Wiltshire Police recently announced its new recruit to the Rural Crime team, Cheryl Knight. She has connections with two notorious hunts, and has posted photos of herself beagling with another hunt. Hunt saboteurs and campaigners are gearing up to protest her appointment, and they want you to join them.
You can read our detailed article on Knight and her connections to hunts here. Hunt saboteurs have highlighted her links to both the Beaufort Hunt and the Avon Vale Hunt. She has posted photos of herself on Facebook as a field rider for the Beaufort, and she has celebrated at least one of the Avon Vale’s notorious Boxing Day meets. Her support of the Avon Vale is particularly disturbing, given that the hunt is being investigated by her very own team for digging out foxes.
She has also posted numerous photos to her Facebook page of hunt staff and field riders from both hunts. On top of all this, one particular post shows Knight’s contempt for both working class people and foxes:
‘A smack in the teeth’
Wiltshire Hunt Sabs told Protect The Wild:
“Wiltshire Police has always had strong associations with the now-banned Avon Vale Hunt. Numerous police officers, MPs, and councillors aid and abet this wildlife crime, funding, riding and supporting this particular organised criminal gang.
The latest appointment of a fox hunting police officer – who has associations with the violent Avon Vale, as well as the prolific criminals at the Beaufort – into the Rural Crime Team, is a smack in the teeth to sabs who tirelessly and selflessly put their bodies in between the hunter and the hunted every single week. Some of those officers tasked with upholding the law are aiding and abetting the crimes of those that inflict unspeakable cruelty on our wildlife.”
Join the protest
Wiltshire Police has defended its recruitment of Knight into the Rural Crime Team, disregarding public concerns that the appointment breaches the police’s Code of Ethics, as well as the fact that it poses a conflict of interest in its investigation of the Avon Vale. And so hunt saboteurs and campaigners are organising a demonstration at Wiltshire Police’s headquarters, and they want you to join them.
Wiltshire Hunt Sabs said:
“We have had enough of police corruption. We are protesting to demand that this officer is removed from her post, and that the appointment is reviewed to ensure that never again will a police wildlife criminal be able to misuse their position to aid the crime of their hunt friends.”
Join Wiltshire Sabs at 1pm on Sunday 5 March at Wiltshire Constabulary headquarters to protest the appointment of Knight. For more details, see Wiltshire Sabs’ Facebook here.
Featured images via Facebook/Shutterstock
