A ‘can’t find’ image that pops up during aborted searches of Cambridgeshire police website is of a beagle – and that’s infuriated Camp Beagle supporters at Wyton near Huntingdon.
“A disgrace! Heartless!,” wrote one supporter on social media.
“Shame on you Cambridgeshire police! Why do they do their best to wind us up.”
The beagle on the Cambridgeshire Constabulary website comes with a ‘Sorry, we can’t find what you are looking for” message.
And unfortunately Cambridgeshire Police say there is little they can do about it.
In response to a tweet, they told me: “Thank you for your feedback, John. We do not have the ability to change the image to which you refer, as it is set by the website provider and will be standard across forces nationwide.”
I had tweeted: “Get a grip Cambridgeshire Police and change this asap. Accidentally ( ?) the use of a beagle in these circumstances is breathtakingly insensitive to Camp Beagle which you have spent tens of thousands ‘policing’.”
Another Camp Beagle supporter said: “Why use a beagle puppy for these “can’t find” posts. Simply awful.”
Earlier this week a Government minister accused supporters of the protest group Camp Beagle of “intimidation, direct action against staff doing their job and the criminal theft of animals”.
Sarah Dines, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, spoke for the Government, during a Parliamentary debate on Monday.
MPs were debating a petition signed by 102,000 people calling for commercial breeders of animal laboratories – such as MBR Acres at Wyton – to be banned.
