The chief executive of the RSPCA issued a stern warning to Boxing Day hunts as he claimed those who set their hounds on foxes should go to jail for up to five years.
Prime Minister David Cameron pays a visit to the Heythrop Hunt
Telegraph UK, 1 Jan 2013
Gavin Grant signalled that the charity would be channelling efforts into an aggressive new push to prosecute those who flout the ban on hunting with dogs introduced by the last Labour Government.
He called for a dramatic toughening of sentences for huntsmen who allow hounds to kill foxes, which would put the offence on a par with killing a person by dangerous driving.
And he described David Cameron’s local hunt, which was prosecuted last week, as “wildlife criminals” adding that enforcing the ban should be seen as a measure of “civilisation”.
His comments, in an interview with The Sunday Times, came ahead of the biggest day in the hunting calendar, the annual Boxing Day meets.
Last week a group of MPs and peers wrote to the Charity Commission suggesting that the RSPCA might have broken charity rules with its dogged pursuit of the Heythrop Hunt based in Mr Cameron’s Witney constituency.
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