I’m very much of the opinion that when powerful lobbying group turn their guns in your direction you have in fact been effective and they perceive you as a threat. This was very much the case with regards to the RSPCA and the concerted smear campaign against them and their then Chief Executive, Gavin Grant, by the Countryside Alliance.
Successful prosecutions against illegal hunts, most notably the Heythrop (which David Cameron rode with) were huge victories against the aminal abusers and those that support them. The Gavin Grant, took the RSPCA in a direction which encompassed more than just rescuing badly treated pets and took on all forms of animal cruelty. They came out against the pointless badger cull and actively went after the hunts who were openly flouting the Hunting with Dogs Act which was passed in 2004. Obviously this didn’t go down too well with those on the opposing side of the argument and he finally left through ill health. There are suggestions that this was brought on by the constant attacks and threats of legal action by the CA and the NFU, groups which hold significant funds and the power in which to prosecute their personal agenda.
So in comes the new CE of the RSPCA, Jeremy Cooper, a man with a history in supermarket management.
And one of the first statements he makes to the Daily Telegraph, a publication known for its sympathies towards the Tories and hunting, is this:
“We care as equally about badgers as we do about dairy cows. Calls for naming and shaming of farmers who shoot badgers is not helpful. We don’t have an issue with the need to manage badgers. It is the method. Foxes need to be managed as well. It is about humanely managing the animals. We recognise that dairy cows suffered problems and badgers need to be managed.”
Now correct me if I’m wrong but that sounds like something written directly by the CA’s own PR machine. It is quite frankly a disgrace and shows not only a lack of balls but also a complete lack of understanding of basic ecology. The CA and NFU must be mutually masturbating each other right now (sorry for that image), Tim Bonner et al all positively gleaming from ear to ear , they have their man in place and their vendetta against the RSPCA has finally bore fruit.
Jeremy Cooper – The CA’s new boy.
It is of course a complete disaster for anyone with any compassion for our wildlife. Every scientist in the land with knowledge of the issue has come out and stated on the record that culling badgers is not the way to go in dealing with the bTB issue and statistic in the cull zones show once more an increase in bTB even after 3 years of culling (perhaps Jeremy Cooper knows better) and foxes certainly do not need controlling as once again science proves they are a self regulating predator whose numbers are dictated by the availability of food and territory. If foxes needed controlling why do the hunts breed them?
He goes on to say:
“My style of advocacy is encouragement and dialogue. The [previous] leadership was too adversarial. If you want to shout and use rhetoric that’s fine but it isn’t helpful to anybody. It is not going to make friends and influence people. People won’t like you for it.”
In other words he’s not going to ruffle any feathers and cosey up to the CA and NFU. Perhaps they made a big donation to get their man in place, heavens knows they’ll need it as no doubt this will not go down well with the masses of people to send them their hard earned cash to protect our wildlife. If the comments from the story in the Independent are anything to go by they’ll need every penny they can get.
He added:
“The charity would be focussing on the prevention of cruelty, rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming in the future”.
Prevention of cruelty. Surely one of the biggest injustices going on in our countryside every week throughout the hunting season is the cruelty meted out by those controlling hounds and riding a horse?
I believe a person holding these views should have no place in the RSPCA let alone be CE. If you feel the same the please sign the petition to have him removed here.
Ello Ello . . . What’s all this then?
Posted: August 22, 2016 in CommentTags: Countryside Alliance, Cubbing, Fox Hunt, Hunt Saboteurs, Hunting with Dogs Act 2004, Illegal hunting, Oakley Hunt, Police, Police Bias, Steve Harris
During a quiet moment the other day I decided to have a snoop on-line and see what our local hunt (the Oakley Hounds) had been up to. There’s been big changes there recently, the huntsman (Bill Bishop) left to go to the West Norfolk Foxhounds, the Whipper-in (Aiden Beaney) disappeared into thin air (or maybe up his own arse) and there was a new batch of Masters. Guy Napier with whom I spoke with last season (see here) is no longer a master, so alongside the constant gruesome twosome of Lydia Thompson and Caroline Evans we have new masters, Nikki Lightfoot and Steve Harris.
We have our suspicions as to why there have been these musical chairs within the organisation and no doubt more will come to light in due course however we’re fairly certain that all is not particularly well at the Oakley, so we’re obviously quite happy about that. However that’s not the point of this blog entry.
Pre-hunt tipple.
I decided to check out the new masters and my first port of call was this Steve Harris character as he was the only male in the group. A quick search led me to his Facebook profile. Now Facebook is a resource which just keeps on giving, no doubt the authorities use it in much the same manner as all sorts of interesting information can be gleaned from someone’s profile. He’s a face we recognise as a regular on hunt days so no real surprises there and his photo’s show the standard hunting pictures, action shots proclaiming their horsemanship and prowess in the saddle, you know the standard thing these types all like to show. But hello, whats all this then?
Yup, here is a picture of Steve in all his . . . police riding regalia.
Lets have a bit more of a dig I thought. Another search reveals he was part of the Bedfordshire Police Equine team back in 2012 where he is described as a ‘Detention Officer’. They did quite well in the competition they entered apparently, although one comment below the story suggested the police would do better spending their money on catching criminals as opposed to jollies on horses, anyway I digress.
Back to Facebook and another interesting update on his timeline. Here we have a serving (at the time) police officer, quite openly admitting to cubbing* and wearing the prefferred cub hunting dress of a ‘ratcatcher’ jacket (see below). I’ve covered similar incidents before (see here) but to be so blatant just goes to show the level of arrogance of these people. Steve seems to think that him being the law means he’s above it, except of course he isn’t. Next to the picture of him in his police uniform he comments; ” . . . lots of hunting, just like the good old days”. Would that be the old days when it was legal to kill foxes with hounds for fun then? The ban had been in place for over 7 years when he wrote that so once again he’s admitting to committing a crime or at the very least being an accessory.
I have a meeting in a couple of weeks with our local law enforcement people and it’ll be something I shall raise in the conversation. Perhaps Steve’s influence may have been a factor in the type of biased response the hunts would get when they called the police? So far the meetings I’ve had have been quite cordial and beneficial to all parties and I hope headway is being made with regards to the improvement in policing of hunting but as I’ve said before I would be very interested to know how many serving officers are members of the Countryside Alliance or hunters themselves. There could be a clear conflict of interest if these officers were responding to claims of illegal hunting. I believe Steve Harris in no longer a serving officer, he’s now listed as a director of FAS Paper Bedding but the fact still remains he was a police officer openly taking part in an illegal activity and bragging about it and that is simply not acceptable.
Additional: It has been pointed out that Detention Officers are support staff and not regular police officers, which further begs the question, why is he appearing to be in public wearing a police uniform?
*Cubbing or Autumn hunting is where the hunts train their new hounds to kill by holding up (surrounding) coverts and blocking the escape of young foxes and then sending in the hounds to kill them so they get the taste for fox and learn what they are supposed to do. Hounds which show no desire to kill or make the wrong noises are destroyed.