Controversies
In the late 1980s, League Executive Director Richard Course was fired from the League after he expressed views divergent from the League's mission. He had begun to spend some time with the mounted fox hunts as an outgrowth of his work. After a period of time talking with professional wildlife managers and hunt supporters, he concluded that: "I find it repugnant that some people will kill another living creature for recreational purposes" but said that the dogs easily outpace the fox within a minute or two and kill it within a second or two and that how the fox is located is "totally irrelevant" to animal welfare considerations. James Barrington assumed Course's position within the League. Barrington later resigned stating that he concluded that an absolute ban on hunting was not in the best interests of animal welfare; he later joined the Countryside Alliance as an Animal Welfare Consultant. Barrington admits that he did not fully understand hunting and therefore could not fully condemn it. Furthermore it seemed to him that some of the league took their fight against hunting to a personal level.
Read more about this topic: League Against Cruel Sports