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Campaign for the Abolition of Animal Slavery
Anchor:
vegetarian
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It's not the police we've got to watch, it's the antis with their video cameras." - Graham Bridgeman the Chairman of Eggesford Hunt. Petition to: Force the police to actively enforce the ban on fox hunting. http://petitions.pm..gov.uk/stopfoxhunts/
Majority
say keep hunt ban A new MORI poll shows a majority of Tory supporters want to retain the
Hunting Act, despite the party itself pledging a repeal as soon as it gains
office. But the poll itself has sparked fury among hunt supporters amid claims
the question asked a sample of more than 2,000 voters by the respected polling
organisation MORI was biased against hunting. It is understood the Countryside
Alliance is to complain about the way MORI conducted the poll, eight months
after having a similar complaint against the polling organisation upheld. The
results of the poll revealed 59% of people who consider themselves Tory voters
wanted to see the ban on hunting kept, and only 30% wanted to repeal it. Among
voters of all parties, 75% supported the ban, while MORI said there had been a
marked decrease in support for repealing the ban – down from 22% to just 16%.
Otis
Ferry remanded in custody Otis
Ferry appeared in court to face charges of perverting the course of justice.
He was told he would stand trial on 9 March 2009. Mr Ferry of Easton Mascot,
Shropshire, is accused of contacting a witness in a robbery and assault trial.
Prosecutor Jo Harris told Gloucester Crown Court the charges were to be
contested. Mr Ferry was remanded in custody until 5th Dec when he is due
return to Gloucester Crown Court for a plea and case management hearing. And
then robbed - Yet more trouble for hunting pin-up Otis Ferry. While Ferry languishes in
Gloucester prison accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice,
thieves have burgled his home in Shropshire. To the bewilderment of his family,
25-year-old Otis, who is joint master of the South Shropshire Hunt, has had all
his hand-tailored suits and shirts stolen, along with shoes, socks and, bizarrely,
his boxer shorts. The break-in was discovered by Otis's girlfriend, who went to
check on his isolated keeper's cottage, 3 days after a judge refused to grant
him bail over allegations that he tried to nobble a witness against him in a
robbery and theft case. Says a friend: "All his hunting breeches, which
cost £500 a pair, were missing. But quite why anyone would want them is a
mystery because they are very distinctive, old-fashioned baggy jodhpurs which no
one but Otis wears these days. "Plus at 6ft4in tall, few people apart from
him would fit into them. A lot of us think that hunt saboteurs are behind
it." The
mother of Otis Ferry,
and ex-wife of Bryan Ferry, has expressed concern for her son’s wellbeing
while he is locked up in jail awaiting trial. She said she was worried that he
was “without any clean socks and shirts” in prison, and that he will not be
able to cope with confinement because he “loves the outdoors so much”. Ah!
Bless!!!!! Cameron
protest On
1st Oct over 30 of us protested outside Tory party conference in
Birmingham against fox hunter David Cameron and his pledge to repeal the Hunting
Act. We had an excellent demo and the Tories certainly did not like their
fraudulent image being shown up for what it is! The vocal chords were much used
and at one point members of the UNITE trade union, who were protesting next to
us about Tory links to the hedge fund billionaires, started up a chorus of 'same
old Tories always hunting!' We had a lot of flak from the annoyed scary
Tory delegates and even a visit from Tim Bonner from the Countryside Alliance
who came over to ask if I was Chris Gale and to start pontificating how his hero
Cameron was going to repeal the Hunting Act. We told him to go away (in so many
words!) but not before asking him how his friend Otis is doing in
Gloucester prison. He bristled at that one before going off with his CA
chaperone. Our new banners worked a treat and certainly got the attention of the
public going past and the not pleased Tory officials! Thanks to everyone who
came and made this a hugely successful afternoon. In the weeks and months ahead
we will take the battle to the Tories as we show the British public the truth
about David Cameron and his hunting allies. Chris
Gale Largest
fine ever for grouse moor owner John
Dodd, the multimillionaire owner of the Glenogil shooting estate, in Angus,
Tayside, has had his farming subsidy cut by £107,000 by the Scottish executive
because of suspicions that the discovered pesticides were used against birds of
prey on his land. Dodd is the co-founder of the Edinburgh-based Artemis
investment bank and hedge fund, which this summer sponsored the Scottish Game
Fair, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust's prestigious annual country
sports show. There has been a series
of suspected cases of illegal persecution of rare birds of prey on the Glenogil
estate but none has led to a successful prosecution. An investigation by the
Guardian found that lethal pesticides were discovered on poisoned baits, game
bags and soil and plant samples in 2006. Investigators from the RSPB found an
illegal compound - a combination of carbofuran and isofenphos pesticides that
has never been licensed for use in the UK - on a dead rabbit staked out on a
hillside close to Glenogil in April 2006. That led to a raid organised by
Tayside police involving 80 officers from several forces, alongside
investigators from the RSPB and officials from the rural payments division of
the Scottish executive. The police raid uncovered the same combination of
pesticides on a dead pigeon laid out as bait on the estate, on game bags used by
estate staff, and in soil and plant samples. A member of the Glenogil staff was
sued after an illegal trap was discovered, but the case was later dropped by the
prosecutors. As a direct result of these investigations, officials in the rural
payments division of the Scottish executive in Edinburgh last month docked
Dodd's large farming subsidies for 2006 by £107,650.
It is the largest ever civil penalty imposed under strict EU
"cross-compliance" legislation, which makes protection of wildlife a
condition of the subsidy. The Wildlife and Countryside Act makes it a criminal
offence - punishable by a 6-month jail term and/or a £5,000 fine - to kill or
attempt to kill a bird of prey. Pesticide control regulations carry the same
penalties for storing or using banned or unlicensed pesticides. Glenogil was
last year also implicated in the disappearance of a rare sea eagle, one of 15
birds that had just been released into the wild in eastern Scotland under a
government-sponsored reintroduction programme. Witnesses suggest the bird may
have been killed on the estate but the allegation remains unproven: neither the
bird's body nor its satellite tag has been found. Dodd threatened Tayside police
with legal action after the force issued an appeal for information that
implicated the estate. The 47-year-old has insisted his staff are innocent. Over
the past 3 years Dodd had received £829,664 in single farm payment subsidies
for his farm at Glenogil. It is understood that Dodd, who is the third landowner
in Scotland to have subsidies cut under the regulations, is contesting the
Scottish executive's decision. He denies that there has been persecution of
birds of prey on his estate but would not comment on the Scottish executive's
penalties against his estate. The
same illegal poisonous compound - which was withdrawn from sale as an
insecticide in Ireland 5 years ago because of its toxicity - was also found on
another grouse moor, the Leadhills estate, in southwest Scotland in the autumn
of 2005. The estate, near Abingdon, was run at the time by Mark Osborne, one of
the UK's most successful managers of moor shoots. Osborne runs estates and
advises shooting moor owners across Scotland and northern England, including
Glenogil. 4 of those estates - Leadhills, Glenogil, plus Glenlochy on Speyside
and Snilesworth, N. Yorkshire - have been raided in the past 2 years by police
investigating claims of birds of prey persecution. At the Snilesworth estate,
near Northallerton, a head-keeper and 2 game keepers admitted illegally using
traps baited with pigeons to catch protected birds of prey. The head-keeper was
fined £1,250. A keeper at Leadhills was convicted of shooting a short-eared owl
in 2004 and fined £500.
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The Shoreham Protester, 7 Stoneham Road, Hove, BN3 5HJ, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)1273 885750. Email: shoreham.protester@ntlworld.com Last Updated 19 October 2008 |
