The West Somerset Vale Fox Hounds (WSVFH) suffered their second embarrassment in less than a week.
On Tuesday, Richard Bevan, a whipper-in for the WSVFH pleaded guilty to assaulting League Against Cruel Sports investigator, Paul Tillsley, an attack so severe that Paul had to attend hospital on two occasions.
Now the WSVFH has been forced into an embarrassing retreat after it emerged a FTSE 250 company that the Hunt claimed was co-sponsoring one of its events had never heard of it.
The League contacted the FTSE 250 company, who asked not to be named, following Bevan’s conviction asking them to urgently review their sponsorship of the WSVFH Show in light of Bevan’s conviction for assault and the failure of his employers to discipline him despite knowing for some time that he would plead guilty.
The company in question responded swiftly to the League promising to investigate and came back the next morning saying that there was no record of any agreement to sponsor the WSVFH event. They wrote to the Hunt and requesting that any publication using their name be withdrawn and to not use their name in future in connection with this event.
We are very pleased that the company took decisive action and are only sorry that they do not want any positive publicity as a result of this incident as we are sure that a great number of our supporters would wish to thank them. However, we do respect their wishes.
As for the Hunt – we will continue to target their corporate sponsors until they see fit to discipline a member of their staff who whilst on duty assaulted a person lawfully going about their business
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