IN BRIEF:
–Police abandon Community Protection Notice against Warwickshire Hunt. Corruption suspected.
-Woodward from Wynnstay Hunt found guilty
-Devon and Somerset Staghounds seriously assault sabs
-Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show lie to AAF
-Biased Wiltshire Police exposed in Freedom of Information Request
NEXT NEWS – 9th September
police, Court and prosecutions
On 10/08/23 at Wrexham Magistrates Court, the ex-Wynnstay huntsman Christopher Woodward pleaded guilty to interfering with a badger sett, contrary to the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. The offence occurred on 3rd Feb ‘23. Woodward was ordered to pay a £500 fine plus £200 victim surcharge and £85 costs. The fine takes into account his guilty plea and income, and is to be paid within 28 days. The Hunting Act charges – to which he entered a not guilty plea – will go to court in October.
Warwickshire Police have abandoned the CPN (Community Protection Notice) which they had issued against the Warwickshire Hunt. The CPN is withdrawn and, amongst other measures put in its place, the police will advise the criminally inclined Hunt with an hour’s notice of their intention to attend. Could that give the Hunt time to tell their thugs by what time they should make themselves scarce or when to start laying a trail? This could be a ticking time bomb. Is the hunt so powerful in Warwickshire that they can lay down the law to the police? Apparently so. With 85% of the population opposing fox hunting, policing by consent, which used to be a policing mantra, has been abandoned in favour of policing only with the consent of the powerful. There will be elements of Warwickshire Police who will feel utterly betrayed by this move.
Hertfordshire Police have also issued a CPN, this time against the Puckeridge Hunt. It will be some time before we know if the Hertfordshire Police will be affected by the decision of the Warwickshire Police.
A Stockport Monitor has received a jail sentence of 20 weeks after striking two hunt supporters. The hunt supporters changed their evidence twice. The thug that struck a sab last February causing a bleed on the brain remains uncharged.
On 9th August, Kent Police again pulled over a sab vehicle on the grounds that someone in the vehicle may have used bad language directed at a hunt member. (Normally the hunt accusation is that they had seen someone with a gun. That someone used bad language was enough to involve the police is an interesting development).
Last year, Wiltshire Hunt Sabs reported a battered hunt vehicle to the police after finding that it has no MOT. An FOI to the Wiltshire Police revealed this note on the report “It troubles me as to why the IP has reported this vehicle” and “what action does the IP require? Perhaps to disrupt hunt activity”. No action was taken against the owner of the illegal vehicle.
hunt behaviour
Cheshire Monitors have photographed Robert Truscott, the Huntsman from the Cheshire Hounds, out on his bike with a pack of hounds and failing to show any proper control over them whilst cycling. The matter is being referred to the police.
On Tuesday (22nd Aug) Mendip and Devon County Hunt Sabs were attacked whilst attending the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. One sab has a broken nose. Police and ambulance attended. There have been no arrests as yet. A sab vehicle has been badly damaged in the attack. This stag hunt killed two stags on 13th August.
On Tuesday 15th August, a domestic dog was mauled by a pack of hounds belonging to the Essex and Suffolk Hunt. The incident happened in Layham. Police are investigating.
On Tuesday (22 Aug) the Kent Hunt could only muster 4 riders for their morning of cub hunting.
campaigning news – and calls to action
AAF Midlands is urgently looking for activists to join them in challenging the extraordinary decision of Warwickshire Police to drop the Community Protection Notice against the Warwickshire Hunt. Please click below to contact them. https://www.actionagainstfoxhunting.org/aaf-midlands/
There is a range of things you can to do help, some from home.
Community Protection Notices, Public Space Protection Orders and Concern Reports to the HSE are three other ways of shutting down hunts. In September, AAF is training members how to report all three. Please contact Pip on info@actionagainstfoxhunting.org for more details.
in other news…
Wildlife Guardian has produced a short article composed by a legal mind. He points out that the mere act of exercising the hounds along a public road may constitute an offence. (There is an exemption in the Act, but it applies to hunting and not exercising.) “A person who causes or commits a dog to be on a designated road without the dog being held on the lead is guilty of an offence“. Section 27 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, Subsection (1). The meaning of “a designated road” is currently being considered. Nonetheless, the exercising of dogs on public roads should be reported to the police. There are plenty of what you might refer to as do–nothing police forces, but there is evidence that some forces are pretty fed up with the hunts and those forces may well use any complaint to further their actions to contain or control illegal hunting.
The MOD has received 23,000 emails requesting a ban of hunting on Ministry of Defence land. It continues to ignore the requests.
On 13th August an organiser of the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show posted that any hunts facing criminal prosecutions had been uninvited from the Show. Both the Portman Hunt and the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt are due in court soon, the first for illegal hunting and the second concerning assault (twice). However, BOTH Hunts attended the Gillingham and Shaftesbury show. AAF were watching and immediately went to the organisers’ tent to ask for an explanation. The organiser (Nick Hill) weakly explained that the Portman told him there were no charges against them and he didn’t know about the BSV charges. This was despite the fact that he had received over 4000 emails telling him all about the charges.
The Scottish Border Hunt Sabs report that the revised law concerning hunting in Scotland will not be fully effective until November.
thank you to all the sab and monitor groups whose posts we have used to create Latest News. If we have got anything wrong, just let us know and we’ll change it.
info@actionagainstfoxhunting.org
