“There’s A Brace!” – Avon Vale Hunt Filmed Throwing Two Foxes To Hounds

In Part 1 ‘Artificial Earths; A Year-Round Deception’, we covered the Spring and Summer months, which included the hunt’s preparation work out of season, and the rearing of fox cubs ready for the new hunting season. In Part 2, we will cover the use of artificial earths during the autumn and winter months, which coincides with the hunting season.

A barn full of old folks in bright waistcoats? A verge full of Sabs in their new black spring outfits? Mink hunt sabbing must be underway!

Last Saturday, multiple sab groups mobilised to disrupt the final meet of the Devon & Somerset Staghounds on Exmoor. While several deer were saved, sabs were unable to prevent the death of one stag who was hunted to exhaustion.

Following Channel 4’s recent national news coverage of the infamous ‘secret protocol’ between Warwickshire Police and the Warwickshire Hunt – together with a looming General Election and a stronger ban in Scotland – the enforceability of the Hunting Act for local police forces has very much been a hot topic.

Glasgow Hunt Saboteurs report on their first season under new hunting law in Scotland.

Last week, sabs from North Dorset spent three consecutive days in Bournemouth Crown Court giving evidence and victim statements. On Thursday 4th April, a jury unanimously found Charlie Mayo, a member of the Blackmore & Sparkford Vale Hunt (BSV), guilty of Actual Bodily Harm.

The use of artificial earths by hunts has been well documented by the Hunt Saboteurs Association. This is the practice of building underground chambers for foxes and in particular fox cubs, so that the hunt can keep a regular supply of quarry to hunt. Like so many other hunting traditions, this did not stop when hunting with hounds was banned in 2005.

With the fox and hare hunting now ending for the season, a hardcore of bloodsports enthusiasts are about to take to watercourses to follow their summer hunts, and hunt sabs are poised to stop them!