Thursday, September 22, 2005
BOLLOCKS TO BLAIR
Police arrested a 20-year-old gamekeeper for wearing a “Bollocks to Blair” T-shirt at a game fair last weekend A girl was arrested for wearing her “Bollocks to Blair” T-shirt at the Midlands Game Fair last weekend.
Charlotte Denis, 20, a gamekeeper from Gloucestershire, was stopped by police as she left the Countryside Alliance stand because of the “offensive” slogan.
Shocked and dismayed to be made a public spectacle, Denis tried to reason with the officers: “What do you want me to do? Take my top off and wear my bra?”
At this point, two officers marched Denis towards a police car. “They grabbed me as if I was a football hooligan,” she says.
Although the “Bollocks to Blair” slogan was in evidence all round the Game Fair, police maintained it was the first time they had seen it.
“They had to walk past a huge banner in order to get to me and there were lots of other people wearing the T-shirts,” explained Denis.
A tearful Denis was driven to a mobile police unit. “I asked the officers how they could arrest someone for wearing a T-shirt and they told me it was because it would offend a 70-80-year-old woman,” she said.
After agreeing to wear a friend's coat, Denis was released without charge. But the incident ruined her day: “You don't expect to be treated like that at a country fair,” she said.
Denis bought her T-shirt at Badminton Horse Trials last year, as well as a matching badge she wears on her coat.
“Bollocks to Blair” merchandise is manufactured by Splash and first appeared last year.
“The demand has been crazy,” said Splash director Toby Rhodes. “The slogan is an expression of anger in the countryside — which we are not trying to incite. We originally thought it a bit too direct for us but it has been popular with all ages. I've been told that some police officers wear the T-shirts under their uniforms.”
“It's complete nonsense,” said the Countryside Alliance. “The police surely have better things to do with their time than protect the Prime Minister's modesty.”
This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (22 September, '05)
Charlotte Denis, 20, a gamekeeper from Gloucestershire, was stopped by police as she left the Countryside Alliance stand because of the “offensive” slogan.
Shocked and dismayed to be made a public spectacle, Denis tried to reason with the officers: “What do you want me to do? Take my top off and wear my bra?”
At this point, two officers marched Denis towards a police car. “They grabbed me as if I was a football hooligan,” she says.
Although the “Bollocks to Blair” slogan was in evidence all round the Game Fair, police maintained it was the first time they had seen it.
“They had to walk past a huge banner in order to get to me and there were lots of other people wearing the T-shirts,” explained Denis.
A tearful Denis was driven to a mobile police unit. “I asked the officers how they could arrest someone for wearing a T-shirt and they told me it was because it would offend a 70-80-year-old woman,” she said.
After agreeing to wear a friend's coat, Denis was released without charge. But the incident ruined her day: “You don't expect to be treated like that at a country fair,” she said.
Denis bought her T-shirt at Badminton Horse Trials last year, as well as a matching badge she wears on her coat.
“Bollocks to Blair” merchandise is manufactured by Splash and first appeared last year.
“The demand has been crazy,” said Splash director Toby Rhodes. “The slogan is an expression of anger in the countryside — which we are not trying to incite. We originally thought it a bit too direct for us but it has been popular with all ages. I've been told that some police officers wear the T-shirts under their uniforms.”
“It's complete nonsense,” said the Countryside Alliance. “The police surely have better things to do with their time than protect the Prime Minister's modesty.”
This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (22 September, '05)
Monday, September 19, 2005
EAGLE LOOPHOLE
Hunts say that loophole lets them chase foxes with eagles
By Valerie Elliott
Falconry experts are angry about plans to use large birds of prey to deliver the coup de grace
ABOUT 40 hunts believe that they have found a way around the ban on hunting with dogs by taking an eagle with them to pursue and kill foxes.
Some huntspeople insist that they are acting within the law and that using dogs to hunt with a bird of prey — a golden eagle or a European eagle owl — is an exemption set out in the Hunting Act.
The Government wanted to protect falconry as a sport and did not restrict the number of dogs that can be used to flush wild mammals for a bird of prey.
Otherwise the law is clear that only two dogs can be used to flush foxes to waiting guns, although a pack of dogs can lawfully follow a scent or drag trail. Some police officers have privately told hunts that this loophole for falconry could be their “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
But the use of the birds has caused a dispute with the Hawk Board, the professionals who organise falconry in Britain and who say that the practice is dangerous and should stop.
Complaints have already been passed to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to tighten the law, although anti-hunt campaigners believe that the issue can be settled quickly by a test case in the courts.
The Hawk Board also argues that using a bird of prey in hunting is cruel because there may not be a clean kill of the quarry.
Jim Chick, its chairman, said yesterday that it was unacceptable in Britain to use a golden eagle, an eagle owl or any other bird of prey to kill as large a mammal as a fox or a deer.
The Council of Hunting Associations has also weighed in and warned hunts that they should not use birds of prey unless the matter has been discussed with them or the Hawk Board.
The matter has come to light because autumn cub hunting has just started and hunts are keen to test the letter of the law. The main hunting season begins on November 1.
Some hunts are trying to operate lawfully but many have inflamed the row by secretly experimenting with a bird of prey. These trials have prompted an unusual display of coyness from the main hunts about their activities.
Landowners and farmers are so nervous that there will be “accidents” of illegal hunting on their property that they have even decreed there should be no filming or photographs on their land.
This edict is to protect them from any possible prosecution if illegal hunting takes place.
Tensions are running high particularly so because anti-hunt campaigners are stepping up monitoring of hunts.
Falconers understand that the hunts that have acquired a bird of prey are the Fizwilliam, the Avondale, the Belvoir and the north Cotswold hunt and that the Beaufort and the Vale of White Horse are planning to do so.
The Times was anonymously put in touch with a hunt using an eagle owl. The huntsman, who refused to be identified, made clear that under the law hunts did not technically even have to attempt to fly the bird but merely ensure that a bird and its handler was in attendance. He admitted that the hunt had not caught one fox using this method.
Hunts have spent as much as £5,000 to acquire a golden eagle. However, eagle owls are available in abundance — partly because of the popularity of Hedwig in the Harry Potter novels — and cost only £200.
Falconers have tried to block sales to hunts but third parties have been used to buy the birds, a ploy which has irritated the Hawk Board.
The board is also angry that huntspeople have been signing up for £150-a-day falconry courses to learn how to handle the birds. It has retailiated by returning their cheques and refusing to train them.
Mr Chick said that falconry felt “totally let down” by the hunts, who are attempting to bring his sport into disrepute.
“We were on their side. We walked the marches and raised funds for them and they have now kicked us in the teeth,” he said.
“The problem is with a number of vociferous hunts who are renegade, very arrogant, selfish and hellbent on trying it. They are just exploiting the law but it is very dangerous for the welfare of the bird, the hounds and horses. If a horse is panicked by an eagle flapping it might bolt and injure the rider. We are totally opposed to this.”
A Defra spokeswoman said: “In our view the falconry exemption does not allow the use of a token bird of prey to allow hunting with dogs to continue. But it is a matter for the courts to interpret the Act.”
Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said that it was collecting evidence for police to mount a prosecution and for the courts to decide.
“By using birds of prey and packs of hounds hunts are laying themselves open to a charge of hunting. But if this is a loophole then ministers must issue new guidelines insisting the exemption for falconry was not intended for dogs to be used in this way.”
By Valerie Elliott
Falconry experts are angry about plans to use large birds of prey to deliver the coup de grace
ABOUT 40 hunts believe that they have found a way around the ban on hunting with dogs by taking an eagle with them to pursue and kill foxes.
Some huntspeople insist that they are acting within the law and that using dogs to hunt with a bird of prey — a golden eagle or a European eagle owl — is an exemption set out in the Hunting Act.
The Government wanted to protect falconry as a sport and did not restrict the number of dogs that can be used to flush wild mammals for a bird of prey.
Otherwise the law is clear that only two dogs can be used to flush foxes to waiting guns, although a pack of dogs can lawfully follow a scent or drag trail. Some police officers have privately told hunts that this loophole for falconry could be their “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
But the use of the birds has caused a dispute with the Hawk Board, the professionals who organise falconry in Britain and who say that the practice is dangerous and should stop.
Complaints have already been passed to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to tighten the law, although anti-hunt campaigners believe that the issue can be settled quickly by a test case in the courts.
The Hawk Board also argues that using a bird of prey in hunting is cruel because there may not be a clean kill of the quarry.
Jim Chick, its chairman, said yesterday that it was unacceptable in Britain to use a golden eagle, an eagle owl or any other bird of prey to kill as large a mammal as a fox or a deer.
The Council of Hunting Associations has also weighed in and warned hunts that they should not use birds of prey unless the matter has been discussed with them or the Hawk Board.
The matter has come to light because autumn cub hunting has just started and hunts are keen to test the letter of the law. The main hunting season begins on November 1.
Some hunts are trying to operate lawfully but many have inflamed the row by secretly experimenting with a bird of prey. These trials have prompted an unusual display of coyness from the main hunts about their activities.
Landowners and farmers are so nervous that there will be “accidents” of illegal hunting on their property that they have even decreed there should be no filming or photographs on their land.
This edict is to protect them from any possible prosecution if illegal hunting takes place.
Tensions are running high particularly so because anti-hunt campaigners are stepping up monitoring of hunts.
Falconers understand that the hunts that have acquired a bird of prey are the Fizwilliam, the Avondale, the Belvoir and the north Cotswold hunt and that the Beaufort and the Vale of White Horse are planning to do so.
The Times was anonymously put in touch with a hunt using an eagle owl. The huntsman, who refused to be identified, made clear that under the law hunts did not technically even have to attempt to fly the bird but merely ensure that a bird and its handler was in attendance. He admitted that the hunt had not caught one fox using this method.
Hunts have spent as much as £5,000 to acquire a golden eagle. However, eagle owls are available in abundance — partly because of the popularity of Hedwig in the Harry Potter novels — and cost only £200.
Falconers have tried to block sales to hunts but third parties have been used to buy the birds, a ploy which has irritated the Hawk Board.
The board is also angry that huntspeople have been signing up for £150-a-day falconry courses to learn how to handle the birds. It has retailiated by returning their cheques and refusing to train them.
Mr Chick said that falconry felt “totally let down” by the hunts, who are attempting to bring his sport into disrepute.
“We were on their side. We walked the marches and raised funds for them and they have now kicked us in the teeth,” he said.
“The problem is with a number of vociferous hunts who are renegade, very arrogant, selfish and hellbent on trying it. They are just exploiting the law but it is very dangerous for the welfare of the bird, the hounds and horses. If a horse is panicked by an eagle flapping it might bolt and injure the rider. We are totally opposed to this.”
A Defra spokeswoman said: “In our view the falconry exemption does not allow the use of a token bird of prey to allow hunting with dogs to continue. But it is a matter for the courts to interpret the Act.”
Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said that it was collecting evidence for police to mount a prosecution and for the courts to decide.
“By using birds of prey and packs of hounds hunts are laying themselves open to a charge of hunting. But if this is a loophole then ministers must issue new guidelines insisting the exemption for falconry was not intended for dogs to be used in this way.”
