Know Your Enemy

"They have no statutory responsibility, yet when their inspectors turn up in uniform it’s as a private organisation. There is something rather sinister and nasty about it. Why should they, just because they are rich, tell us how to behave towards animals?"

A classic case of pot calling kettle black, as the head of the pro-bloodsports Countryside Alliance attacks the RSPCA for the heinous crime of becoming more focused on animal rights than on animal welfare. (I'd have thought they were much the same thing, but apparently not.)

In an interview with the Torygraph, he also complained about the bias shared by politicians and the BBC, who caricature the countryside "as a place where people wear posh wellies and drive 4x4s". Given he's called Gen Sir Barney White-Spunner and is pictured wearing a gilet and toff's flat cap, he hardly does the Countryside Alliance's public image many favours.

Needless to say, the Torygraph lends a sympathetic ear to his complaints and criticisms, making a point of noting that he is "a former commanding officer of the Household Cavalry who served in Iraq and Afghanistan", as if that means his argument should carry any more weight...