Campaigners will seek Asbos for offenders
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Anti-blood sports campaigners are warning they will seek anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) against fox hunts who flout the ban on hunting with hounds at their Boxing Day meetings today.
The League Against Cruel Sports is launching a "prosecution unit" and senior QCs will advise it on seeking Asbos against hunts for allowing dogs to kill pets, blocking country lanes with 4x4 cars or acting aggressively.
"We hear every week of hunts behaving in a profoundly anti-social way," said the league's chairman John Cooper, a leading barrister. "Asbos are not just for hoodies as many hunts are about to find out."
The league said it was launching the unit today to use both civil and criminal law "to control the behaviour of those hunters who believe they are a law unto themselves". Lord Archer of Sandwell QC, a former Labour Solicitor General, and Anthony Scrivener QC, former chair of the Bar Council, are advising the unit.