A leading animal rights group yesterday revealed that it might secretly tape record conversations in rural pubs to gather intelligence, and urged the public to inform the police about illegal hunting with hounds.
Launching its Hunt Crime Watch programme, the League Against Cruel Sports promised it would send out teams of monitors equipped with video cameras to ensure that the Hunting Act was effectively enforced. The trespass laws, it insisted, would not prevent it collecting evidence.
The plans to pursue those breaking the ban emerged shortly after tensions between hunters and hunt saboteurs flared into violence in Sussex late on Thursday night. Police fear there may be further clashes tomorrow when around 250 hunts are due to ride out in protest against the law.
"The league did not campaign for 80 years for a ban on the barbarity of hunting with dogs just to watch bloodsports enthusiasts flout the law," said the organisation's chief executive, Douglas Batchelor, yesterday. "We will be watching. The public will be watching. Lawbreakers will be prosecuted."
Many hunts have declared they intend to "test" the new legislation, confident that it will prove difficult for the police to distinguish between a legal drag hunt following a pre-laid scent and a pack of hounds on the trail of a live fox.
The League Against Cruel Sports believes it will be relatively simple to catch illegal hunts. "Under the right to roam you can see an awful lot of the countryside," explained Mr Batchelor. "We can film with the cameras we have from up to a mile away.
"If people think that once they have gone behind the farm gate they are out of sight of evidence gatherers, they are in for a nasty shock. We will go around before the hunts to see if they are stopping up [foxes'] earths. We will go to the local pubs to see what conversations are being held. If they are [planning], that's a criminal conspiracy and it can carry a prison sentence of up to life."
Asked whether tape recorders might be used to record conversations in country pubs, he said "yes".
Every hunt in the country would be monitored, Mr Batchelor said. Evidence of crimes would be handed over to the police. "If people are not prepared to go to the police, we will handle their information anonymously."
If the authorities refused to bring prosecutions, the league said, then it would launch private actions. It has already accumulated sufficient legal funds.
Owen Bowcott and Sandra Laville
