The verdict is in on the Hankinson trial
A Litigation Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM League Against Cruel Sports
October 15, 2021

Today the most significant court verdict since the passing of the Hunting Act 2004 has occurred... The significance of this cannot be over stated. A senior hunt official been found guilty of assisting hunts to break the law.

Mark Harkinson

Mark Hankinson was today found guilty of intentionally encouraging or assisting others to commit an offence under the Hunting Act by telling them how to use the excuse of so called ‘trail’ hunting to get away with hunting real animals.

Judge Tan Ikram, deputy chief magistrate of England and Wales, read out key parts of the webinar transcripts in his remarks, before saying: “In my judgement he was clearly encouraging the mirage of trail laying to act as a cover for old fashioned hunting."

The significance of this cannot be over stated. A senior hunt official been found guilty of assisting hunts to break the law.

But this landmark trial has always been about far more than just man, and has helped blow away the smokescreen of ‘trail’ hunting.

The situation has never been more clear. Years of evidence. Years of campaigning. Trail hunting is a lie.

In the words of deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram "Perhaps most incriminating was the advice that trail laying had to be as ‘plausible’ as possible. There would be no need to suggest that [a trail layer] was needed unless it was a sham or a smokescreen.”

Fox

So what now? Now it’s up to you.

Thanks to the pressure that you have already applied, major landowners such as Forestry England, National Trust, United Utilities, Lake District National Park and Natural Resources Wales have been waiting on this verdict to decide whether to ban hunting activity on their land.

Please contact them one last time and tell them there can be no doubt about the truth of trail hunting, that now is the time to end their suspensions and ban trail hunting on their land for good.

Let’s put an end to the smokescreen that is trail hunting once and for all.

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