On the campaign trail
Campaigners from the League Against Cruel Sports are criss-crossing the country this summer running events calling for stronger laws to end fox hunting for good.
It comes ahead of a forthcoming government consultation on fox hunting expected to take place this autumn, and we are urging the public and supporters to pledge to take part.
We’ll be calling for trail hunting, the discredited excuse used by hunts to be banned, for the loopholes in hunting laws to be removed, and for custodial sentences to be introduced for those that break the law.
The Hunting Act that came into force 20 years ago was a milestone piece of legislation but it needs to be strengthened as the hunts are exploiting weaknesses in it to cruelly chase and kill animals as they have always brutally done.
The campaign started in Peterborough, home to the Festival of Hounds, which is nothing more than a lame PR exercise run by hunt proponents to sanitise the savage and illegal blood sport of fox hunting.
A League ‘huntsman’ carrying a (fake) fox covered in fake blood paraded through the city accompanied by the sound of baying hunt hounds, to highlight the animal cruelty still being inflicted on wildlife in the British countryside.
We highlighted that only last month, a member of the Fitzwilliam Hunt – which is mired in controversy and has very strong connections to the festival – was convicted of illegally hunting.
You can join us at one of our campaign events this summer.
The League Against Cruel Sports is at the forefront of calling for stronger laws to end fox hunting and all other barbaric forms of hunting with dogs.
The Hunting Act, which banned fox hunting in 2005, was a milestone in animal protection, but the hunts found ways to get around it and carry on chasing and killing animals as they did before the ban.
Not just foxes, but deer, hares and otters too.
Our public affairs team has for many years been busy lobbying ministers and MPs to grasp the nettle and strengthen the Hunting Act.
Take Action
Sign up today and pledge to take part in the consultation:
Changing hearts and minds
The League’s public affairs team has been busy talking to minsters and MPs at the Houses of Parliament where there is now overwhelming support for new laws to end hunting with dogs for good.
We’re also hoping to follow up on our successful campaigns to ban snares in Wales and Scotland by making sure new legislation is introduced to ban these cruel, abhorrent traps used by the shooting industry in England too.
We’ve also been busy in Wales, with a strong presence at the Labour Party conference in Llandudno, and organising an event which brought together members of the Welsh Parliament and animal welfare charities, on proposed moves to ban greyhound racing in the country.
Uncovering the truth about blood sports
The League’s intelligence team is at the forefront of investigating and preparing reports on the brutal world of blood sports.
This vital intelligence enables us to help understand the scale of suspected illegal fox hunting and the extent of the chaos hunts are inflicting on rural communities.
A report will be going to government ministers soon.
Their work is also helping us understand the scale and nature of the cruel factory farmed conditions breeding game birds are being kept in.
Hundreds of thousands of pheasants and partridges are confined to cramped cages for breeding by the shooting industry simply to produce the tens of millions of birds that are being shot out of the sky every year.
You can report incidents of animal cruelty being inflicted on animals in the name of ‘sport’ such as fox hunts going on the rampage, to the League’s Animal Crimewatch service.
Caring for wildlife
Throughout the summer the wildlife reserves staff have been busy patrolling the hundreds of acres of land we manage, carrying out wildlife surveys to record the species present, and undertaking essential repairs and maintenance.
We have welcomed a few League supporters to our flagship Baronsdown wildlife reserve which consists of 250 acres of land on Exmoor National Park.
We’re also looking after a hedgehog mother and child on Baronsdown, former patients at the RSPCA’s West Hatch Wildlife Centre, who have now been released back into the wild in their own hedgehog house with regular supplies of food and water.
Now that August has arrived, unfortunately we will need to be on constant alert in case one of the local hunts shows up outside one of the reserves and threatens to trespass in murderous pursuit of a stag or a fox.
