18 February 2011

The charity which led the campaign to make hunting with hounds illegal six years
ago has launched an innovative ‘huntmap’ to illustrate hunt behaviour in Britain.
By harnessing the power of social networking site Twitter, the League Against
Cruel Sports will plot incidents of suspicious or illegal hunting as well as hunt
havoc reported through tweets onto a map of Britain. The League has over 7,500
followers on Twitter.

 http://huntmap.co.uk/

Today marks the sixth anniversary of the Hunting Act which the League’s chief
executive Douglas Batchelor believes “is going from strength to strength”. The
historic legislation which bans hunting has faced opposition from the hunting
lobby determined to see it repealed. Mr Batchelor said: “This time last year the
hunters were claiming the law which curtails their bloodsport wouldn’t reach its
sixth anniversary yet here we are. The truth is that there is simply no appetite
to repeal an Act which would turn the clock back to cruelty and allow hunting of
wild animals with dogs. The public wholeheartedly support the Hunting Act and we
will continue to celebrate its anniversary for years to come”.

Polling carried by Ipsos MORI in December last year shows 76% of people think fox
hunting should remain illegal and 84% do not think deer hunting and hare hunting
and coursing should be made legal again. Political support is also firmly in
favour or retaining the Act with figures showing that if a vote were to be held in
Westminster on whether to repeal the Act it would be lost by around 60 votes.

There has now been over 150 convictions under the Hunting Act with last season
(2009/2010) seeing the highest number of convictions since the legislation’s
inception.


Contact

Press Office

The League Against Cruel Sports' Press Office works to promote our campaign
messages to the media.

Our Press Office can be contacted 24 hours a day on 01483 524 250. Our telephone
system will connect journalists to our duty press officer when the office is
closed. You can contact the Press Office by email at  press@league.org.uk; email to
this address is monitored during evening and weekends as well as during office
hours.

Our head office in Godalming has ISDN facilities, to provide studio quality
interviews for broadcast.

If you are a journalist and you do not currently receive our News Releases but
would like to do so, please contact Louise Robertson, Deputy Head of Campaigns &
Communications, by email:  louiserobertson@league.org.uk