While those of us who aren’t key workers are on lockdown, working from home and making the most of our allotted one daily outdoor exercise, there are some people who think they are beyond the rules. These include the ‘Stop the cull’ campaign group; anti-badger cull protestors run by Jay Tiernan, who has previously been described as 'an animal rights extremist and convicted fraudster who, among other things, was behind the release of 20,000 pheasant chicks last year, many of which subsequently died'.
We wouldn’t have thought that animal rights activism counted as ‘key work’; but apparently they disagree. Stop the Cull members have been monitoring farmers, explaining how ‘sett surveying can still be done’, and one group boasting that a team of four have done ‘their daily exercise. All 12 miles of it today.’ They aren’t the only ones; a group called ‘Moorland Monitors’ who attempt to disrupt grouse shooting and stop keepers doing their daily work have also been sharing photographs of legal snares, and encouraging their supporters to visit the moors and monitor and photograph anything they see there.
But, beyond carrying out their activities as usual when everyone else is on lockdown, the group have also been taking advantage of the current pandemic to boost their coffers. They write:
“On a very morbid but important note, if like some of our older members and those with high blood pressure or diabetes who are in the high risk group and you are in the process of writing your will, please consider the Hunt Saboteurs Association. They have no waged staff and the money they get coming in they hand out to local groups in the form of grants to help them stay on the road.”
The Countryside Alliance have described this plea as “appalling”. “At a time when we need to pull together and support the most vulnerable in society, animal rights extremists see a national crisis as an opportunity to raise money to fund their vicious campaigns. It’s completely unacceptable”, said their CEO Tim Bonner.