Pro-hunt extremists are drawing up a hit-list of anti hunt campaigners in the event of a forthcoming ban, the League Against Cruel Sports can reveal. It comes just one day after the alleged assault of two anti hunt campaigners.
Reliable sources within the pro-hunting movement have indicated the intentions of some of their peers to actively publicise the names and addresses of leading anti hunt campaigners on the internet, resulting in fears of personal attack or damage to property.
Those fears have now been further fuelled by an anonymous letter in this month’s underground countryman’s magazine “Earth Dog – Running Dog” – a copy of which has been obtained by the League. It urges hunters to “choose targets directly connected with the anti-hunting repressive apparatus” including the League Against Cruel Sports, Hunt Saboteurs Association and other organisations, and refers to property, vehicles, communications and computer hacking.
The threats come shortly after Channel 4 News broadcast sinister footage of Real Countryside Alliance activists attacking the property of an anti-hunt campaigner. It showed masked activists daubing slogans on the campaigners house and damage to a vehicle. And in a recent BBC Newsnight investigation into the Real Countryside Alliance, anonymous pro-hunt activists from Wales stated that “physical violence” was on the agenda if hunting was banned.
League chief executive Douglas Batchelor said today: “We have already had a member of staff assaulted and an arson attack at our sanctuary in Somerset. We cannot afford not to take such threats seriously. As a result we are stepping up security at our premises in all areas. We hope this will deter extremists from taking such foolhardy action and have also written to the police asking that the strongest action be taken in the event of such circumstances.”
Source: League Against Cruel Sports