News round-up (4th July 2021)
Free the Ollerton 11; North Wales Police pull a fast one on wildlife; hunt thugs and low conviction rates; government proposals to run a bulldozer through vulnerable wildlife
Ollerton pigs
On 18th June, a dog walker discovered an escaped pig feeding her 10 piglets in woodland in Ollerton, Nottinghamshire. The pregnant sow had managed to escape the farm, unnoticed, given birth to her piglets, and remained free until dog walkers came across her.
The nursing mother had been unable to feed herself due to the nose ring piercing her snout, preventing her from foraging and feeding, so whilst the farmer was located, volunteers had been feeding the newly named Matilda.
It is not known how long the pig had been escaped, but the piglets were estimated to be approximately three-weeks old when discovered.
Anna Aston, the dog walker who first found Matilda, said:
We can't save all the pigs but I just felt that she had earned her freedom. She had the instinct - she needed to have the piglets somewhere safe and went and did that.
Wold Farms Breeding Ltd, previously Packington Pork, manages Houghton Warren Farm and is one of the largest outdoor pig breeding businesses in the country. This was identified as the farm that Matilda had escaped from, and was linked to Marks and Spencer as one of their suppliers of pork products.
In filed accounts from 28th March 2020, one of the key concerns of Wold Farms Breeding Ltd was “pig health being of a greater concern than normal”. Their financial summary details how 96% of pigs bred are now bred in-house, which was up 63% on the previous financial year, giving them a “higher margin on turnover”, with half their herd are replaced every year, but perhaps not checked as often as they could be.
Wold Farms Breeding Ltd also noted a £31,799,096 turnover, with a net profit for the financial year ending 30th September 2019, as being £2,862,276.
After planned protests outside Houghton Warren Farm, and an influx of outrage to Marks and Spencer’s social channels and phone lines, Matilda and her piglets were surrendered to Brinsley Animal Sanctuary and will then, after a period of rest, continue onto their long-term homes at Surge Sanctuary.
Ongoing updates can be found at the Free the Ollerton 11 Instagram page.
Rob Taylor appointed as Wales’ Wildlife and Rural Crime Coordinator
On 1st July, Rob Taylor, responsible for establishing North Wales Police Rural Crime Team, was appointed the first-ever all-Wales Wildlife and Rural Crime Coordinator, the first position of its type within the UK.
The post of coordinator for Wales is designed to strengthen the role that Wildlife and Rural Crime policing teams play within the local communities, across Wales.
The Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, Lesley Griffiths, congratulated Taylor, celebrating his “experience and expertise”, while Taylor himself stated,
Policing our countryside and protecting our wildlife is something that I am passionate about...I relish the opportunity I have been given and look forward to working closely with others and to making a positive difference here in Wales.
However, whilst Taylor’s remit may be focused on tackling rural crime, including dangerous and out of control dogs, through the Kept Animals Bill, Taylor himself seems to be passionate about a little more than protecting wildlife.
On 30th March 2021, North Wales Hunt Saboteurs published a post about Taylor’s allowing lapse in judgement regarding submitting evidence of illegal hunting against the Flint and Denbigh Hunt with a six-month time limit.
Despite footage and statements being submitted after being assessed, the evidence being passed to the Crown Prosecution service (CPS), including a still of the hounds chasing the fox, the CPS had requested further evidence. Taylor had then requested a statement from the trail layer, despite video evidence of the trail layer stating no trails had been laid.
Taylor received the trail layer’s evidence 10 days prior to the six-month expiry but did not send it in to the CPS in time, meaning the case against the Flint and Denbigh Hunt was then dropped.
North Wales Police responded, stating:
the issue was dropped because of a lack of evidence and not because of time limit restrictions.
In December 2020, The Leader Live reported Taylor’s team were “leading the way in tackling rural crime”, with Taylor quoted as saying,
We now have 11 constables and our remit has expanded into cockling, habitat destruction, poaching, illegal waste tipping and dogfighting… When I started, we were looking at about 300 wildlife offences a year - now we have about 40.
This isn’t the first time North Wales Police Rural Crime Team have been highlighted as being a concern as unbiased in its policing of hunt saboteur activity and relationships with the Hunts, with the controversial Operation Yarder.
North Wales Hunt Saboteurs have commented on the latest appointment, saying “Whilst this man is in charge there's no chance of fox hunts getting prosecuted”.
A case against Rob Taylor has been submitted and upheld by the Police Professional Standards department.
Guilty verdicts for hunt thugs, but wildlife crime conviction rates are “shockingly low”
On 28th June, Herefordshire Hunt Sabs posted that Gary Williams, the ex-huntsman of the Ross Harriers Hunt, had changed his plea to guilty of two counts of assault with beating against two Herefordshire Hunt Sabs and paid a fine of £740 in fines, costs and compensation.
Williams has now retired from hunting after the incident, which was caught on film and according to Herefordshire Hunt Sabs, was planning on pleading not guilty due to insanity after a head injury that occurred earlier that day after Williams had sustained a fall.
A temperamental character, Williams has previously been caught on camera abusing his horse by Welsh Border Hunt Saboteurs South, with Bristol Hunt Saboteurs reporting that “the Ross Harriers Hunt will be replacing current huntsman, Gary Williams, with an unpaid (amateur) huntsman next season”.
Meanwhile, on 24th June, Peterborough Hunt Sabs reported that Andrew Kean of the Fernie Hunt, near Kettering, pleaded guilty to four different offences after deliberately causing a collision between his quad bike and a Peterborough Hunt Sabs vehicle in February 2020. Kean received £1000 in court costs, plus a further driving ban.
Kean was charged with driving dangerously, uninsured and disqualified on his quad bike whilst providing stewarding services to the Fernie Hunt, when he overtook the sab vehicle at high speed, then performing an emergency stop causing a collision.
Back in December 2020, the Independent stated that “Wildlife crime underworld rampant, with shockingly low conviction rates”, with “illegal hunting and poisoning takes toll on native birds and mammals”, in a publication by Wales Environment Link’s annual report.
The annual report states:
What is really concerning is that when enforcement agencies do receive complaints of illegal hunting, there appears on occasion to be a lack of effective training on or understanding of the legislation. Common causes of complaint are failures to accept ownership of allegations, investigations being allocated to officers without the necessary training or understanding how to investigate a crime appropriately, a lack of understanding when presented with film footage of illegal hunting, and a reluctance to seek clarification.
The report also highlights the frustration with progressing cases to court, citing the cases of the Meynell and South Staffordshire Hunt, where six members of the Hunt were charged with illegal hunting by Derbyshire Police from film evidence captured by the League Against Cruel Sports in October 2018.
In November 2019, two of the hunt pleaded guilty, but the CPS made the decision to drop the charges against the other four because it was felt, “not to be in the public interest”.
The Independent’s report stated, “Criminals are using the internet to profit from gambling on live-streamed or recorded hare coursing”, something that can be seen via the video-sharing focused social networking service, TikTok, with growing numbers of gamekeepers, terriermen, and other hunt affiliates using the platform to share insights into their murky underworld. Hashtags such as #gonetoground #digging #workingdogs and #agri used to group these communities together.
TikTok itself is focusing on preventing wildlife crime, and in March 2021, the platform followed Facebook, Instagram, and others in joining the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online, but as yet, there’s no campaign to focus on wildlife crime closer to home and within those rural communities.
New government plans will de-prioritise much of England and Wales’ wildlife when it comes to development proposals
A Guardian article on 2nd July 2021 reported that:
documents published on an obscure government website… incorporate new standards that would mean an animal or plant species would only be protected if “in imminent danger of extinction”.
The proposals, found on the Joint Nature Conservation Council (JNCC) website, state that “National/Regional Vulnerable, Near Threatened and Least Concern species are not eligible for listing on the schedules”. Furthermore, the JNCC proposes that endangerment of a plant or animal species must result “in part” from “one or more… direct human pressures”.
These proposals are part of a regular five-year review by JNCC of schedules 5 and 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
ENDS Report states that:
NGOs fear that removal of protection for all but ‘critically endangered’ species will mean they will be allowed to be killed, therefore enabling building developments to go ahead without consideration of species such as slow worms and water voles.
Endangered species have played a role in battling several major development plans in recent years. Campaigners against the Pont Valley opencast coal mine took the mine’s developer Banks to court over a great crested newt found on the building site. And groups opposing a major road development near Norwich, Norfolk, have highlighted the presence of Barbastelle bats along the planned route.
The JNCC’s proposals come just weeks after the government launched its Action Plan for Animal Welfare, saying:
Our manifesto was clear that high standards of animal welfare are one of the hallmarks of a civilised society. We have a long tradition of protecting animals and that will continue
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Headline image via
Brinsley Animal Rescue