HUNT LAWS ARE A POLICE MATTER

Western Morning News Editorial

The League Against Cruel Sports certainly had a valid point yesterday when it called on the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to pursue through the courts those hunts that are strongly suspected of acting illegally under new hunt laws. Although the Western Morning News has said many times it believes the Hunting Act is a badly drawn law, passed for all the wrong reasons, it is the law of the land.

The league has revealed it spent more than £65,000 pursuing Exmoor huntsman Tony Wright through the courts, eventually securing a conviction and a £500 fine with £250 costs.

But it is not the responsibility of private organisations to enforce the criminal law. And it is certainly not helpful if pressure groups like the League Against Cruel Sports turn themselves into private rural police forces because they don't believe the real police are doing their duty on this issue.

The WMN believes that the vast majority of Westcountry hunts obeyed the law last season - the first full season under the new law. Difficult as it is to interpret the precise meaning of "exempt hunting" most huntsmen and women did their best to stay inside the rules and, as a result, kept their sport alive without falling foul of the police. They will, we are sure, try to do the same this hunting season.

But if transgressions are made it is the job of the police, in consultation with the CPS, to take action. It is not the responsibility of private organisations with a very specific agenda like the League Against Cruel Sports to bring a case to court. Equally, if the police don't believe it is in the public interest to take a hunt to court, then that must be a matter for them and their advisers.

The league warned yesterday that legal costs might prevent them from taking on further private prosecutions. That would be no great loss. But both sides of the hunting debate need to know that the police and the CPS are applying the law as fairly as possible, until such time as it is reviewed - as it surely must be - and either scrapped or made a good deal less open to interpretation.

Read More Here