ANIMAL welfare campaigners have accused police of wasting taxpayers' money after 18 officers were sent to watch two people protesting over a duck shoot.

The North West League Against Cruel Sports claimed the officers in seven police vehicles were joined by an undercover surveillance team to monitor them for eight hours at the Hoghton Tower duck shoot on Saturday.

Campaigners said they agreed with police in September that only two of protesters would turn up to legally observe the shoot.

They accused Lancashire police of wasting resources over the weekend and said when they phoned police headquarters to complain of intimidation they were told that resources were so stretched that no officer was available to come to the phone.

Gregg Metcalfe, co-ordinator and spokes-person for the league, was one of the campaigners at the shoot.

He said: "It is no wonder that police resources were stretched on Saturday - they had 18 officers sat in a field watching us.

"Lancashire Police were told at a meeting in September that we had only allocated two monitors to the shoot.

"The police's response - and not for the first time - was a blatant waste of police resources and not in the public's interest.

"It simply highlights the undue influence shooters from Hoghton Tower have.

"We had reached a mutual understanding and agreement which would safeguard both the rights of the shooters and animal welfare monitors in September, but when we turned up they were very confrontational with us.

"They kept saying what are you planning? And I just replied the same as we agreed in September.

"We were not there to protest or try to stop the shoot. We were there to film it for our website to raise awareness about how cruel killing ducks and pheasants is and also to make the public aware of how many shoots take place at Hoghton Tower."

Police confirmed that 18 officers attended.

Supt Dawn Copley, operations manager for Southern Division said: "The police were present to ensure that there was no breach of the peace, to allow those who wished to exercise their right to protest to do so and to allow the shoot to take place. The pollicing operation was a success."