BLOG: Obviously, but we all know “Sir” Mark won’t despite video evidence of him whipping an uncooperative horse. With Kurt Zouma’s cat abuse still fresh in our memories, this begs the question, should sports personalities lose more over their treatment of animals?

INVESTIGATION: Jumping up and down on a dead cow, repeatedly running over another, and bins of rotting carcasses left open to wildlife and the elements - all these are just some of the shocking scenes revealed by covert investigators.

A new animation narrated by Chris Packham and released by the campaign group Keep the Ban aims to raise awareness of so-called ‘trail hunting’, exposed last year by hunt saboteurs as a subterfuge for illegal fox hunting in the UK.

The Northern Ireland Assembly has voted against a bill that would have made hunting with dogs illegal in line with the rest of the UK, leaving animal protection campaigners “staggered”.