Local Animal News 2002

2002

9/2/02 £450000 Left to the Cat Protection League

Joan White, of Castle Street, Melbourne, who died on the 11^th of July last year left £450,000 to the Cat Protection League. Friends and neighbours said she loved her cats, which she also left £40,000 to, for their keep.

Mrs Deegan

6/2/02 2000 People back "BAN THE BANG"

More than 2000 people have backed Lesley Deegan's "Keep it Quiet" campaign to restrict the sale of fireworks and to ban noisy ones. Lesley Deegan runs a Derby based rescue centre for all domestic animals. She was concerned by how terrified her animals were over a two week period around bonfire night and started the campaign which has received the backing of Derby North MP Bob Laxton.

2/2/02 DAWN Protest at BHF Shop

Protesters from the newly formed Derby based AR group Derby Animal Welfare Network (DAWN) protested outside the British Heart Foundation shop in the Corn Market yesterday. Sandra Barker, dressed in a dog costume, and colleagues Emily Parsons and Dawn Spencer wanted to make the public aware that the BHF fund animal torture - sorry I meant - testing.

21/1/02 Farmers too poor to keep collies

The Border Collie Trust says hundreds of border collies are being abandoned and even killed because beleaguered farmers cannoot afford to keep them.

Well, they're probably finding it difficult to keep their brand new Landrover Discoveries on the road - poor things! This just goes to show how much respect some farmers have for animals. There are many homeless people who seem to manage to keep their pets but farmers can't even be bothered to give their dogs to a sanctuary.

19/1/02 Fox Hunt "Sorry" for Stray Hounds

ORGANISERS of the South Notts Fox Hunt have been forced to apologise to homeowners after hounds broke free and ran wild through gardens. The incident happened on Thursday while they were travelling through Denby Village with its 41 foxhounds. The hunt had set off from the Coach and Horses pub in neighbouring Horsley Woodhouse an hour earlier.

The hounds, sensing the smell of a nearby fox, burst free and over fences into the rear gardens of houses in Denby's Church Street. Huntsmen arrived on the scene soon afterwards and tried to round up the loose dogs who by then then managed gone onto the main road outside the front of the houses.

Margaret Yates (74), said she was left terrified after seeing 20 of the dogs leap over the fence and into her back garden. "I'd just walked back into my conservatory when I heard this loud barking and when I turned around, I couldn't believe what I saw," she said.

"There must have been at least 15 or 20 dogs running down the garden towards me. I was frightened, and it made me nervous. They were jumping up at the windows and as soon as I saw someone from the hunt I asked him to get them out of my garden."

Richard Brookes, master of the hunt, said he had apologised to residents for the incident and said an investigation was under way to discover how it had happened.

Probably something to do with the bungling incompetence of huntsman Gary - he could never keep hold of his hounds at the Albrighton either!

18/1/02 Nottingham HSA Press Release: WHY ARE THE QUORN HUNT BREEDING FOXES?

The Pro-Bloodsports lobby claims that the lack of hunting since February 2000 has caused the fox population to rise dramatically so this doesn't make any sense.

In an exposé on Channel Four News, three fox hunts, including two East Midlands fox hunts - the Quorn FH and the Cottesmore FH, as well as the Beaufort Hunt in Gloucestershire - have been discovered secretly leaving animal carcasses near fox earths. This practice not only encourages foxes to breed, but also increases the risk of BSE spreading.

Secret filming shows a dead sheep wrapped in a plastic bag left near a fox earth in Quorn territory. In an area of Leicestershire used by the Cottesmore hunt the remains of hundreds of animal carcasses litter the ground. Weathered green bones scattered amongst more recent skeletons.

RSPCA Vet Bill Swann said, "In dragging cattle and sheep carcasses then you have potential hazards from material which can carry diseases. The brain, spinal cord and certain parts of offal must be destroyed to prevent the risks of BSE."

The hunts inevitably undermine any of their weak arguments against a ban when they are seen to be pursuing foxes over land on which such offences have been committed.

Leaving carcasses lying around the countryside is illegal - the law says they must be disposed of properly without delay. But these "Guardians of the Countryside" don't seem to give a damn about the dangers of another outbreak of BSE or the law.

This disgusting practice is also against the hunts' own rules - in which they claim to pursue and kill foxes only in their "wild and natural state". Obviously artificially rearing these animals is hardly wild and natural. At least this disproves the hunts' claim that foxes are vermin - why on earth would people involved in a so-called "pest control" activity actually breed the animals which they then go out and kill?

Fox hunters kill for fun - no other reason. And in this exposé we have the proof of that.

Nottingham Hunt Saboteurs
"There is no justice, just us."

16/1/02 Goose winged by arrow

Yesterday RSPCA inspectors rescued a bird from Straw's Bridge, Ilkeston after it was spotted with an arrow through its left wing. The arrow believed to have been shot from a longbow was removed by a vet.

The newspaper asked "what sick person would do this?" My answer is "any member of the BASC/BFSS" but they're more likely to use a shotgun which would have a similar effect but not as visible.

9/1/02 Fox Kills Soapstars

The Derby Telegraph featured a double page spread on the Derby Fox Sanctuary following the Hollyoaks episode the previous week. The TV episode showed a fox (aka 'Captain' from Derby Foxes) standing in the middle of the road. A car driven by one of those 'beautiful people' from Hollyoaks swerved to avoid the fox and crashed in a most dramatic way. BBC Radio Derby have also asked to do an interview with the sanctuary owner next week.

3/1/02 Prince Pops in for Tea

Prince Charles, a regular at the Meynell and SS Hunt, visited the the Shoulder of Mutton pub at Osmaston for a cup of tea after a day's hunting on the 29th. Landlord Paul Cransford confirmed the visit and John Greenall said "The prince was with us and we all had a very enjoyable day."