A charge of unlawful hunting against Quantock Staghounds joint-master Brian Palmer was dropped last week (25 June) — due to a lack of evidence.

The case had been based on surveillance by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS).

“I am of course relieved to be exonerated,” said Mr Palmer. “But being stalked by these self-appointed hunt monitors is very unpleasant, as are the repeated allegations against the hunt.”

Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance said he was “delighted” the Crown Prosecution Service had taken the “sensible decision [to drop the case] rather than wasting court time and public money”.

He added: “Of great concern to us is the continued unauthorised covert surveillance of private individuals, such as Mr Palmer, when they are on private land and undertaking totally lawful activities.”

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Amateur jockey Jessica Westwood will be focusing on training horses after being told she will not race-ride again.

Jessica, who is 21, is currently at a neuro rehabilitation clinic in Germany, where she will be for two to three weeks.

In March Jessica suffered her second serious head injury in five years, at the Quantock Staghounds point-to-point meeting at Cothelstone (17 March).

When she was 15, she suffered swelling to the brain after falling off then being kicked in the head.

She will be unable to get a jockey’s license on medical grounds, but hopes to get a training permit.

“The doctors said I wasn’t going to get my license back,” she told H&H. “I’d had two serious head injuries and they wouldn’t risk it. But I enjoy training and have four horses currently at home so I’m hoping to be good at that.

“I’m getting a lot better, the left side of my body is a lot slower though. I won’t be allowed to race ride but there’s no way I wouldn’t ride at home, I couldn’t not.”

Her star horse, Monkerty Tunkerty was her first winner as a trainer in December 2010. And she enjoyed a double when Rockon Xmoor also won on the same day.

Monkerty Tunkerty, whom she owns and trains was due to run in the Christie’s Foxhunter before being ruled out due to a bruised foot.

He is now being aimed at the John Corbet Cup at Stratford (1 June). He will be ridden by Josh Guerriero.

“Monkerty Tunkerty was bought for me and it will be difficult to watch someone else ride, but he’d be wasted otherwise,” said Jessica.

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

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Repeal is more necessary than ever, said a joint-master whose huntsman has been prosecuted for using three hounds to flush an injured stag to guns, instead of the prescribed two.

Quantock Staghounds huntsman Richard Down was convicted of unlawful hunting, for a second time, at Taunton Magistrates Court on 22 November.

Quantock joint-master James Hawthorne told H&H: “We are very disappointed. We believed what we were doing was within the law.

“Now we are taking legal advice and will decide whether to appeal. People ask whether repeal is necessary. Anyone who has been involved in a case like this knows why it is

so important.”

Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance said it was “a very harsh judgement”.

“It is truly ridiculous. Whether or not it was right under the letter of the law, he was prosecuted for killing an injured animal faster than he would have done otherwise.”

He said it was the first prosecution brought under the exemption from the Hunting Act to allow for the rescue of an injured animal.

“If parliament’s purpose was to create an exemption from the Act to put animals out of their misery, they would surely have wanted it to be as quick as possible,” added Mr Bonner.

Richard Down was alerted by a farmer on a September morning last year, who saw a stag with a broken hip, and was filmed pursuing the animal with three hounds by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) as he went to put it down.

He was fined £375, with a £15 victim surcharge and £2,530 costs.

Mr Down and whipper-in Andrew Pillivant appealed, unsuccessfully, against a previous conviction in October 2007, again brought by LACS (news, 25 October 2007).

LACS chief executive Douglas Batchelor said: “This is a real slap in the face for anyone who claims the Hunting Act is not working.”

This article was first published in the current issue of Horse & Hound, 2 December 2010

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The West Country staghound packs have resolved to find a way to continue hunting within the law following last week’s dismissal of an appeal by the Quantock Staghounds.

Huntsman Richard Down and amateur whipper-in Adrian Pillivant appealed against their June conviction of hunting a wild mammal with dogs. The case centred on the exemption, under the Hunting Act, of flushing a wild mammal using two dogs.

It was a private prosecution, brought by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), using video evidence filmed in Somerset on 16 February 2006.

Giving his judgement on Friday at Taunton Crown Court, Mr Justice Wyn Williams acknowledged the difficulties of working within the Act and gave some clarification on the flushing exemption.

Crucially, he also accepted that both Mr Down and Mr Pillivant believed they were hunting lawfully, saying: “We accept that both men did not set out to break the law. . . that they considered they were entitled to enjoy their sport provided they complied with the statutory conditions as they believed them to be.”

This contradicts District Judge David Parsons, who convicted the pair in June, saying they were “disingenuous in attempting to deceive me into believing they were exempt hunting”.

On Monday, Richard Down said: “We shall carry on. The judgement will make things harder, but at least we have it in black and white now.”

He said the hunt will meet this week to discuss how to proceed.

“At least we cleared our names,” said Mr Down. “This judge believed we were doing what we thought was lawful.”

On Monday, chairman of the Masters of Deerhounds Association Tom Yandle told H&H: “Of course we’re not pleased with the judgement. There are good parts and bad parts, but the initial reaction is ‘on we go’.

“We have to talk to lawyers about how we can proceed, it’s such a badly written Act. We are pursuing other exemptions.”

Mr Yandle’s views were echoed by chairman of the Council of Hunting Associations Stephen Lambert, who said: “People are stoic and positive about the judgement, and are continuing to think ‘outside the box’ about how they can hunt meaningfully within the law.”

Read this news story in full, including a solicitor’s view on how the judgement affects deerhunting and a time line of hunting prosecutions to date, in the current issue of Horse & Hound (25 October, ’07)

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The Quantock Staghounds appeal, heard over three days last week in Taunton Crown Court, has been adjourned until Friday, 19 October.

Huntsman Richard Down and amateur whipper Adrian Pillivant were convicted of hunting in June this year. Their case hinged on the exemption of flushing a wild mammal using two dogs. The appeal was heard afresh and a judgement is expected on 19 October.

“The judgement is as important as the verdict, because hunts want to continue to manage the deer population in the south-west,” said the Countryside Alliance’s Tim Bonner. “The Quantock’s barrister has asked the judge 12 questions to be addressed in the judgement.

“We hope these will be answered, so we can properly understand what the courts make of the exemption.”

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (11 October, ’07)

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A verdict is not likely to be returned until next week on the private prosecution of the huntsman and whipper-in of the Quantock Staghounds accused of breaching the Hunting Act.

Huntsman Richard Down, 36, and whipper-in Adrian Pillivant, 44, appeared in Taunton Magistrates Court last week accused of hunting deer with hounds on 16 February 2007. Both deny the charge.

The case, which lasted four days, is a private prosecution by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) — the second brought against a hunt under the Act and the second by LACS.

“The case hinges on the first part of the ‘fifth condition’ of the flushing exemption, that ‘reasonable steps are taken for the purpose of ensuring that after being found and flushed out, the wild mammal is shot dead by a competent person’,” said Countryside Alliance (CA) spokesman Tim Bonner. “We believe the Quantock Staghounds were fulfilling that, and all other conditions, of ‘exempt hunting’. Richard Down and Adrian Pillivant believed what they were doing was legal.”

He added: “Whatever the outcome, the Quantock Staghounds are absolutely determined that they will continue their crucial role in the management of Red Deer in the Quantocks.”

Video evidence filmed by LACS employees Graham Floyd and Edmund Shepherd on 16 February at Longstone Hill, near Holdford, was presented in court.

Richard Furlong, prosecuting for LACS, told the court a herd of 11 deer was chased across the moor for more than an hour before gunshot blasts were heard.

Mr Shepherd added that “no attempt was made to control the hounds”.

Giving evidence for the defence, Richard Down said the hunt had started at about 11.45am, with three guns present, and had flushed deer from two covers, killing four hinds cleanly before LACS employees arrived.

He said the deer in the video evidence were being flushed back towards the three guns, and although they did not come in range of the guns on that occasion, they were re-found and two were shot, as heard by the LACS employees.

Witnesses called for the hunt included the three guns, the landowner, local farmers and Quantock Staghounds chairman Nick Gibbons, who confirmed the events of the day.

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (31 May, ’07)

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