By Barnaby Dracup
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Police are to stop monitoring hunts after new guidance issued by the Association of Chief Police Officers.
The guidance states that forces have more pressing priorities than following hunts and states that hunt monitoring should be abandoned.
Richard Brunstrom, chief constable of North Wales and the Association of Chief Police Officers spokesman on rural affairs, said: “Hunting is definitely not a policing priority. It is not illegal to wear a red coat and ride a horse in a public place. The penalties for hunting do not include a prison sentence for offenders. This puts the Hunting Act to the lower rather than the higher end of offences. Parliament had the chance to include imprisonment as a sentence, but did not do so.”
The Countryside Alliance’s Simon Hart said: “It is of huge credit both to the police and to hunts that the worst predictions of chaos have not come about and that there have only been a tiny number of convictions related to hunts. It is clear that, like the hunting community, the police understand why the Hunting Act must be repealed.”
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