Wildlife
far from the Wild. Honduras July 2004
(Pictures by ACIG
partners from the Ecostorm investigative agency)
ACIG
ABROAD
ACIG
investigators are ever alert for cruelty to animals and wildlife throughout the
world. Yes, our number one priority at the present time is campaigning against
bloodsports in the UK. Understandably so, as we seem so near success, but we do
not ignore our other areas of concern. I work with a large team of colleagues
most of whom also work for other campaigning organisations at different times.
In the midst of their other projects they can usually find time for some ACIG
investigations. An example is this recent expose from Honduras of the tragic
side of the wildlife trade that fuels the worlds’ pet industry. It took
considerable courage to secure these images as the law elsewhere in the world
usually offers even less protection than it does in the UK. Here is our
investigators report recently e-mailed to me:-
Honduras
The
pictures offer a rare glimpse into the fate of so many rare and endangered
species stolen from their natural habitat in South and Central America.
Magnificent birds of paradise, monkeys, leopards and numerous other animals that
should be in the wild are held in inappropriate wire mesh cages behind a
non-descript cafe on the main road between the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa,
and the coastal town of San Lorenzo.
The
shocking pictures were obtained by ACIG partners from the Ecostorm investigative
agency during a recent fieldtrip in Central America and show the sad legacy of
the thriving trade in wildlife in this part of the world. All of the animals
held in this makeshift zoo were, investigators were told, seized by the Honduran
authorities policing the Panamanian highway which speeds up through Honduras
from Nicaragua in the south towards Mexico in the north. With little funding to
fight wildlife crime, and even less to care for animals seized from unscrupulous
traders, the facilities offer the authorities the only solution (other than
destruction) for dealing with them. Investigators learnt that many of the
animals had been housed behind the cafe for up to a year, and such was the
permanence of the 'zoo' that visitors now flock to the cafe to view creatures
they have little chance of seeing in the wild.
The
animals are not held out of some desire to inflict cruelty on them, rather they
are held because they have nowhere else to go. Animal welfare and wildlife crime
is not a priority in this poor, corrupt corner of the world. ACIG and Ecostorm
will shortly be passing the pictures and
information
gathered onto an international organisation equipped to investigate further.
July
2004
I should
point out here that we lack the resources to pay for air tickets to distant
parts of the world but if you are on site, either for other work or for holiday,
we will gladly pay entry fees, film costs and other necessary expenses for
investigation work. Don’t let a good opportunity pass for want of a small
amount of support. The reach of your ACIG is far indeed!
NEWS
We have
now seen 15 years of successful campaigning work for your Animal Cruelty
Investigation Group! Many thanks to all our supporters particularly those who
have been with us since the very start. It has been a long road. We have seen
small successes, big successes and some difficulties. Most importantly we are
still here and still active in the field. Thanks to your generous support we are
well equipped and we are determined. We have a network of supporters and field
workers the length and breadth of the country. All we yearn for now is some real
success in Parliament. On the Hunting Bill we have won the debates, proven our
case, the promises have been made and now we look for them to be delivered.
CAMPAIGNING
POSTERS AND POSTCARDS
Now is
the most crucial time in a generation in the campaign against bloodsports. In
the coming few months we have to use the advantage that we have in the House of
Commons to secure the abolition of this savage abuse of our wildlife or lose the
opportunity for decades. I have seen the cruelty at first hand, the stag at bay,
the dug out fox, the bagged fox, and the caught hare. It is done for sheer fun
and it can be summed up in one apt four-letter word, vile. But thanks to a
conspiracy of convenience between Royalty, the Establishment and the bulk of our
media it will continue until the conversion to the humane alternative is forced
through Parliament. If we fail to see this in the next few months the
opportunity will have gone, perhaps for our lifetimes. Each and every one of us
just needs to do a little bit more to secure success. If we fail will our
wildlife forgive us? If we fail and the burden of campaigning over the same old
arguments falls on them will our children forgive us? If we cannot stop animals
being killed for sheer fun what other progress can we really expect in animal
welfare?
Your
ACIG and Animal Welfare Information Service have worked hard to promote this
campaign. We produced the campaigning postcards and gave two to every supporter
with ACIG Bulletin 29. They are plain on the back for your own words so they can
be sent to anyone, MP, Prime Minister, the Queen, MEP, media outlet, etc. etc.
They can be displayed in windows, or newsagents, or used as recruiting aids.
We
stepped up our campaign by committing ALL the financial resources of the AWIS to
producing full colour A2 sized posters of the same image, slogan and quote. I
emphasise the word all. This really was a 100% maximum effort. It cleared out
every last penny that the AWIS had. I am sorry if this did lead to a bit of
confusion with supporters of the ACIG wondering why they received a mailing from
the AWIS. I should digress here slightly to explain about the two groups.
The ACIG
is the lead organisation that gathers the evidence of cruelty in the field. Your
support for the ACIG pays for cameras and film, vehicles, petrol and the like.
In time the need arose to ensure that the evidence that was gathered with so
much effort received the widest possible publicity. There was some questioning
as to whether it was right to use ACIG funds to pay for leaflets, pamphlets and
the like so the AWIS was set up in the mid-1990s to handle the information and
education side of our work. Some ACIG supporters also support the AWIS as an
extra and the two organisations merrily co-exist. So, the AWIS produced these
highly effective campaigning posters. We then circulated details through our
e-mail contact list (if you have not already joined please send an e-mail to
mike@acigawis.freeserve.co.uk and we will bring you on board). We took the
opportunity of it being the time for the usual AWIS mailing (the end of May) to
send that mailing promoting our new posters to all AWIS supporters, to everyone
else in the ACIG and then beyond that to every potential supporter we have ever
had contact with who might be interested. Thanks to your marvellous response we
have sold many posters, but we have many more to sell. This is visual ammunition
vital for our campaign that we need to fire. PLEASE
HELP BY BUYING THEM!!
These
posters can be sent to MPs for display in their surgeries or offices. If your MP
is hostile to wildlife then with an election looming why not send one to the
prospective candidates from the opposing parties? They can be used as
campaigning tools by the compassionate majority. Forget the drivel of the
“59%” polls from the bloodsports brigade. The fact is that opposing this
cruelty is a vote winner in both town and countryside. Send us just £2.50, a
covering letter and the name and address of the politician concerned and we will
be delighted to send them a poster.
Posters
can also be mounted on boards for display on stands. They can be put on placards
for use in demonstrations. They can be used in schools as a counter to the
deluge of literature promoting the bloodsports view (remember, schools have a
duty to put forward both sides of the argument to their pupils. They often get
away with a one-sided promotion of bloodsports, typically including a visit to
the hunt kennels, by saying that no counter material was forth-coming from our
side). They can finally be used as posters should, for display on your wall.
Our
posters are bargain prices. Just £2.50 each or 3 for £5, delivered to your
door, has to compare well with other mass produced posters. Please use them to shout loudly for our wildlife.
We have
also had a further print run of the postcards. As before they are available from
the ACIG at the following rates:- 2 cards for £1 (inc. P&P)
12 cards for £5 (inc. P&P)
They are
also available for groups to sell on at 40 cards for £10 (inc. P&P) which
is 25p for each card. I envisage them selling at 45p each. These numbers can be
multiplied to give a pro rata rate.
MINKHUNTING
On
Saturday May 15th I left home to undertake routine fieldwork in north
Norfolk. I had barely started when I encountered a bunch of hunting types
parking their vehicles in a nearby village. I was not aware of any bloodsports
show taking place at the time and they had the look of minkhunters so I stopped
to investigate.
What
luck! I had chanced upon that most elusive of bloodsports pastimes, a mink hunt.
Once they recognized me as not one of their own they were typically unfriendly.
The best that I could make out was that it was a joint meet of the Eastern
Counties Minkhounds and the North Norfolk Minkhounds. They were in the small
village of Withersdale Street on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, near the river
Waveney.
Some of
our local hare hunters recognized me and their unfriendly greeting turned more
threatening. I was warned not to photograph them, not to photograph their
houses, and not to go on private land. The Director of some local film archive
came up and was at pains to point out that as he did a lot of work for
television he was keen not to take sides on this issue. But he allowed the
minkhunters to park all over his property and was strenuous in pointing out that
I was not allowed to set so much as one foot on his land. He indicated this
property extended right to the road forcing me to stand on a somewhat busy and
dangerous highway. Against this one of the women came out and offered me a cup
of tea.
When
they set off across the fields at about midday I returned home for some more
cameras and to consult our local maps. I also phoned the Otter Trust at nearby
Earsham to warn them that the minkhunters were about and tell them where they
were hunting. The hunters looked to be working the brooks towards the river
Waveney; if they then turned downstream the Otter Trust was not far ahead as
hounds run. My daughter and I returning from karate one evening previously had
seen an otter crossing a road just outside a nearby village. The Otter Trust
confirmed to me that the hunt that had just set off was in prime otter habitat
where otters were known to be in residence.
There
are also mink in the area. There had been two failed mink farms in the vicinity,
one at Flixton and one at Brome. One wonders just how many mink escaped from
those operations and furthermore just what happened to the mink when the places
closed?
It is
debatable firstly whether mink are such a threat to other wildlife populations
that they need control and secondly whether such control is feasible. What is
undeniable is that hounds that are supposedly trained to hunt mink and only mink
can easily run riot and hunt other quarry, including otters. There is a
propensity for any hunting hound to run riot and hunt another non-target quarry.
With minkhounds this is particularly likely to happen as mink are usually not
their first choice of quarry anyway. It is usual for a mink hunt to have hounds
that are a mixture of ex-foxhounds and ex-harehounds retrained to hunt mink.
Well a dog is a dog and it is hardly surprising if given the opportunity they
chase anything that moves. Alright they may find it difficult to catch an adult
otter (in the heady days of such savagery, when the present Queen was an
enthusiastic subscriber to the Eastern Counties Otterhounds, it could take the
hounds many hours to wear their quarry to exhaustion) but otter cubs are much
more vulnerable. And otters breed in any month of the year.
Another
undeniable fact is that if it really is deemed vital to catch mink then it can
be done with live cage trapping. If an otter is caught it is let go. When hounds
catch an otter release is not an option.
To cap
it all seeking to control mink by hunting them with packs of dogs is not only
wholly ineffective it is actually harmful to proper control measures, as indeed
it was when the Eastern Counties Coypu Hounds tried to control Coypu in this
same area some years ago. As with all live quarry hunting by no means all quarry
that are hunted with the dogs is caught. Those that escape are always given a
damned good fright and are often chased far away from where they were found. The
mink concerned are North American mink imported to this country by the fur trade
from 1929 onwards to be exploited for their pelts. But the trade soon got into
difficulty. When mink were first released by farmers from failed mink farms
after the last war, or escaped from struggling farms in the years before and
after, otterhunting was thriving. The otter may have already been in decline and
under increasing threat but the otterhunters of the period pursued their pastime
with maximum determination and glee. In doing so they, perhaps more than any
other single factor, were responsible for spreading mink the length and breadth
of our countryside.
Anyway,
armed with cameras and maps I returned to the scene. At Mendham I took a
footpath that meandered down towards the river Waveney. I could see a motley
gaggle of hunters working the brooks in the area of Mendham Marshes. At some
points they ran a few yards with great excitement, mostly they stood about
watching. I could not leave the footpath but they could not venture downstream
without passing me. I ate my lunchtime sandwiches and waited. In time they
worked their way towards me. They were not pleased to see me. I was told that I
was off the footpath (they were wrong). They stared straight into my video
camera to block my view, stood in front of it, banged it, tried to shield the
lens with a cap and gave me all the usual verbal abuse.
To
protect our wildlife I had real work to do. I shouted out to warn them that they
were hunting in an area where otters were known to be. I cautioned them to be
sure to keep their hounds under close control so that they did not riot after
otters and I warned them to ensure that their hounds did not trespass. This is
where the power of one individual armed with a video camera is proven. They and
I knew that an otter old or young could easily be disturbed from the marshes by
the hounds. I would secure that image on video and that was immediate national
news material. All the more so when I had
warned them on tape that otters were in the area! Given the current threats
hanging over hunting such media interest would not be welcomed by their
colleagues in the bloodsports brigade.
Irritated to say the least by my presence the hunt drew down towards the bridge at Mendham and paused. I waited on the bridge to film them coming underneath. Nothing happened. The verbal threats continued. I was warned not to release images of anyone without their permission and warned about all manner of other things. At 3p.m., to the great relief of all our wildlife, they packed up and returned for drinks at their nearby Field Masters house.
Thirty years ago as a young member of the Hunt Saboteurs
Association I was tangling with the fanatical otterhunters in this area. Is it
anything short of scandalous that we are still fighting the same battles all
these years later? We might have a “democracy” but is it in name only?
SHOOTING
INVESTIGATIONS
I was
contacted by one of our supporters with a disturbing report of pets being
injured by snares set in a wood near here. I went out to take a look. With a
footpath running alongside the wood it was clear that there was an opportunity
for pets to run off the path and in to any danger in the wood. I soon found an
empty and disused pheasant rearing pen. Checking the edges of it I found an old
legal snare set on the ground. When I say I legal I mean that it was set in
legal fashion as a free-running snare. Whether it was legal in that it was
checked daily as the law requires is an entirely different point. Another legal
snare was hanging from the wire mesh of the pen.
I
checked further into the wood and found a derelict pen. The wire mesh surrounds
were breached in several places by fallen trees. I quickly checked the outside
of that pen for snares but found none.
I took
photographs and video at both sites. As for the set snare I simply closed the
loop so that it could not catch any wildlife or pet. My suspicion was that the
rearing activities had been abandoned for the season and the snare had simply
been left set. Where there is one set snare there are usually more but with the
vegetation in full summer growth it was all but impossible to check the ground
for snares but I did check the likely spots.
The
point is that this is the exact scenario for the disappearance or injury of many
of our pets. The snares are put down en
masse and set and then for whatever reason they are left. Cats and dogs can
be caught in them and suffer appallingly. When
pheasant rearing is abandoned in an area all snares set in the locality to
“protect” those pheasants should be removed.
I have
written to the local Police Wildlife Liaison Officer about this matter and await
his reply. This is your ACIG fulfilling its role as part of what might be termed
Countryside Watch. We do the same when checking for the illegal abuse of badgers
and illegal hare coursing activities.
COUNTRYSIDE
STATISTICS REVISITED
Readers will recall our damning in our last Bulletin of the infamous “59%” poster campaign from the bloodsports brigade. We were not alone in viewing the figures as nonsense. The following is taken from The Observer Sunday June 6th, 2004:-
Lies, damn lies -
and opinion polls?
A £1bn industry is accused of distorting results to
produce what clients want to hear, writes Nick Mathiason
An unholy war has
broken out among opinion poll firms, and the fallout threatens to tarnish an
increasingly influential £1 billion industry. Riven by accusations of
compromised research, inappropriate political connections and links with public
relation firms, industry in-fighting is spilling over to Westminster.
High-profile MPs are
demanding a government investigation into pollsters' methodology, the
possibility that questions are loaded to suit clients' interests and
establishing if shareholding links to outside organisations harms the industry.
Loved by newspapers
and devoured by politicians, opinion poll findings make for guaranteed media
coverage. Whether research based on the public's political mood or testing a new
product, they have become a vital marketing tool……………
Last week the
industry was hauled through more mud after the Advertising Standards Authority
upheld a complaint against pro-hunting organisation the Countryside Alliance for
its use of a poll which it claimed showed majority support for hunting with
dogs.
The ASA upheld a
complaint made by the League Against Cruel Sports that the Alliance advert,
claiming 59 per cent support for hunting, had 'flawed methodology and unreliable
results'. The ASA called the advert's use of poll results 'misleading'.
The Market Research
Society has made similar criticisms against NOP, the well-regarded polling
company used by the Countryside Alliance.
Combining two poll
questions, the ad said 59 per cent of the population want to 'keep hunting'. But
the MRS criticised NOP for failing to ask objective questions, failing to carry
out research 'objectively and in accordance with established scientific
principles' and for 'being guilty of conduct' that 'might bring discredit on the
[market research] profession'.
'The Countryside
Alliance has purchased the appearance of public support by using a polling
company which, according to the Market Research Society, is willing to act
without objectivity and outside established scientific principles,' said the
League against Cruel Sports. 'Public opinion on hunting is being maliciously
misrepresented by a pro-hunting group which has no evidence to defend a pastime
the majority want to see stopped.'
THEY
SAID IT!
We are used to some gems from the from the
bloodsports brigade but the following quote from a Rod Brammer in the Sunday
Telegraph May 23rd 2004 really is a classic. This was in an
article by Daniel Foggo entitled Hunt
enthusiasts call faithful to Free Church of Country Sports:-
Mr
Brammer, who runs a shooting school at Shillingford, Devon, said: “There are
so many parallels between country sports and established religions: we also have
regalias, we have our own language and our own art. Those in the Jewish faith
blow a horn, the shofar, and so do we. Hunting is a form of ritualised
killing – in our case the odds of actual killing are stacked in favour of the
animal to escape.
We
baptize our children by blooding them with the blood of that which we kill. Is
this any more strange than dressing them in white and totally submerging them in
water?”
The theory for these desperate fanatics is that as
fox hunting is part of their religion any legislation to ban it would be an
infringement of their rights as a religious minority. Well let’s hope they are
as unsuccessful in that ploy as they were with playing their “human rights”
card in Scotland. There they tried to overturn the hunting ban but the Scottish
Law Lords gave them short shrift. The following is the relevant report from the
BBC:-
Hunting
ban challenge is rejected
A
legal bid to overturn the ban on the hunting of foxes with dogs in Scotland has
been rejected by appeal judges. The challenge to the country's anti-hunting
legislation was thrown out at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. The Countryside
Alliance and members of the fox hunting lobby argued the laws were incompatible
with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The
hunt supporters tried to overturn the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act.
The
Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Gill, heard the case alongside Lord Macfadyen and Lord
Abernethy.
The
three judges ruled there was enough information available for the executive to
decide hunting with dogs inflicted pain on the fox and there was a proper basis
for making the judgement that it constituted cruelty.
The
pro-hunt group included the Countryside Alliance, the Fife and Jedforest Hunts,
a joint master of the Buccleuch Hunt, the Master of Foxhounds Association and
its chairman Lord Daresbury.
They
made their challenge under a judicial review claiming fox hunting was not cruel
and no more cruel than other permitted ways of killing foxes.
They
also argued the ban was "disproportionate to the mischief" that it
sought to outlaw and had damaged local economies where people were employed in
fox hunting and related trades.
An
earlier challenge had previously been rejected by Lord Nimmo Smith after the act
became law in 2002.
Lord
Gill said: "The question whether fox hunting is cruel involves both a
question of fact and a value judgement. We consider it was entirely within the
discretion of the parliament to make the judgement that the pursuit and killing
of a fox by a mounted hunt and a pack of hounds, for the purposes of recreation
and sport and for the pleasure of both participants and spectators, was
ethically wrong."
He
added that the pro-fox hunting group had failed to set out a relevant case that
they were discriminated against in their human rights without objective
justification.
Story from BBC NEWS: Published: 2004/05/28 14:03:21
GMT
TALKS
AND DEBATES
Talks to local groups would be an excellent opportunity to
promote our new poster and postcard campaigns. If you are involved with a local
campaigning group and think it would help to recruit new support for your group
if I came along to give a talk illustrated with slides or video, and then had
the opportunity to sell our posters, postcards and books (such as the excellent Caught
in the Act) do please get in touch. Remember we make no charge but if we
could “pass the hat” around the audience towards our expenses it would be
appreciated. I am also
pleased to debate with our opponents, particularly on bloodsports, at any forum
in any format.
HOW
YOU CAN HELP
You are
welcome to quote anything in this bulletin or in any of our ACIG or AWIS
literature.
USE OUR
CAMPAIGNING POSTERS AND POSTCARDS
Please!
Help me to ensure that these highly effective campaigning items are widely
distributed.
MOBILE
PHONE NUMBER/E-MAIL ADDRESS
We take
every step we can to minimize our bureaucracy. We don’t like spending either
money or time on paperwork. Both can be far better spent on investigations in
the field. However some bureaucracy is inevitable but it would be a great help
and would greatly reduce our burden if you could ensure that you send us either
your mobile phone number or your e-mail address if you have either. The reason I
ask is simple. After every mail out we have Bulletins returned here by the post
office because the recipient has moved and left no forwarding address. We then
have to try and track our own supporters down. It is seldom that people mean to
part company. We only mail twice a year and in all the pressures of a house move
with many people to notify of the new address it is hardly surprising that we
are sometimes forgotten. Occasionally we are successful through the banks if the
supporter concerned kindly supports our work by standing order. Often we are
not. With the current crisis of confidence in Parliament we need every supporter
we can get so to avoid losing contact with you please send us some means of
contact that can outlast fixed addresses or consider converting your support to
standing order, or if none of these are possible and you are planning to move
please make a note to send us your new address. Thank you.
FINANCES
I am
pleased to enclose a copy of our Financial Report for 2003. Another very
successful year, thank you for your most generous support!! The legacy income
and car purchases are explained in the report. There are other items that need
clarifying. The telephone charges. To save money we switched our method of
payment from monthly account to pay-as-you-go. This produced significant
savings. The figure for postage is less than expected thanks to the generosity
of those supporters who regularly send us many mint stamps. Every book of 1st
or 2nd class stamps received is one less that we have to purchase.
Thank you. The health and fitness figure remains high but the great bulk of that
is the £60 a month that I pay for karate training. This is a dangerous
business. I have a wife and children to consider, a vital job to do and there
are a lot of threats.
If anyone has any queries about our finances do please drop me a line. I will be happy to explain. The commonest question asked is whether we are, or intend to become, a charity. At present neither the ACIG nor the AWIS, is a charity. We have given a lot of thought to, and taken advice on, making one or other, or perhaps both, a charity but as yet we have not done so. Most of the large campaigning animal welfare groups are not charities. Like them we are at present unwilling to restrict our campaigning activities which would be the inevitable result of taking on charitable status. This is all the more true now that the struggle is more intensive (and political) than ever. I know that this means that we lose out on numerous benefits, including tax, but against that we can make more effective use of the money we do receive. Should the situation change and we create a charitable side to our work I will of course let supporters know at the earliest opportunity.
We live in a changing, challenging and cruel world. There is ever greater need for compassion to our own species and to our fellow species. Your ACIG and AWIS will continue to strive to expose cruelty, to alleviate it and to explain the nature of it. Your continued support is vital for our success.
For
anyone considering remembering the vital investigation work of the ACIG in their
will I respectfully suggest using the following form of bequest: “I
bequeath unto the Animal Cruelty Investigation Group of P.O. Box 8, Halesworth,
Suffolk, IP19 0JL, the sum of ............................. free of tax and I
direct that the receipt of an authorised officer of the group shall be a good
and sufficient discharge of such legacy.”
IN
MEMORIAM
Tragically,
some people working for animals have suffered appallingly at the hands of the
abusers. Several have paid the ultimate price. They will not be forgotten. The
memory of their sacrifice should inspire us all to do much more for the cause
that we know to be just.
James
Piper, RSPCA Inspector : Died in 1838 after sustaining severe injuries tackling
cockfighters at Hanworth, Middlesex.
William
Sweet, LACS member : Murdered 6/1/1976 after altercation with man shooting
birds. Assailant was jailed for life but has long been released.
Fernando
Pereira, Greenpeace photographer : Murdered 10/7/1985 by the French Secret
Service when the vessel “Rainbow Warrior” was sunk by two explosions,
Auckland Harbour, New Zealand.
Michael
Hill, Hunt Saboteur : Killed 9/2/1991 protesting against hare hunting at the
Cheshire Beagles.
Thomas
Worby, Hunt Saboteur : Killed 3/4/1993 protesting against fox hunting at the
Cambridgeshire Foxhounds.
Jill
Phipps, Animal Rights Activist : Killed 1/2/1995 protesting against live exports
of farm animals, Coventry Airport.
Well
that is it for another Bulletin. Fifteen years of proven success and we are
still going strong. Thank you and here’s to the next fifteen years! I write
this slightly later than usual as I delayed this Bulletin until well into July
in the hope that our Government might finally make some positive statement on
the bloodsports issue. Nothing has come and we now have to contemplate the
consequences of our Government breaking its trust with the electorate on this
issue. If Labour is too frightened to ban it now with their current
Parliamentary majority will they ever ban it with the much reduced majority that
will surely ensue after the next election that is if they get in at all?
Whatever Labour does the pro-hunt minority will never vote for them and they
have done precious little to encourage the anti-hunt majority. As I write we are
being told that the Hunting Bill will be reintroduced in September. Last
Christmas we were promised it before Easter. At Easter we were promised it
before the June Euro Elections. Then it would definitely come back to parliament
in July. Now it is to be September, before the Party Conference. We will see,
but we must prepare for betrayal. No hunting ban for a generation? Do we pack up
and go home? Do we abandon our countryside and the wildlife in it as a
playground for those whose only joy comes from killing? Do we heck! I have seen
too much suffering in bloodsports to ever give up the struggle. I will always
stand with the fleeing animal, the victim, against the aggressor and I know you
are with me. And there are our other areas of concern. For as long as the
ignorant and callous minority seek to abuse and exploit our fellow creatures for
fun or profit we will be there to oppose them. Where laws do exist to protect
animals we will strive to enforce them. Where legislation is lacking we will
continue to do our best to bring in the laws required, we can do no more.
Please, stick with us and buy our posters and postcards!!!! Thank you. I am
truly grateful to you for your continued support.
Enjoy
Christmas. If we strive hard our Government just might give our wildlife the
best Christmas present of all! Our next Bulletin will be written in January
2005.
Mike Huskisson July 2004
Animal
Cruelty Investigation Group, PO Box 8, HALESWORTH, Suffolk. IP19 0JL
Tel.:
01986-782280 Fax:
01986-782551
E-mail: mike@acigawis.freeserve.co.uk
Web
site: www.acigawis.freeserve.co.uk