John Cooper QC discusses the growing number of criminal cases concerning animal welfare
- The prevalence of animal welfare cases.
- The conduct of charities taking private prosecutions.
- The RSPCA, dog fighting and controversy.
Cases involving animal welfare are becoming more and more prevalent, year by year.
There has been a considerable amount of controversy, in relation to the conduct of some charities concerning decisions they made about private prosecutions, in the criminal courts.
For any charity to engage with the law and particularly with the criminal court, there is a high degree of responsibility placed upon that charity to act with maturity and integrity, lest the whole ethos of charitable legal actions be brought into disrepute.
Misconceived
There are those who recently argue as a result of some controversial decisions by charities who have privately prosecuted, that there should be a complete cessation of prosecution activity. This is a misconceived approach and it would be very undesirable if the importance of charities or other campaigning organisations in taking legal actions is undermined.
Most importantly, providing the charity is competent and trusted enough, by
