Three members of the Crawley And Horsham Hunt have been found guilty of illegal fox hunting, click here for itv video report.
Crueltyexposed welcomes the recent conviction's and justice has been served. Hunting a wild mammal with dogs is illegal.
Fox dug out and shot at the home of Lady Lucinda Kleinwort
Please click here to view video.
Our video opens with the grinning face of "Lady Lucinda Kleinwort", director of the Crawley and Horsham hunt.
Terrier-men (ANGUS MACKAY, JEREMY CHARMAN) claim she gave them permission to bolt foxes on her Heaslands estate and dig out if necessary following her invite the the Crawley and Horsham hunt's hounds, to hunt on her estate. During this incident in Nov. 06 police were called, followed by RSPCA.
None of them had a video camera. Despite being shown it was a badger sett, they allowed the dig, although the RSPCA Inspector asked them to stop. Police later claim they asked the RSPCA to lead.However, after four hours of digging (ostensibly to rescue a trapped terrier), two foxes were shot.
Meetings by monitors with Supt. Goddard and Chief Inspector Hanbury at the RSPCA HQ have revealed an admission that:
1) Their Inspectors were out of their depth
2) That the police failed to support their officers in allowing the dig to stop, pending independent examination of the suspect sett.
3) That police failed to allow their officers to secure the necessary evidence.
We have subsequently brought the police and RSPCA together o¬n this matter and hope lessons have been learned. Perhaps the most important and elementary issue is that police and RSPCA inspectors should carry video cameras.
The Surrey badger group examined the suspect sett just over two weeks after the incident: they found it to be an active twin entrance outlying badger sett with latrines!
The law:
The so called "Gamekeepers exemption" allows a single terrier to flush a fox from an fox earth (not badger sett) for the protection of birds on shooting estates, but o¬nly so long as they are shot as soon as possible.
The use of nets which may prevent a bolt (and lead to a fight with a terrier) has yet to be tested in the courts. The practice was never intended by parliament to take place during hunting with hounds.An expose by the League Against Cruel Sports earlier this year revealed that the Crawley and Horsham hunt are illegally chasing foxes to ground , then digging them out and throwing them to the hounds.
While the evidence has not led to a court case, we understand it could have a significant bearing on future cases.The hunt is headed by Jamie Hawksfield, who runs Equestrian Vision ( a professional video editing practice). Hawksfield, a foul mouthed woman beater believes the police are his "boys"and treats them as such.
The other head is Kim Richardson, a bullying playboy , and is the son of the late Sir Michael Richardson ,who was kicked out of the City by the regulator for practices that could facilitate money laundering! Please click here to view the video.
