LACS video fails to win hunt prosecution

The Quantock Staghounds will not be prosecuted over an allegation of illegal hunting in the Westcountry, police have confirmed.

The League Against Cruel Sports claimed video footage they submitted to police of the Quantock Staghounds as “the best evidence yet” of a breach of the ban anywhere in the country. But the anti-hunt protestors have been told by Devon and Cornwall Police that they will not be acting on the video evidence submitted in March.

The hunt always fervently denied any wrong doing and the Masters were never interviewed by the police. A police spokesman said the brief footage did not show enough evidence.

Alison Hawes, the Countryside Alliance regional director, said: “We said all along that all our packs are hunting within the law. The fact that we are continuing just goes to show that the Hunting Act isn’t really worth the paper it’s written on.”

Quantock Chairman Nick Gibbons agreed: “They’re clutching at straws in a lot of ways.”

On 19 December the LACS will begin the first private prosecution under the new Hunting Act when Tony Wright, of the Exmoor Foxhounds, appears before magistrates in Barnstaple.

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