RSPCA barely holds off hunters

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

LONDON––Struggling to retain control
of the Royal SPCA, the pro-animal rights board
faction led by Animal Revolution author Richard
Ryder kept off the June 26 annual meeting agenda a
proposed resolution by Countryside Alliance member
Ian Alexander which would have asked RSPCA
members to agree that it is “a matter of serious public
concern and detrimental to the interests of the
society, the growing influence within the society of
persons with extreme views of animal rights.”
The resolution would further have asked
the RSPCA membership to “cease expenditure upon
politically motivated lobbying and advertising,”
and would have invited the British Charity
Commissions to address the “growing evidence of
intrusion by animal rights activists into the society.”

But Countryside Alliance supporters did
pack the annual meeting to the extent necessary to
defeat, 529 to 188, a Ryder resolution urging
Parliament to ban hunting with hounds.
Though claiming a much broader agenda,
the Countryside Alliance was formed three years
ago by foxhunters alarmed at the prospect that the
Labour government elected in 1997 might move on
a 1996 promise to ban foxhunting.
Disappointed that prime minister Tony
Blair dropped that pledge even before he was elected,
and has blocked a private member’s bill to halt
hunting with hounds, the Political Action Lobby
has reportedly given £50,000 to the Green Party to
help elect candidates to the European Parliament.
Founded by Brian Davies, who also founded the
International Fund for Animal Welfare, PAL gave
£1 million to Labour in 1996.