The League Against Cruel Sports was this month able to reiterate its statement that hounds from deerhunts 'savage' chased deer and inflict cruelty before death, after the Countryside Alliance was unable to substantiate their claims stating otherwise. An independent review of an Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruling - requested by the Countryside Alliance - recently stated that hounds "do on occasions attack deer and inflict cruelty" and that evidence produced by the League "had shown" that cruelty takes place.

The Countryside Alliance has steadfastly maintained that hounds from the country's three deer hunting packs (the fourth ceased hunting several years ago) are trained not to attack deer and that hunted animals are held at bay
until a huntsmen shoots them. Video footage obtained by the League - and submitted as part of the review process - powerfully contradicts such claims however by clearly showing deer being savaged by hounds.

Douglas Batchelor, League Chief Executive, commented: "The hunting lobby has been falsely claiming for years that their hounds do not attack deer; this week's review, and the original [ASA] adjudication, have quashed this
fallacy and independently confirmed the League's long standing belief that deer hunting is cruel and barbaric."

He continued: "This latest move by the Countryside Alliance to gag the truth about hunting with dogs is part of an ongoing campaign of attempted censorship of League publicity. Having lost the fundamental arguments over
cruelty issues, the Alliance appears to be desperately seeking to challenge technical issues as part of a covert action to discredit the anti-hunt lobby in the run up to the next hunt season and beyond."

Sequences from the controversial footage of hounds attacking deer are included on the League's new campaign video, 'Chaos in the countryside - the secret face of hunting exposed', which contains a powerful collection of
video clips (some from the Undercurrents archive) exposing the cruelty of hunting, horses and hounds out of control and huntsmen, their supporters and 'security' attacking anti hunt monitors and saboteurs.

Douglas Batchelor added: "One has to wonder whether the Countryside Alliance desperate attempts' to gag the League on this issue are related to the launch of this film which has clearly proved to be an embarrassment for
them. Should they have succeeded in preventing us from repeating the claims relating to deer savaging then publicity statements for the film - and the
film itself - may have been compromised."