The Guardian wrote on the 21st February 2012 :
‘Conservatives Against Fox Hunting claim there are 26 anti-hunting Tory MPs and point out that “Margaret Thatcher herself voted on more than one occasion to ban hare coursing, a sport that would make an immediate comeback if the Hunting Act was repealed”.
The main content of the article is the reporting of The International Fund For Animal Welfare’s (IFAW)disappointment with the CPS’s lack of action to prosecute a hunt despite filmed evidence. :https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/uk/2012/feb/21/fox-hunt-investigation-activists-cps
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has accused the CPS of ignoring filmed evidence and using the fact that members of the Cattistock Hunt can afford “specialist” defence lawyers as grounds for giving up their legal inquiries into allegations of fox hunting with hounds.
The Guardian article writes:’In its letter, the CPS official said: “Any arrest … would inevitably mean that they will be represented by specialist solicitors … funded by the Countryside Alliance. They will be advised to go ‘no comment’ and to decline to identify themselves on the footage obtained by your monitors.
“May I suggest that arrests and release without charge or, worse still, a failed prosecution, could, potentially, be a media disaster for your organisation? The Cattistock Hunt are very media savvy.”
IFAW responded with a complaint to the CPS:”We cannot imagine any other possible offence which could be dealt with in this way. Does the burglar in Dorset who always gives no comment and is legally represented not get investigated?” The fact that a hunt is “media savvy” should not, IFAW added, have any relevance to a decision on prosecutions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/21/fox-hunt-investigation-activists-cps
