CRUCIAL TEST FOR HUNT BAN

CRUCIAL TEST FOR HUNT BAN
BY TRISTAN CORK
08:00 - 19 May 2007

Two huntsmen will be in the dock on Monday charged with illegal hunting in a trial which both sides agree will be crucial to the future of the hunting ban.Richard Down and Adrian Pullivant are facing a private prosecution brought by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), which claims they hunted a deer illegally on the Quantocks in Somerset in February last year.

The LACS will present video evidence to Taunton Magistrates during the week-long trial - evidence already rejected by the Crown Prosecution Service and police.

Hunt monitors captured the footage at Longstone Hill, near Holford, on February 16 which, it is alleged, shows the Quantock Staghounds (QSH) illegally chasing a deer.

It is only the second time - and the first for a staghunt - a huntsman has faced trial under the Hunting Act, and the result will prove key to the future of the ban and its policing.

Last year, Exmoor Foxhounds huntsman Tony Wright was convicted and fined for breaching the ban in another private prosecution by the LACS - his appeal against that conviction will be heard in July. A police-led Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecution of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds leaders is yet to come to court. Anti-hunt campaigners say if Mr Down, the 43-year-old QSH huntsman, and his whipper-in Mr Pullivant are successfully prosecuted, it will put more pressure on police across the country to monitor hunts, and more pressure on the CPS to go through with prosecutions based on video evidence.

But pro-hunt campaigners claim it is the hunting ban itself which is on trial next week, and that the pair will provide evidence that their hunting was 'exempt' under the controversial ban.

Countryside Alliance chief executive Simon Hart said: "It is the Hunting Act that is really on trial here. It is well over two years old yet this is only the second prosecution of a hunt and we are still no nearer a proper understanding of what the law actually means.

"These two men are being dragged through court to try and better define what is, and what is not, exempt hunting."

An Alliance spokesman added that staghunting has always involved the selection and pursuit of deer with hounds prior to the deer being shot.

"The Hunting Act does not prohibit the use of dogs to hunt deer, or the shooting of deer, it simply regulates how dogs may be used.

"The defendants do not deny that they were hunting with dogs on February 16, 2006 at Longstone Hill. They will, however, produce evidence to show that their hunting complied with the conditions of 'exempt hunting: stalking and flushing out'."