PRESS RELEASE:SAVE OUR STAGS: the Long Struggle against Britain's most Controversial Blood Sport

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With the Hunting Act in total disarray and the likelihood of its repeal at the hands of a future Conservative Government looking more certain every day, the publication of former stag hunt saboteur Ian Pedler’s new book Save Our Stags: the Long Struggle against Britain’s most Controversial Blood Sport could not prove more topical.In well over four hundred pages Mr Pedler takes us on a tour de force of the long campaigns to end what many claim to be the most barbaric of all blood sports: stag and deer hunting. Starting with the humanist Henry Salt’s 1891 campaign against the Royal Buckhounds, through to the debacle of the Hunting Act 2004 four years after its passing, this book is a fascinating insight into not only the mind-set of hunt devotees, but also the motives of the animal welfare activists who remained constant in their efforts to ban the ‘sport’.West Country stag hunting has always been the most reviled blood sport on the anti “hit list”, sustaining constant attack for over one hundred years. Singled out for special attention far more than any form of hunting, it has spawned a whole collection of organisations specifically dedicated to its abolition. National committees have been formed to pressure Parliament, hundreds of thousands of pounds spent in purchasing land to frustrate its activities, hunt saboteur groups have attempted to destroy it through direct action tactics, while its interests have been ruthlessly attacked via such bodies as the RSPCA and National Trust. In consequence stag hunters have developed an entrenched attitude of mind that has enabled them to now command an importance far beyond their size. When threatened by Parliament in 1930 it was the Devon and Somerset Staghounds who created the British Field Sports Society, the organisation we know today as the Countryside Alliance. Even earlier, in 1926, they had formed the Badgworthy Land Company to purchase land and sporting rights to protect their ‘sport’ in perpetuity. Then, if all else fails, there is always the trump card; they will threaten that if stag hunting is abolished then the red deer will be exterminated from Exmoor and the Quantock Hills.This is the first book to cover in depth the full story from the earliest attempts at parliamentary legislation in 1883, the formation of the League Against Cruel Sports, through the years of the League’s Edward Hemingway, Raymond Rowley, Richard Course, James Barrington and Douglas Batchelor, culminating in a detailed account of the final 1997-2004 push to abolition. For the first time serious coverage is given to the role of direct action from the attempt at hunt sabotage by the LACS in the late 1950s, through the birth and early years of the Hunt Saboteurs Association, to the Save Our Stags Campaign of the 1970s and’80s.The role of deer sanctuaries, undercover operatives, hunt monitors, along with every splinter group that has opposed stag hunting, as well as individuals such as Cicely Norman, Gwen Barter, Richard Hall, John Hicks, Doreen Cronin and Kevin Hill, are all given due prominence.The book also contains a comprehensive explanation of the history and practice of deer hunting, much of it ‘culled’ from the annals of the hunters themselves, which offers a fascinating insight into what they consider acceptable in the name of ‘sport’. It also gives the HSA its rightful place in the long story of attempts to abolish blood sports, explaining much of the tactics, philosophy, and motivations of the animal rights movementWith a comprehensive appendix, bibliography, index, and thirty photographs, many published for the first time, Mr Pedler’s book is not only a damming indictment of the cruelties inherent in British blood sports today, but also a savage critique of the failure of government legislation that has singularly failed to address them. In consequence this book should prove as controversial as the subject it covers.The author has witnessed most forms of animal abuse since first joining the League Against Cruel Sports as a ten-year-old in 1957, but the one constant has been his life-long hatred of West Country stag hunting. He was active with the Hunt Saboteurs Association from its inception in 1963, then the founder of the Save Our Stags Campaign, while also serving as an Executive Committee member of the LACS until resigning as an active campaigner in the late 1980s.

His professional life has been spent in the field of mental health social work, at which he is still employed part-time. When not harassing animal killers he pursues his other interests of world travel and early American history. He lives in the West Country with his wife Josie. For further information contact Ian Pedler:Telephone: 01761 417254Email: ianandjoWeb site: www.saveourstags.co.ukThe book is £12 post free (cheaper than the net) from: Black Daps Press, PO Box 1447, Paulton,Bristol BS39 7WT

Human kindness... The Divine Plan.colin sky^*

 

 

 

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