LACS claims refuted by National Trust
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.
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“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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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.