Exclusive: Charity conducting ‘campaign of harassment’ against sites that raise money for hunts

An anti-hunting charity has been accused of bullying in a “campaign of harassment” against auction sites used to raise money for hunts and hounds.

The League Against Cruel Sports has been reported to the Charity Commission for “demanding with menaces” that a fundraising platform cut ties with legally registered hunts. The regulator was assessing the complaint, a spokesman said.

After a previous campaign against hunt sponsors, the commission “reminded” the League of its responsibilities as a charity.

But in the latest targeted action, the League and its supporters have sent more than 2,600 emails to Jumblebee, an online fundraising site, warning it to stop allowing hunts to use the platform.

Activists also waged a social media campaign and within four hours Jumblebee deleted its Twitter account, which the League said that it could “only assume” was due to “sheer volume of tweets”.

The League has also targeted the website’s customers and a number of small businesses, claiming any links will damage their reputation.

After the auction site deleted its Twitter account, the League reminded members that they could still email the Jumblebee.

It accused the site of “facilitating… the brutal killing of wildlife” after Jumblebee hosted the International Hounds Show, which raised more than £81,000, and separate auctions for 18 hunts, which raised over £120,000.

The League boasts on its website that five other auction sites have already capitulated to its demands.

Charity has used similar tactics before

Tim Bonner, head of the Countryside Alliance, has written to Helen Stephenson, the regulator’s chief executive, asking for her to take immediate action.

He warned that the League had been “openly running a campaign of harassment targeting businesses connected to registered hunts which operate perfectly legitimately and properly”.

Jumblebee, which raises funds for good causes including charities and schools, has been a particular target and League supporters had been “demanding with menaces that it stop providing a service for hunt businesses”, the letter explained.

It is not the first time that the League has used this tactic, after it contacted corporate sponsors of the West Vale Hunt in Somerset in 2011.

At the time, the Charity Commission said it had “raised the issue with the charity and reminded them that any activity carried out in their name must be in accordance with the charity’s aims. We have also referred the charity trustees to the commission’s guidance on trustees’ roles and responsibilities”.

Mr Bonner told the Sunday Telegraph: “Given the League have already been reprimanded in the past for falling short of the strict guidance in place which governs how a charity must conduct itself, it would only be right for their latest bullying antics to be met with swift action by the Charity Commission.

“Threatening businesses in the way they have is blatantly unbecoming of a charity and a failure by the commission to act robustly will undermine what being a charity in Britain means today”.

Andy Knott, the League’s chief executive, hit back against the complaints, saying that it was “our duty to urge them to remove these questionable organisations from a platform that otherwise helps worthy causes raise vital funds”.

He added: “It is completely in line with our charitable objectives to alert the public to companies that profit from the suffering of animals in the name of ‘sport’ and perhaps the best example of this is our campaign to stop airlines advertising flights for UK tourists to watch bullfighting in Spain.”

A Charity Commission spokesman said: “We can confirm that concerns have been raised with us about League Against Cruel Sports. We are assessing those concerns to determine what, if any, role there is for us as regulator. We cannot comment further at this time.”

Jumblebee did not respond to a request for comment.