Hunt ban groups row over bid to change law
The anti-hunting movement appeared split this week over whether they should back moves to toughen up the hunt ban.
A leaked memo from the boss of the League Against Cruel Sports appeared to criticise those within the campaign who are calling for loopholes in the law to be tightened.
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Douglas Batchelor
The League, along with the International Fund for Animal Welfare, have refused to support a growing grassroots campaign to toughen up the law on hunting, which was first revealed earlier this autumn by the Western Daily Press.
It finally surfaced last month when the prominent anti-hunt MP John McDonnell tabled a Commons motion calling for the controversial law to be amended to include a line outlawing "reckless" behaviour.
That could curtail the "accidental" killing of foxes when hunts lay artificial trails but hounds kill foxes they come across.
Calls for the hunt ban to be toughened up have come from grassroots hunt monitors, including many in mainstream organisations such as the League and IFAW, which have the majority of their monitors here in the West.
Among the campaigners openly calling for a law change is hunt monitor Penny Little, from Cotswold-based Protect Our Wild Animals, and veteran Tory anti-hunt MP Anne Widdecombe.
But in the leaked memo, Douglas Batchelor, the chief executive of the League, said calls for a tightening up of the law undermine their case.
He told League supporters who had been calling for a change: "Those who suggest the law needs to be amended simply give the hunters a propaganda coup, while providing the police and the Crown Prosecution Service an excuse not to enforce the law.
"Calls for an amendment are misguided and only serve to undermine the very Act we all strove for, for so long. After all, why should the public support the Act and its enforcement if our own supporters say that it is flawed and needs to be changed? Those who seek to change the law are tilting at the wrong windmills," he added.
IFAW and the League defended their "no change, more enforcement" position following another round of Boxing Day and New Year's Day hunts, which saw hundreds of thousands of people coming out in support of hunts – and no police investigations of any illegal hunting.
Robbie Marsland, the director of IFAW, said: "The mounting number of prosecutions shows that the law is clear and that the Hunting Act is enforceable. IFAW hunt monitors will be out this season and will continue working with police forces to ensure the law is obeyed."
And League spokesman Barry Hugill added: "It has only been in force a few years. It's very early days but I think it's working reasonably well.
"Of course there are a die-hard bunch who will never be happy until they get a kill.
"But quite a few people have said they are going hunting now because they can do it with a clear conscience as there is no killing involved."
3 Comments
by Outfoxed, Wales
Monday, January 05 2009, 7:07PM
“LACS and IFAW should be ashamed of themselves. It is plainly obvious (to anybody outside of an office) that the hunting act is not working. People can always condider where their dnations go.........”
by Charles Henry, Somerset
Sunday, January 04 2009, 10:29AM
“How are all your rats today up there in the North West; breeding and feeding well on all the rubbish? . .
You'll have to bring your all your dustbins inside for them during this cold weather. . All wildlife must be protected! . There are no exceptions!”
by G Metcalfe, North West
Saturday, January 03 2009, 7:22PM
“LOL hardly a 'leaked memo', Mr Batchelor's comments were made in a weekly letter which even non-League members can receive.
Guess this would have been a non-story without the sensationalism of a 'leaked memo'. It will obviously come as a shock to the Western Daily Press, but there has always been differences of opinion between groups as to the best way to protect wildlife from those who abuse it for pleasure.”