hunting

There is a painful truth about disease in the UK countryside. These diseases among farm animals cause death and financial loss on a huge scale. Chris Pitt, deputy director of policy, communications and campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports, explains.

Darryl Cunnington, a former policeman and investigator for the charity League Against Cruel Sport, suffered a broken neck when attacked by men apparently engaged in preparing for illegal fox hunting. The attackers have been spared prison, reports BRENDAN MONTAGUE

ROGER SWAINE is the most recent recruit to the League Against Cruel Sports team of wildlife crime investigators and started in 2015. Just a year later he was attacked and his colleague left with a fractured neck. Roger explains here why he will continue to investigate illegal hunting

The impact of human behaviour on the environment is well documented but now it seems man has become an evolutionary force in the lives of female Scandinavian brown bears as they change parenting tactics to ward off hunters. CATHERINE HARTE reports

The League Against Cruel Sports argues the conviction of the head gamekeeper of the Buckminster Estate shows that hunts are 'still chasing and killing foxes in the British countryside'. They have asked the public to sign its petition against hunting. BRENDAN MONTAGUE reports

The huldufolk have disappeared from the Faroe Islands, and with them an ancient understanding of nature. They vanished when in the 1950s when the roads and the lights appeared. Now, the local community are coming to terms with further extinctions - and a threat to their own lives from coal pollution. BRENDAN MONTAGUE reviews The Islands and the Whales, out tomorrow.

The effect of hunting on the Amazon rainforest's ecosystem may not be as devastating as previously thought, according to a new study by the University of Connecticut and the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation and Research. BRENDAN MONTAGUE reports

TV presenter and animal welfare campaigner Chris Packham has criticised conservation charity the RSPB - of which he is vice president - for accepting sponsorship from binoculars manufacturers who promote hunting. BRENDAN MONTAGUE and CATHERINE EARLY report

The master of the Dwyryd Hunt in North Wales has been convicted of badger bating and sent to prison for 22 weeks following a prosecution by the RSPCA. The League Against Cruel Sports claim the case if further evidence between hunting and other deadly sports. BRENDAN MONTAGUE reports

When celebrating our wetlands for World Wetlands Day it is also good to spare a thought for the ducks who often die in them well before their time. A million ducks are shot each year for sport. That should not continue, argues JORDI CASAMITJANA of the League Against Cruel Sports

As part of our nature-inspired book review series, WENDYROSIE SCOTT reflects on the beauty and insight in Tim Flach's new photography book, Endangered.  

This Boxing Day hunts will take place across the UK. But over all, 2017 has already been a bad year for those who like to chase and kill animals for fun. CHRIS PITT, deputy director of Campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports, is on the scent.

The African Wildlife Foundation has uncovered the figures behind the shocking numbers of 'trophy hunters' and the sanctioned trade in exporting dead and living animals out of the continent, reports LAURA BRIGGS

Prime Minister Theresa May has made several serious mistakes in her election campaign, but her biggest 'unforced error' of all could be her public support for foxhunting, opposed by 17 in 20 voters. Now a huge march to her Downing Street residence is planned for next Monday to 'Make Hunting History!'

It's election time and the race is on for public support, writes Eduardo Goncalves. So why on Earth did Tory leader Theresa May come out in favour of foxhunting - an activity loathed or disliked by over 80% of voters - at this crucial time, offering MPs a free vote on repealing the Hunting Act? Now let's put pressure on our candidates to keep the law against this cruel, archaic pastime.

Teresa May's promise to bring back foxhunting has proved one of the most unpopular items in the Tories' election platform. So we should not be surprised at the official silence over the TB-infected hounds in the Kimblewick hunt, writes Lesley Docksey. Nor, given the political power of foxhunting landowners, should we be surprised that officials are shrugging off any idea that bad biosecurity in hunt kennels could possibly have anything to do with TB in cattle.

The badger cull is a clear failure on scientific, cost and humanity grounds, writes Dominic Dyer. Yet the government is planning a major extension of the cull in 2017. That's why he has just sent a copy of his acclaimed book to every British MP, before they debate the issue next week. Write to yours now demanding an end to the slaughter!

The illegal trapping of birds on Cyprus is taking place on an industrial scale, writes Jamie Wyver, and the biggest hotspot is on a British army base where over 800,000 birds were killed last year. It's time for the British and Cyprus governments to confront the criminals, clear the acacia bushes in which the birds are trapped, and close the illegal restaurants serving them as 'delicacies'.

The 25 TB-infected hounds of the Kimblewick hunt, all put down, remind us that the lot of hunting dogs is not a happy one, writes Lesley Docksey. Unloved and at constant risk of slaughter, they are prone to a host of diseases, from bovine TB to brucellosis, neospora and botulism, which they can pass on to farm stock, humans and other dogs. They deserve better!

Was the discovery of bovine TB in a pack of foxhounds in southern England covered up? Jordi Casamitjana asks if hunts bear much of the blame for the bTB epidemic, while Defra may have deliberately suppressed the evidence. The 25 bTB-infected hounds of the Kimblewick Hunt may just be the tip of an iceberg of diseased dogs spreading TB across the UK - while badgers take the blame.

The news that the Kimblewick Hunt's hounds are infested with bovine TB has come as a shock to farmers and hunters, writes Lesley Docksey. But it's no surprise to campaigners against the badger cull, who have long complained about poor farm hygiene and the feeding by hunts of disease-ridden 'fallen cattle' carcasses to foxhounds - never mind that the cattle are likely bTB carriers!

Since February 18, 2005 roughly 200,000 illegal hunting events undertaken by registered hunts may have taken place in the UK, writes Jordi Casamitjana. By engaging in fictitious 'trail hunting', they can chase foxes as before, and when they are killed, well, it was all a shocking 'accident'. It's high time to strengthen the law to ensure the spirit in which it was passed is fulfilled.

The trade ban on rhino horn is not working, writes Keith Somerville. But non-lethally and sustainably harvested rhino horn can earn income to encourage breeders, pay rangers and anti-poaching teams, provide surveillance and supply wider benefits that will gain the support of people around parks, reserves and ranches.

The disappearance of a satellite-tagged hen harrier on a Scottish grouse moor and the loss of eight Golden eagles in five years provide the latest evidence for a ban on driven grouse-shooting, writes EDUARDO GONCALVES. But birds of prey are only the most high-profile victims of a cruel and ecologically destructive industry.