Our achievements and challenges

Recent key achievements include:

• Through our investigations and legal team we have worked closely with the police and CPS to ensure those who illegally hunt animals for sport are brought to justice.  To date there has been at least one conviction every two weeks since the ban began in 2005.
• Working as part of a coalition to gain a ban on bullfighting in Catalonia.
• Hare coursing has been banned in Northern Ireland following years of campaigning by the League.

Previous achievements:

• Getting hunting banned in 2004 after 80 years of pressure
• Exposing the cruelty of game bird shooting for sport and preventing it from being allowed on Sundays
• Ensuring many large companies stop their promotions of bullfighting, including British Airways, Ben & Jerry's, Waterstone’s, and Eurostar
• Increasing the contribution the greyhound racing industry makes towards the welfare of the dogs (even if it is still nowhere near adequate)
• We came close to a ban on snares in Scotland and Northern Ireland in recent years and we have high hopes that our ongoing work will pay off soon

Some of our challenges ahead:

• Ensuring hunting stays banned in England and Wales in the face of the new government's decision to reconsider the ban. We are working with the police to gain increasing numbers of convictions to show that the law works and also lobbying MPs to demonstrate that the vast majority of the public are behind the ban.
• Ensuring hare coursing remains banned in Northern Ireland
• Helping to stamp out dog fighting, fox baiting, badger baiting and terrier work through our new Fighting Dogs campaign, working with specialists in these horrific activities
• Putting a stop to the EU subsidies paid to bull farmers (they include UK taxpayers' money) and building international pressure on this 'industry'
• Gaining mass awareness of snares, the cruel and unnecessary traps which cause extreme suffering and kill indiscriminately - foxes, badgers, otters and even pet cats and dogs can fall victim
• Raising awareness of the plight suffered by game birds; this is not widely known and our work is focusing on exposing the hidden cruelty involved in this 'sport' so we can push for action