According to the League Against Cruel Sports, many Waterloo Cup hares are brought from other parts of the country for the event.Hare coursing is among the most ancient of Britain’s “country sports”, with rules written by the Duke of Norfolk in Elizabethan times. I have set my sights on being actively recovered by late spring.”Today London Labour MP Tony Banks will introduce an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons expressing “disgust” at the Waterloo Cup. He will also call for the hare to be put on Schedule 6 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.Supporters believe this will hit the Waterloo Cup and similar events. But I had almost expected it to happen,” she said.”From day one, as I regained consciousness, I knew I wanted to continue. I think it is positively medieval,” said Mrs Moore, who as chairwoman of the Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe has staged a vigil outside the scene of the event at Altcar for the past 12 years.Last year the campaigner described as Spain’s most hated woman for her animal rights activities suffered multiple injuries, including 11 serious horn wounds, when a bull attacked her at the traditional Spanish event, in which bulls are run through the streets before being killed.She has undergone a series of operations but said yesterday she had no intention of giving up campaigning “I had a bit of what animals have to suffer all the time.

A lot of people who attend it come from the basest schools of animal cruelty – such as dog fighting and badger baiting, which are illegal. Posing with a 20ft-high inflatable hare, she described coursing, along with other blood sports, as “Roman arena sport”.”I have been thinking the issues through and can’t find any justification for hare coursing. There has been an 80 per cent reduction in the hare population since the early years of this century,” the former actress said. She is helping to organise protests against the three-day Waterloo Cup meeting at Altcar, Lancashire, which starts today.”Hare coursing is a particularly loathsome, cowardly thing.

JOJO MOYES

Animal rights campaigner Vicki Moore, who nearly died after being gored by a Spanish bull, yesterday joined the protest against Britain’s biggest hare coursing event.
Mrs Moore, 39, is still in a wheelchair after being attacked by an enraged bull at the Spanish Coria fiesta last June. His activities against his home country while in Britain – alleging corruption and calling for a transition to Islamic rule – have infuriated the Saudi royal family, who have threatened to withhold lucrative business deals.Britain stands to benefit by up to pounds 20bn from the al-Yamamah arms deal and British companies are major investors in the desert kingdom.. The Government has never actually considered his claim for refugee status, instead deciding earlier this year to send him to Dominica.Home Office ministers have acknowledged the deportation order was influenced by the need to maintain good relations with the Saudis. “I don’t think the police force have sufficient manpower and equipment to offer him long-term protection.”Cross-examining Mr O’Connor, Stephen Richards, counsel for the Home Office, said the Dominicans were angry about the arrangements between the two governments – his deportation had been alleged to be linked to aid and trade with the Caribbean island – and was not directed at Dr Masari personally.He accused Mr O’Connor of producing a “slanted” report directed to trying to show Professor Masari would be in danger and of “putting a gloss” on the situation on the island.But Mr O’Connor insisted: “My professional view is that he would be in danger.”Dr Masari has told the appeal how he was subject to six months of torture in detention in Saudi after setting up a dissident group On his release he fled to the UK in 1994, claiming asylum. “They would physically prevent him from leaving the aircraft and, if they couldn’t do that, physically prevent him from leaving the airport,” he said. “It was clear to me that fears were running high and there was a very volatile reaction to the notion that Professor Masari, in their words, was being `dumped in their country’,” he said.”Every single person I spoke to – every taxi driver, every person I spoke to in the bars – was against Professor Masari coming.”Mr O’Connor, who is director of London-based Europol Associates Limited, said there was talk of a violent demonstration – orchestrated by the opposition parties on the island – to meet him at the airport.

You could say it is waking up to the idea it can charge for everything – and will.”. HEATHER MILLS

Home Affairs Correspondent
Violent mobs will stop the Saudi dissident Muhammad Al-Masari entering Dominica if the Government persists with its plans to deport him to the Caribbean island, a court was told yesterday.John O’Connor, a former Scotland Yard Flying Squad commander and now a security consultant, said he believed Dr Masari – ordered out of Britain amid claims that the Government was protecting huge Saudi arms deals – would be in danger.Giving evidence on the third day of Dr Masari’s appeal against deportation, Mr O’Connor said he had visited the island to compile a security assessment. One publishing house told the Independent: “The plan is to shake every branch; however, in the shaking it looks like the small guys are going to drop off.”It is common practice for small publishing firms to deal direct with local WH Smith managers. A print run of 2,000-5,000 copies is typical for small guides, local history texts and local photography books. The sales director at another publishing house said: “Some of us will have a bit of sympathy with Smith’s They do devote space to local books. But like everything in publishing and retailing at the moment, they are looking for a good return, even from a few metres of shelving.”However, even the big houses will shortly feel the squeeze from WH Smith. As part of the company’s business review, free information from its shop tills, such as the current list of best selling texts, is to be stopped and replaced with a scale of charges up to pounds 500.One publishing manager said: “Every time WH Smith needs to go to its computer for information, we will be charged.