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HSA News Release 26th December 2008

Please: make US redundant!

Hunt Saboteurs around the country are readying themselves for yet another bloody boxing day – nearly four years after the hunt ban came into effect.

Fox hunts are still killing at will, therefore the role of hunt saboteurs is as important as it ever was; saving hunted animals in the field.

Footage of exactly that is available here

Thousands of hunters signed a pledge to break the ban and risk prosecution in 2004. It now seems that they needn’t have bothered. The numerous loopholes in the Hunting Act make securing a conviction very difficult and the hunts have cottoned on to this – and act with impunity.

 

We are calling for the ban to be strengthened: with the loopholes removed, and a recklessness clause to be added – currently hunts can put their hounds into areas where they know wild animals are likely to be, and when chased and killed, hunts claim it was an “accident”.

Lee Moon, spokesperson for the HSA said: ‘If the public and parliament knew what was really going on in the countryside they would be shocked – hunting as usual, with hundreds of foxes and hares are being tortured and killed in the name of sport every week. Nothing has changed.’

‘We’ve given the Hunting Act a fair crack of the whip, but it’s not stopping the killing – hunt saboteurs are needed up and down the country to save lives, and to stop the hunters torturing our wildlife.’

The Hunt Saboteurs Association is a non-violent direct action organisation which has been dedicated to getting between the hunters and their quarry for over 40 years, and we know better than anyone what illegal hunting looks like – it just seems that no-one else seems to care.

Michael Howard’s Criminal justice Act attempted to retire us by making our activities illegal, and the Hunting Act was supposed to remove the need for our existence – it seems however that the politicians are incapable of putting us out to pasture…

Recent footage of a fox being saved from the jaws of hunting hounds in Gloucestershire is available here

All press enquiries 07779 580 544

ENDS


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Last Updated on Sunday, 08 April 2012 20:18
 
 

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From the archives...

HUNT SABOTEURS ATTACKED WITH PICK AXE AND IRON BAR

HSA news release 27th March 2002

HUNT SABOTEURS ATTACKED WITH PICK AXE AND IRON BAR

Hunt Saboteurs from the South West were today considering themselves lucky not to have been killed after they were attacked with an iron bar, whips and a pick axe at a joint meet of 2 hunts in Cornwall.

10 activists from Devon, Cornwall and Somerset had been present throughout the day near Goon Hill Down, Helston where the Cury and Western foxhunts had converged, and prevented the hunts from killing any foxes using our usual tactics of non-violent direct action.

During the day one saboteur had his ear split open when a hunt official in a red coat whipped him round the head.

Events took an even more serious turn in an alleged incident as the hunt packed up. A group of hunt supporters approached a car driven by one of the activists, smashed up its roof, used a wrecking bar on the body work and then, almost unbelievably, put a pick axe though the bonnet. The occupants of the car were lucky not to be seriously injured.

Spokesman for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, Nathan Brown, spoke of the incident: "The success of the sabs and the recent vote in the House of Commons must have inflamed tempers. There can be no justification for this aggravated attack which shows that people involved in hunting are far from a respectable minority - they are rural thugs and vandals."

The government has announced a 6 month period of consultation to find a 'compromise' between an outright ban and allowing hunting to continue unregulated. Mr Brown continued: "There can be no compromise on the issue of cruelty. The government should honour the wishes of the majority. Two hunt saboteurs have already been killed at hunts, and many others injured.

"The government should stop wasting time and ban hunting before another protestor loses their life and to stop the pointless slaughter of thousands of foxes, hares and deer."

The saboteurs are having to make an official complaint at Falmouth police station.

Ends.

Notes to Editors:-
Video footage will be available from 28th March.