BASC announces a £1m plus ‘Fighting Fund’ to protect shooting

In response to recent challenges by the likes of Wild Justice, the British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC) has announced that it has launched a seven figure fund to enable the body to launch effective legal defences that threaten the shooting community’s future.

BASC chairman Eoghan Cameron spoke to Shooting UK, explaining: “People in the countryside in general are getting sick to the back teeth of being terrorised. Those who know and love the countryside, manage it, work in it… it was time to show our teeth and a bit of muscle.

“We like to resolve things by co-operation, collaboration and consultation. That is the way we have operated in the past but what we have found with Wild Justice is that they are are not interested in operating in that way, so there has been a growing trend to use the legal system as a means of waging environmental and conservation terrorism, because it is that, on those that love and manage the countryside.”

He continued: “I think they (Wild Justice) are feeling quite emboldened that they have got themselves off the ground and up and running with a couple of judicial reviews they have had to use crowd funding for, which I know they haven’t found particularly easy, particularly not in the current Covid environment. They should be under no illusions that we will fight them for as long as it takes.”

“Natural England and other government agencies have at times felt quite intimidated by the action Wild Justice has taken. Perhaps if they had known that we had such might behind us they wouldn’t have been so intimated, that is a theory.”

“The fund, the first of its kind, will set BASC on a new path to promoting and protecting shooting, our community and the countryside. This fund will allow us to further our aims and lead from the front when presented with opportunities and when facing down legal challenges.

“We are already fighting legal cases in England and Wales and there are other potential cases in the wings.

“For shooting to be heard and represented effectively in court, it must have an ability to fund legal action. Thanks to the generosity of our members and sound financial management, BASC has the means to do so.”