Countryside Alliance - love the countryside

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart writes: On Tuesday the Government launched a consultation on ‘Dangerous Dogs’ with a fanfare of media coverage about a 12 fold increase in dog fighting and a rising number of dog attacks on postal workers. These issues may, as Ministers suggest, be of growing public concern, but some of the ‘solutions’ proposed in the consultation bare little, if any, relation to the problems they are supposed to address.

Many of you will be aware from extensive media coverage that the trial of gyrocopter pilot and owner, Bryan Griffiths, for the alleged manslaughter of Warwickshire Hunt supporter Trevor Morse, began on Monday 1st March at Birmingham Crown Court. All our thoughts are with Trevor’s family and the Warwickshire Hunt as the case continues, and you may like to read the words of Countryside Alliance Head of Media, Tim Bonner, who posted this blog on 1st March.

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart writes: The 18th February marked the fifth anniversary of the Hunting Act coming into force in England and Wales. Compared with the ‘old days’ interest was quite muted and there remains a general acceptance that a change of Government will bring about Repeal. Readers who have a need to deal with DEFRA will be surprised (or not) to know that the Minister, Hilary Benn MP put hunting sufficiently high on his job list to write about it in a piece in The Guardian. Mr Benn took a trip down memory lane when he wrote. “Like a cornered fox, the pro-hunt lobby is running out of options.”

On the fifth anniversary of the Hunting Act 2004 coming into force in England and Wales, the Countryside Alliance has restated the case for its repeal. February 18th marks five years since The Hunting Act 2004 came into force in England and Wales. In those five years, there have been five hunt related convictions resulting from three separate prosecutions against hunts. So, just 5.7% of Hunting Act convictions up to 2008 involve hunts. The last person to do with a hunt to be prosecuted was in January 2008 and there was not a single successful prosecution involving a hunt in 2009.

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart writes: On Tuesday we had the very good news that Dorset Crown Prosecution Service had dropped its prosecution against Christopher Leadbetter, an ex-employee of the South Dorset Hunt, the day before his second trial on Badger Act charges was due to start. The case was brought by the CPS on evidence by the League Against Cruel Sports. As we previously reported Mr. Leadbetter had already been cleared last month of one charge under the Badgers Act after a six day trial when a judge ruled that he had no case to answer. That case had also raised important questions about the lawfulness of the use of evidence collected by anti-hunting activists using covert filming when the court ruled that such surveillance should be authorised under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.