RSPCA and League Against Cruel Sports come under fire.
Cutting The Guardian by David Hencke and Rob Evans June 29th 2001)
Found by Fenris and Mark. Thankyou.
(photo cutting from The Countryman's Weekly re F&M)
The two biggest animal welfare organisations - the RSPCA and the League against Cruel Sports - will be plunged into fresh chaos at annual meetings tomorrow over their stance on hunting and the management of their organisations.
Both organisations face challenges from pro-hunting groups and dissidents. The discord comes as the bodies need to unite to press parliament for a bill banning hunting, rather than fight internal disputes.
The RSPCA faces a demonstration led by Richard Meade, the former Olympic rider, outside its annual meeting in Newport, south Wales.
Two weeks ago, the RSPCA threw him out of the society for leading a campaign to recruit up to 5,000 hunt supporters to the RSPCA
. Last week, he sent a letter to members claiming that he remained "completely free" to continue his campaign.
"Today's [RSPCA] council is dominated by the views and personalities of the animal rights movement. Militant vegetarianism has, in my view, overtaken reason."
He adds that the background of some of the candidates for the society's ruling council "would appear to sug gest that an even more extreme position may well be taken in the future, with outright hostility to livestock farming being voiced by several of the candidates".
The League Against Cruel Sports, meeting at the Museum of London, faces challenges from members of the newly formed National Animal welfare Society, set up by Graham Sirl, a former chief executive who resigned from the league.
Mr Sirl - chairman of the society - is already at the centre of controversy for modifying his views by accepting that hunting stags in Exmoor is part of deer management.
Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the league, said yesterday:
"It would mean modifying our policy on hunting, which would be unconstitutional.
" The dispute has been heightened by an attack on the league by Janet Smart, a member of the executive, who is expected to be expelled an hour before tomorrow's meeting. She has published complaints about the league on the National Animal Welfare Society's website condemning the appointment of Andrew Wasley, a former hunt saboteur, as press officer - because he had been jailed for throwing mud at a demonstration. She says he is unsuitable to lobby MPs.//cutting ends