Some People Need a Whipping

Animal Rights people seem to routinely go off the deep end. This crowd has gone so far as to kidnap journalists and torture them, burn down building complexes, jab horses with sharp pins in order to throw their riders (see what happens next in the picture above), and "liberate" chickens back to the wild.

Perhaps the most outrageous thing ever atempted, however, occured when two anti-hunt campaigners tried to dig up the remains of the 83-year old Duke of Beaufort who had died 10 months earlier. Their intent was to cut off his head and send it to his friend, Princess Anne, but they were thwarted in their efforts when their shovel broke.

They were caught when their parents turned them in (23 years old and living at home!), and they were given two years in prison where we can only hope they were treated like chimpanzees in a gorilla cage.

The Guardian (London), June 6, 1986
Grave Raid Thwarted by Broken Shovel
Two men accused of plot to disinter the Duke of Beaufort

Members of an anti-hunting group plotted to open the grave of the Duke of Beaufort and send his head to Princess Anne, it was claimed at Bristol Crown Court yesterday.

But their Boxing Day raid on the hunting duke's burial plot at Badminton Parish Church, Avon, failed when they were only 10 inches from the coffin because a shovel broke, claimed Mr Ian
Glen, prosecuting.

Instead, the group painted slogans in the churchyard and stole a temporary wooden cross marking the grave of the duke, who had been buried about 10 months earlier.

Two alleged members of the raiding party are on trial at Bristol. They deny charges of conspiracy to disinter the duke, conspiracy to damage the grave and theft of the cross on December 26, 1984.

The judge, Mr Justice Hutchison has ruled that the young people, one from London and one from the West Midlands, should not be identified.

Mr Glen claimed that the pair were members of the Hunt Retribution Squad, which aimed to open the grave, scatter parts of the duke's body on the edge of his estate and send the head to Princess Anne - whom they described as a 'fellow blood junkie'.

The tenth duke, who died aged 83, was a close friend of the Queen and the master of the Beaufort Hunt. He also founded the Badminton horse trials.

Mr Glen said that after the raid the squad sent photographs and a press release to the Press Association, Britain's national news agency.

The press release warned of possible violent action against a number of other people associated with hunting, including the Royal Family, football manager Jackie Charlton, football presenter Jimmy Hill, the actress Jane Seymour, the leader of the House of Lords, Lord Whitelaw, and the then Defence Secretary, Mr Michael Heseltine.

The pictures showed three masked figures holding the stolen cross and digging tools - and two of the figures were identified by their parents as the accused.

The mother of the London-based defendant told the jury that she became suspicious after finding her son, his co-accused, and two other people watching a video recording of the TV coverage of the raid four or five times.

She alerted police, who raided his flat.

When shown a photograph of masked figures with the cross from the grave in court she said she could identify her son.

The father of the West Midlands man said in a statement read to the court that he recognised his son in a photograph sent to the Press Association from the long forehead and eyes.

The trial continues.