Court rules against hunt

Press, 4 April 1985, Page 6

Court rules against hunt

NZPA-PA London British anti-blood-sports campaigners have won a test case court battle that they say could lead to the end of hunting in Britain.

A High Court judge yesterday banned the Devon and Somerset stag hunt from a deer and wildlife sanctuary owned by the League Against Cruel Sports in the heart of red deer hunting country on Exmoor. He also awarded the league £lBO ($468) damages for seven incidents of trespass on the land and ordered that the organisation should get costs. Mr Justice Park ruled, for the first time, that a hunt master could be liable

to trespass if it were proved he intended to allow his hounds, huntsmen, or followers to cross prohibited land in pursuit of a quarry, or if he failed to exercise proper control over hounds who crossed the land.

His ruling applied only to the lOha site of Pitleigh Farm, Somerset, and he declined to give a similar court order to four other “sanctuary” properties on which the hunt had trespassed. The league had sought a “blanket” injunction for five parcels of land which would, claimed the hunt, have stopped hunting over a wide area. The league’s director, Mr

Richard Course, said, “This is the start of a snowball which will eventually lead to an end to hunting in this country, and not before time.

“This means that any hound that enters private land without the consent of the landowner will automatically guarantee the hunt master liable for trespass.” The league is trying to get hunting abolished by legislation and the buyingup of land in hunting areas.

Mr Dick Lloyd, vicechairman of the stag hunt, said that the league had scored only a limited success.

“We have avoided this area over the past two years, and we shall continue to do so,” he said.

The case had resolved itself into “local problems of trespass” and whether a particular master had been negligent in trying to stop hounds going on to private land.

The league owns about 500 ha of land designated as wildlife sanctuaries in and around Exmoor.

It claimed' damages for trespass at five of these properties and sought injunctions banning the hunt from entering or trespassing on them. Seven examples of alleged trespass were cited.