League Against Cruel Sports


The League Against Cruel Sports, formerly known as the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports, is an animal welfare charity which campaigns to stop blood sports such as fox, hare and deer hunting; game bird shooting; and animal fighting.
The charity is recognised as being instrumental in bringing about the Hunting Act 2004, which banned hunting with hounds in England and Wales and the Protection of Wild Mammals Act 2002, which did the same in Scotland. Today, the League calls for those pieces of legislation to be strengthened.
Famous supporters include Ricky Gervais, Jo Brand, John Bishop, Sir David Jason, and Gemma Atkinson. The current president is naturalist Bill Oddie.

History

The League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports was founded in 1924 by Ernest Bell, Henry B. Amos Jessey Wade and George Greenwood, with the support of Henry S. Salt, Edward Carpenter and George Bernard Shaw. It was renamed to the League Against Cruel Sports in 1938.

Motto

The League's motto is: Investigate, Educate, Protect.

Hunting

es, hare and deer continue to be hunted by packs of hounds in the United Kingdom, despite the passing of the Hunting Act 2004. 268 incidents of suspected illegal fox hunting were reported to the League's Animal Crimewatch service during the 2018 – 2019 hunting season. This included foxes being chased to exhaustion across the countryside before, on some occasions, being torn apart in the jaws of the hunt's hounds. Badger setts have also been blocked up near hunt meets to stop foxes taking refuge during the chase and horses and hounds trespassed in pursuit of wild animals. Hunting packs claim to be practicing 'trail hunting', which is said to involve hunting hounds chasing an animal-based scent, but the League argues this is just a cover for illegal hunting. The League is campaigning to maintain and strengthen the Hunting Act, by adding a provision for custodial sentences, a ban on use of dogs underground and a provision directed against recklessness. The organisation is also pressing landowners to ban hunts from their land. 532 people have been prosecuted for illegal hunting since the legislation was passed – including in private prosecutions brought by the League.

Game Bird Shooting

Over 35 million pheasants and partridges are released into the British countryside each year to be shot for sport – around half of these birds are imported as live chicks or ready-to-hatch eggs from factory-farms in France, Spain and Portugal. In addition, over 750,000 red grouse are shot for sport on moorland in the North of England and Scotland. Wild animals which compete with game birds – including fox, hare, corvids, stoats and weasels – are eradicated on shooting estates across the UK by trap, snare and gun. There is a strong link between bird of prey persecution and land managed for game bird shooting, with hen harrier, buzzards, red kite, peregrine falcon and goshawks illegally disturbed or killed by gamekeepers. Grouse moors are also managed in a way which causes damage to peatland habitat – including by gamekeepers burning heather to increase red grouse populations. The League is lobbying public and corporate landowners to ban game bird shooting on their land. Transport industry is also being pressed to not ship game birds or ready-to-hatch eggs from Continental Europe to the United Kingdom.

Animal fighting

Despite being made illegal in Britain in 1835, dog and other animal fighting has been taking place underground in the UK. A survey by the Royal Veterinary College in 2018 showed that 15 per cent of veterinary professionals suspected they had treated at least one dog that was engaged in illegal dog fighting. Dogs used in fighting suffer injuries including puncture wounds, typically to the head, neck, chest and forelimbs; marks around the neck from weighted collars used in fight training; crudely treated wounds; and often death. The League operates an Animal Crimewatch service where people – including veterinary professionals – can anonymously report their suspicions of dog and other animal fighting. The League recently provided intelligence for a two-year long investigation by the BBC into a global network which bred, transported and organised dog fights around the world – including in the UK.

Timeline

The League has owned land and sporting rights since 1959, purchased to provide a safe haven for hunted animals. Concentrated around Exmoor and the Quantock Hills in South West England, the 3,000 acres of sanctuary land include Baronsdown, near Dulverton and Alfoxton in Holford, where stags have escaped when chased by hunts. Wildlfie sanctuaries managed by the charity are home to a diverse range of species, a number of which are threatened – such as red deer, badger, red fox, common buzzard, peregrine falcon, pied flycatcher and wood warbler. The River Exe, which passed through the Baronsdown sanctuary, also hosts otters. Visitors to the League's sanctuaries are encouraged to engage in wildlife conservation and learn about the animals which make the land their homes.

Recent activities

The League supported the Protection of Wild Mammals Act, passed in 2002 by the Scottish Parliament, and the Hunting Act 2004. Both laws make it illegal to chase a mammal with more than two dogs, but allow the use of two dogs or a pack of dogs to flush an animal out of its lair to be shot. Both laws allow the use of one terrier at a time below ground to flush a fox to be shot, if the owner of the terrier has written permission from the land owner or occupier to reduce fox populations in order to prevent or reducing serious damage to game birds or wild birds being kept on the land. The Hunting Act requires that the terrier is fitted with an electronic locator collar.
The league is currently campaigning against commercial breeding of non-native game birds for shooting, and against hunts that it believes are continuing to hunt wild mammals contrary to the 2004 ban.
It also campaigns to extend hunting legislation from Scotland, England and Wales to Northern Ireland. Between 2006 and 2008, it successfully undertook private prosecutions against four hunt officials under the Hunting Act, because the police would not take action, and argued that this showed that the Hunting Act was clear in its meaning. The first prosecution led to a conviction, but this was overturned on appeal, and the second conviction was upheld in the Crown Court.

Political links

The League as a charity is politically neutral. Complaints from opponents attacking the league's neutrality have all been dismissed by the Charity Commission. Several League staff have previously had political links. Former Chief Executive Joe Duckworth is a former trade union leader. Former CEO Douglas Batchelor was at one time a Liberal. Labour member and ex hunt saboteur Chris Williamson was a member of the board of trustees League Against Cruel Sports Board of Trustees, whilst several other board members are Labour Party members. Lorraine Platt, organizer of 'Conservatives Against Fox Hunting', is a member of the Conservative Party. Vice-Presidents include Labour politicians Robert Evans and Kerry McCarthy. Former President Professor John Cooper QC, once stood as a Labour party candidate.