Last hunt prosecution dropped

The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has dropped its private prosecution of four members of the Isle of Wight Hunt, which was the last hunt prosecution adjourned pending a recent High Court judgment.

Prosecutions against the Heythrop Hunt and Devon and Somerset Staghounds by the Crown Prosecution Service have already been discontinued. One huntsman in Northumberland has since been charged with a single Hunting Act offence and is the only person connected to a hunt currently facing charges.

Simon Hart, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance said: “This is the clearest possible evidence that the Hunting Act is on borrowed time. Technically it remains on the statute book, but in practice today even the organisation that promoted this Act and which is its greatest defender has had to admit that it has failed. The only question that now remains is when the Hunting Act will be repealed and the pointless pressure on the police and the courts removed. This is yet more evidence of the need to scrap this act at the earliest possible oppotunity.

“LACS has told us that practically every time hounds leave their kennels an offence is being committed. They have told us that the 'exemptions' are tightly drawn and that hunting with a bird of prey cannot be done. Well they made the decision to prosecute this case on the basis that it was the strongest they had and yet it has not even got to trial. They have admitted what we have known for a long time - the Act is unworkable.”