privately by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS).

The Barnstable judge’s ruling was based on video evidence filmed by LACS on 29 April 2005.

Tony Wright’s Exeter Crown Court hearing is likely to last until Thursday, with a reserved judgement expected.

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Three members of the Minehead Harriers have entered not guilty pleas in a private prosecution for illegal hunting being brought by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS).

Huntsman William Goffe and Amateur whipper-in Gary Bradley appeared at Taunton Magistrates Court yesterday (9 October) to answer charges brought under the Hunting Act.

The third man, master Sidney Westcott, was not in court but his not guilty plea was recorded.

Mr Bradley is also accused of a public order offence, which he denies.

The case has been adjourned until November 12 when a date will be set for trial.

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A letter sent out to all masters of hounds last week by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has been dismissed as “comical” by the Countryside Alliance (CA).

Last Thursday, LACS sent a letter to all masters listed in Baily’s Hunting Directory by recorded delivery. In it, Mike Hobday, “head of prosecution unit” for LACS, outlines “advice” to hunts.

“As a result of the judgements in court, there is new information that should guide hunts who wish to obey the law,” he wrote. “I am writing to you with this information in order to assist you in this and to ensure you are unable, if prosecuted, to claim a reasonable belief to the contrary.”

The letter goes on to state that 13 people have been convicted under the Hunting Act, that eagle owls cannot hunt and kill foxes and implies that decisions by magistrates courts have set legal precedents.

Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) chairman Stephen Lambert disputed the claims and described the letter as “very arrogant and desperate”.

“It’s hardly worth comment because it contains so many factual errors. We immediately sent a note to all masters telling them to bin it,” he said.

The MFHA says that claiming 13 people have been convicted under the Hunting Act is misleading as this number includes poachers and other people unrelated to hunting. Both cases quoted are awaiting appeal and were heard in a magistrates’ court so cannot establish legal precedent and they say the information about eagle owls is incorrect as there is abundant evidence they can both hunt and kill foxes.

Chief executive of the CA, Simon Hart, dismissed the letters as nothing more than a “comic development”.

“It’s provided us with some light amusement in the dark days of foot-and-mouth,” he said.

A spokesman for LACS explained the letters: “After each criminal prosecution under the Hunting Act 2004, the hunting community has claimed that the law is unclear, something that LACS disagrees with. However, because of this we have decided to write to hunts in England and Wales to inform them of what is not exempt under the law. We hope our guidance will help hunts to better understand the law.”

Fraser Wakerley, chairman of the Barlow Foxhounds, whose joint-masters received the letter, said: “This letter has not caused any great concern to our joint-masters. The cases it quotes are up for appeal and who can know their outcome?”

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (27 September, ’07)

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THE Minehead Harriers are the latest pack to be targeted by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) for alleged illegal hunting.

The LACS claims to have footage showing the hunt breaking the terms of the Hunting Act while trail hunting in January.

Minehead Harriers master Sydney Westcott, huntsman William Goffe and amateur whipper-in Gary Bradley were summonsed to appear at court today (Thurs) but the case has been adjourned.

Mr Bradley is also charged with a public order offence.

It is the first case to involve a pack of hounds carrying out trail hunting – rather than huntsmen taking part in exempt hunting.

Joint master Caroline Clifford said: “We have not seen the footage.

“The League is out with us almost every day and they have taken a lot of footage of us but I don’t know what of.

“We just have to wait for the new date to be set.

“The Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) and the Countryside Alliance (CA) have been tremendously supportive of us.”

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The Council of Hunting Associations (CHA) is warning hunt supporters and staff to “keep their cool” after Anthony Allibone, huntsman of the Dulverton Farmers, was last week found guilty of assaulting a hunt monitor for the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS).

In the same week, a Heythrop supporter was cautioned for puncturing the tyre of a car belonging to a hunt monitor, and last week a steward with the Cotley was fined for threatening two monitors.

“We firmly discourage hunt officials, members of the field or supporters from getting involved in arguments with monitors, even when monitors are trying to harass and are trespassing,” said CHA chairman Stephen Lambert.

On Friday, 9 February, Mr Allibone, 49, pleaded not guilty at Minehead Magistrates’ Court to using intimidating behaviour against Yvonne Nicola, 66.

The court heard how, on 15 March 2006, Ms Nicola went with two other hunt monitors to watch the Dulverton Farmers at Clayford on Exmoor. They stood on a public right of way with video cameras and waited for the hunt.

A video taken by the monitors and played in court last week showed the hunt entering the farm track and Mr Allibone riding close to Ms Nicola, before reprimanding his horse.

Rebecca Bradberry, defending, said Ms Nicola provoked the incident by waving her arms and touching the horse. Mr Allibone denied trying to intimidate.

He told the court: “I shouted at her to stop waving her arms, but you can’t get a horse to go back so easily.”

The huntsman was found guilty of assault by putting the victim in fear of immediate and unlawful violence.

In sentencing, magistrate Clive Powell said: “You over-reacted in your words and actions, and the tone you used, and in the control of your horse. LACS and hunts have to co-exist with each other and where they do come across each other, it is a matter for both sides to maintain good conduct.”

Mr Allibone was ordered to pay £400 — a fine, costs and compensation.

Afterwards, he told H&H: “We have to keep our cool, but it’s difficult. We mustn’t let monitors get the better of us.”

• This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (15 February, ’07)

Exmoor huntsman Tony Wright’s lawyers have lodged an appeal at Exeter Crown Court against his prosecution for illegal hunting. The appeal will be heard later this year, but in the meantime hunts will carry on as before. Devon and Cornwall Police have confirmed the case is not a legislative benchmark: “Nothing has changed as a result of the Wright case,” said Assistant Chief Constable Richard Stowe, adding that hunts across the country have been found to be hunting within the law.

Mr Wright was filmed chasing two foxes across Exmoor along with two hounds. He firmly believes he was hunting within the law and will appeal against the magistrate’s court ruling that fined him £500 and £250 costs. The Countryside Alliance will be supporting Mr Wright’s appeal. “No right-minded person believes that Tony Wright should be branded a criminal,” said a CA spokesperson.

According to Devon and Cornwall Police, Tony Wright’s appeal will help clarify the Hunting Act 2005.”The law hasn’t changed as a result of the prosecution but it could as a result of the appeal. It could bring about case law which would be helpful,” Assistant Chief Constable Stowe told CLO.

The CA believes the outcome has created confusion amongst hunts: “This judgment has created even more confusion over the Hunting Act than before – any law which can put a man like Tony Wright through nine months of court action and tell him he is a criminal for doing something which he believed was entirely legal, clearly isn’t working,” said a spokesperson.

Hunting is not a priority for the Devon and Cornwall Police, Assistant Chief Constable Stowe confirmed. “It is not part of the National Policing Plan,” he said, “There are 33 hunts in Devon and Cornwall, about 10% of the country’s hunts. If we had to police them all it would be very difficult.” But he was keen to point out that violence at hunt meets will not be tolerated. “Whilst I’ve said hunting is not a police priority, violence is,” he warned.

Assistant Chief Constable Stowe was also keen to point out that in the police’s absence ‘monitors’ do not have a special status. “There is nothing illegal about someone filming a hunt but they have no special status,” he confirmed.

Police forces across the country have reported the majority of hunts are operating within the law. “There have been 30 allegations of illegal hunting in Devon and Cornwall and none of them have been sent to the Crime Prosecution Service,” added Stowe.

Tony Wright’s case was brought to court as a private prosecution by the League Against Cruel Sports at a cost of £65,000 after Avon and Somerset Police dismissed it based on the evidence available.

During the week-long hearing Mr Wright denied breaching the Hunting Act when he led the Exmoor Foxhounds at Drybridge in Devon on 29 April, 2005. Despite evidence that he was trying to comply with the conditions for “exempt hunting” (that he was accompanied by two hounds and a marksman to shoot the fox), the judge found Mr Wright guilty. His appeal is due to be heard this autumn.

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Exmoor huntsman Tony Wright has today been found guilty in Barnstaple Magistrates’ Court for breaching the terms of the Hunting Act. Tony Wright, 55, argued that he was attempting to comply with the conditions for ‘exempt hunting’. Mr Wright, who was fined £5000, will launch an appeal against his conviction.

The case was brought to court as a private prosecution by the League Against Cruel Sports at a cost of £65,000 after Avon and Somerset Police dismissed it based on the evidence available. During the week-long hearing Mr Wright denied breaching the Hunting Act when he led the Exmoor Foxhounds at Drybridge in Devon on 29 April, 2005. Despite evidence that he was trying to comply with the conditions for ‘exempt hunting’ (that he was accompanied by two hounds and a marksman to shoot the fox), the judge found Mr Wright guilty.

Simon Hart, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: “No right minded person thinks that Tony Wright should have been branded a criminal.”

Over the course of the hearing the League told the court that Wright signalled to the Exmoor Foxhounds to pursue two foxes at Drybridge in Devon, thus breaking the terms of the Hunting Act.

The Countryside Alliance believe that today’s verdict brings the Hunting Act and ‘exempt hunting’ into question. “If people were confused about the Hunting Act before today they will be a lot more confused now,” said Mr Hart. “We believe that he [Mr Wright] was trying to comply with the law as he understood it and will be supporting his appeal. This is a piece of legislation which took seven years and 700 hours of parliamentary time to get onto the statute book yet still it is illogical and unclear.” According to the Countryside Alliance, Mr Wright does not know what else he could have done.

“There is a lot of analysis to be done,” said a Countryside Alliance spokesperson, “But one thing Mr Wright is clear about is that he is not stopping hunting.” Over the coming days the Countryside Alliance will be issuing hunts with new advice. “We have to find a way through this,” said the spokesperson. “This Hunting Act has got to go.”

To read a full analysis of the implications of this prosecution, including information on the appeal process and how hunts are responding to the news, pick up next week’s issue of Horse & Hound (August 10)

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Record support for the Countryside Alliance (CA) has resulted in spiralling membership, now totalling 107,438, up 8% on last year.

By contrast, the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has had a 29% drop in membership income, which it links to post-ban “complacency”. Despite this, the group claims it has just over 20,000 members.

But according to its former chief executive Jim Barrington, now heading the pro-hunting Middle Way Group, LACS only ever enjoyed a high of about 18,000 members in the early 1990s.

“I’d be amazed if membership had reached that level — the 20,000 claim is like some of LACS’ other claims, which are quite exaggerated,” said Mr Barrington, who left in 1995.

Likewise, LACS former chief officer Graham Sirl (pictured), who left in 2001, told H&H in an interview in February: “Our membership then was about 8-9,000. I don’t know what it is now, but it didn’t go up a lot all the time I was there, I think it’s probably lower now than it ever was.”

CA spokesman Tim Bonner agreed the estimate was “difficult to believe”, adding: “Such a dramatic drop [in membership income] is symptomatic of public dissatisfaction with the animal rights movement across the board. It’s not a mass movement, but a small clique of extremist people who are out of touch with the rest of society.”

Based on LACS’ own figures, published in AGM papers, he said a calculation of total membership income of £69,047, divided by about £15-£20 per head (LACS charges £20 for standard membership, £10 “unwaged” and youth, £30 family/two adults, and £500 life membership) put membership between 3,452 and 4,603.

“LACS is concerned that its work will be undermined if people fully understand how little support the organisation has,” said Mr Bonner.

LACS spokesman Barry Hugill said the drop in membership income was “not a call for panic”, adding the “massive upsurge” in support prior to the Hunting Act was replaced with “a degree of complacency”.

“A number of people say the Act went through and it’s all over — of course we say it’s not,” said Mr Hugill.

The CA, meanwhile, at last week’s AGM announced it has 95,709 members in England and Wales, 7,076 in Ireland and 4,653 in Scotland. Tim Bonner said the 45,500 grassroots subscribers, who receive weekly newsletters, indicated even greater support.

“Record membership and broader support in the past 12 months shows there’s life beyond the Hunting Act, and that the rural community is still determined to carry on fighting prejudiced legislation.”

• This news report was first published in Horse & Hound (22 June ’06)

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“I think ‘cult’ is a very accurate description [of LACS],” says Miles Cooper, a former employee of IFAW and LACS, who, like Graham Sirl, underwent a dramatic change of opinion as he began to learn more about hunting.

“The anti-hunt movement was never very big, it was based on a small core group of animal rights people — many of whom never understood what they were doing, or why they were there.

“I became concerned that we were shoehorning evidence to suit our own political agenda and I think we were misleading people.”

Early days

Cooper says his is a “familiar saboteur story” — joining friends at a hunt while at college in 1988, getting caught up in the passion, knowing little about hunting but joining the antis. He began to follow hunts as many as five days a week as a LACS volunteer, and when he graduated from a theology degree at Oxford, Cooper was employed by IFAW as it joined forces with the RSPCA and LACS to form the CPHA.

“During the time of the Foster Bill [1997] I was paid by IFAW but worked under the auspices of LACS, rebutting pro-hunting letters in the press,” he says. “I thought at the time there were different opinions expressed in the [pro-hunting] letters, but we had to dismiss them and relied on our ‘formula’ to over- turn pro-hunt opinion.”

Doubting times

Once in IFAW employment, after 10 years of vigorous campaigning against something he admits he knew little about, Cooper says he began to feel increasingly uncomfortable.

“I had little flashes of doubt, little indications over quite a long period of time telling me ‘I’m not sure about this’,” he recalls. “There were a lot of people, particularly in the memberships of these organisations, who rely solely on PR departments to tell them what hunting is without actually going out, seeing it and talking to people.

“Inevitably, there is a massive gap in terms of real understanding — of course you can mount the most fantastic, well-organised, glossy campaign on the basis of ignorance and I think that’s basically what we did. We were not entirely honest with people and weren’t giving them the whole picture.”

Total ignorance

Cooper was commissioned by LACS to do a study on gun packs and began to have “misgivings” about them. To his shock, he discovered the IFAW head of press at the time had no idea gun packs even existed.

“The ignorance — not in the derogatory way but just total lack of knowledge — was quite frightening. How could we really sit there and say ‘we know better than you’?” he says.

“I began to have severe misgivings about gun packs, not least for animal welfare, but also for public safety and public law and order. I felt we might be better sticking with hunting with hounds at the end of the day.”

Time to change

Cooper said he vented his misgivings in private, and struck up dialogue with Jim Barrington, who put him in touch with the Countryside Alliance (CA) and the Federation of Welsh Packs.

“It was the first opportunity I’d had to actually speak to people who knew what they were talking about, and what the implications would be of the proposed legislation.

“Ultimately, as I matured through those organisations, from being a common-garden hunt monitor to working closely with Jim Barrington, Howard Hodges, Graham Sirl and then undercover with Kevin Hill and Peter White, there was a gradual maturing process. But I couldn’t understand how my colleagues’ understanding of hunting wasn’t maturing and developing in line with what we were seeing.

“There seemed to be a lack of detailed thought going on — ‘OK, I may have seen this happen today, but what is the wider context?’”

Speaking out

In 2002, as Alun Michael launched his consultation on the Hunting Act, Miles Cooper decided the time was right to speak his mind. He sent an e-mail to the rural affairs minister asking if he could offer his opinion. Hearing nothing, he contacted Jim Barrington, now of the Middle Way Group, and Simon Hart, CA chief executive.

“Despite it going against everything I’d previously stood for, I was completely reassured that theirs was the right approach. The issue was what sort of legislation would be best for animal welfare, protect the hunts and jobs and do best for the farmers,” says Cooper, adding that if the two “camps” had talked with each other, as opposed to argue, a lasting solution might have been found.

“It put my heart at rest, so I could stand up and say why I’d changed my mind and that there was a way forward,” he says. “So we held a press conference in May — which went down like a lead balloon.

“LACS is a very paranoid organisation and it’s very difficult in that environment to maintain an independent opinion. By the end of that day, I had a number of irate phone calls on my answer machine — disgusted, annoyed and upset with what I’d done. Some people asked ‘wouldn’t it have been better to just shut up’.

“The overriding impression from the response I got was that a lot of IFAW colleagues in private probably had similar misgivings, but thought giving in to the opponent was embarrassing and difficult.”

Knowledge and understanding

In the past three years, Cooper has learnt more and more about hunting, and become more involved. He has been out mounted with the Warwickshire, taken up shooting and ferreting and now has plans with some friends and colleagues to start up a Beagle pack to hunt “within the law”.

Now living in Wallington, south Oxfordshire, and working as a teacher in a juvenile prison, he has stepped away from the hunting debate — but hints that he would like to get involved again.

“Hunting is one of those things that, no matter which side of the debate you’re on, once it’s bitten you — that’s it,” he says.

Of the hunting ban, Cooper is very defined in his opinion.

“All we have in the Hunting Act is expedience over evidence and prejudice over principle. There’s no measurable benefit to animal welfare and it’s undoubtedly failed — Labour’s best efforts have been a complete failure.

“They can’t expect people simply to pack up their livelihoods — which they know to be right — and just walk away when they know wrong has been done by them.”

• Read former chief officer of LACS Graham Sirl’s views on hunting >>

One year on after the ban came into force find out why interested parties believe the law isn’t working in today’s Horse & Hound (16 February, 06). This week’s issue is the first show special and includes the first part of the 2006 show directory.

“LACS has achieved nothing — they’ve had their opportunity and hunting with hounds will never, ever be banned in this country,” says Graham Sirl emphatically.

“One year on, nothing’s changed. Hunting will continue as it is until the next change in government. The Conservatives have already said they’ll bring back hunting in a free vote, and I think they will come in at the next election and we’ll be back to square one in five years’ time.”

On a frosty, sunny morning last week, Sirl arrives — for H&H photography purposes — at a meet of the New Forest foxhounds.

The last hunt he attended was five years ago, as an anti, and he is greeted with several sidelong glances — until joint-master Paul Ames comes up to greet the ex-LACS chief officer and manager of the Barronsdown deer sanctuary on Exmoor.

“I’ll shake your hand on this occasion, Mr Sirl,” says Paul.

Speaking out

In 2001, two months after an acrimonious departure from LACS, Sirl wrote a letter to the local press stating that a hunting ban would do nothing for animal welfare. In the footsteps of former LACS chief executives Richard Course and Jim Barrington, he had displayed a dramatic U-turn after years of what he describes as “boring people stupid about LACS and the campaign 24/7”.

After 22 years working against hunting, he said in his letter: “I now believe hunting with hounds plays an integral part in the management system of deer on Exmoor and the Quantocks.”

But in the five years that followed his departure, he has not once written nor spoken to the media — until now.

“I was asked by LACS not to speak to the media,” he reveals. “I’ve wanted to pick up a pen or the phone many times, but I’ve not felt the time was right. It is now, one year on from the ban.”

Back at the meet, he studies the hounds, deep in thought. He pats a hound.

“I miss watching hounds work — people probably can’t understand that I used to love watching them work on a line,” he says.

In the beginning

A former carpet salesman, Sirl saw his first hunt in 1980, and began his involvement with LACS, on a voluntary basis, shortly after.

“I’d never seen a hunt before that, despite growing up in Salisbury and then the New Forest,” he says.

That first visit grew into a hobby — days spent following local hunts, taking pictures, observing and learning about them. He started to volunteer for LACS, “distributing car stickers and things like that”, and slowly became engulfed by the organisation — which he describes as close to a “cult”.

Soon, Sirl became a regional rep, giving statements to local media, taking part in debates and giving talks — drumming up support for the crusade against field sports.

“I spent a fortune on books and now have a big library of old hunting books — we used to score a lot of points in debates,” he says. “For the first time, the hunting fraternity came up against people who had done their homework.”

Moving on

He moved to the West Country, taking up a paid position managing the LACS sanctuaries and running local operations.

“It was quite an eye-opener, seeing hunting operate down there — I could see the excitement of riding after a pack of hounds,” says Sirl, who used to ride and keep horses himself.

He renovated the businesses and employed local staff — such as the now high-profile Kevin Hill and Peter White. Then, following Jim Barrington’s well-publicised departure, he was asked by the LACS committee to take over as temporary chief officer — a role he continued for three years. During this time, he began to observe a change.

“The atmosphere in the London office was dreadful,” he says. “Staff members were tearing each other apart.”

Question time

As chief officer — a role he shared part of the time with John Bryan — Graham Sirl was involved with the Campaign to Protect Hunted Animals (CPHA), established by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), RSPCA and LACS to co-ordinate the campaign to ban hunting. It was this, together with his involvement with the Burns Inquiry in 1999, that made him begin to question the groups’ intentions.

“I used to go to a lot of CPHA meetings — some were really strange,” he remembers. “We had lobster and prawn sandwiches at one and I remember thinking ‘Christ, if the membership could see what we’re eating and we’re discussing anti-hunt campaigns’. And we’d have meetings in places like the Liberal Club and Horseguards Hotel — it was never in the village hall down the road.”

The CPHA helped put together the Mike Foster Bill — which is precisely when the alarm bells began to ring with Graham Sirl.

“There was still a clause in the Bill allowing hounds to flush to guns — they were just doing away with one method of killing the fox, deer or hare,” he explains. “I had a meeting with Mike Foster to explain to him what flushing out meant, but he said ‘sorry, it’s too late’.

“The Bill didn’t get through, and we moved on to the next one, but flushing out was still included in that, too. I repeated my view that this was about hunting and not animal welfare, but I just upset people — I had no support from IFAW and the RSPCA.”

He adds: “It was rumoured at the time that a few clauses in the Mike Foster Bill were to keep some of the backbenchers happy who were frightened of their seats going — particularly in Wales.”

Time to go

Then, on a last cast before he had to resign from LACS, Sirl joined the Burns Inquiry team.

“I was invited to go to events such as hare coursing near Andover and hunting in the Lake District — I met wonderful people and talked to the people involved in hunting and learnt a lot,” he recalls. “I remember going to a meet of the Duke of Beaufort’s, where I was made very welcome. But I always remember feeling Kevin Hill’s camera lens on me — he was working for IFAW at the time and tried to make it look like I was going over to the other side. But I did my job and filed my report.”

In reality, Sirl was changing his opinion. He felt LACS had lost direction — “strayed away from animal protection” — and staff and volunteers turned against him.

After the Burns Inquiry, he resigned from LACS after a company lawyer pointed the finger at him for distributing letters over inappropriate use of funds.

“To this day I defend myself. I was never allowed to see the solicitor’s report, nor defend myself against it,” he says, going on to describe the sour feeling he has towards the organisation that forced him out.

Achieving a balance

“I despise the people who put the Hunting Bill forward, I despise those organisations [LACS, RSPCA and IFAW] that threw money at that campaign for an end that was absolutely zero. As far as I’m concerned, I wasted 20 years. They had the opportunity, it was given to them on a plate and they blew it.”

Five years on, Graham Sirl is back in the New Forest, running two antique shops with his partner, as well as a private hire business.

“I think hunting offers a balance in the countryside — if I could see it being done effectively as a management tool, I’d be happy,” he says. “I was a Labour party member until five years ago, but I lost faith.

“There’s a rebellion going on about some of the bills it’s pushed through, and hunting is the one that broke the camel’s back.”

• Read former LACS PR campaigner Miles Cooper’s views on hunting >>

Don’t miss the first Horse & Hound shows special, which reviews life one year after the hunting ban, as well as being packed with great features and the first part of Horse & Hound’s ultimate show directory

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