Last Wednesday, the HSA published harrowing drone footage – shot by heroic Lake District Hunt Sabs – of the Coniston Foxhounds digging out a fox and ripping her to pieces. At least seven people have been arrested as a result.
Today we can reveal that a key representative from the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA), the organisation that supposedly regulates and advocates for legal hunting, was present on the day.
Lake District Hunt Sabs filmed ex-Coniston huntsman Michael Nicholson at the meet. He was equipped with a pair of powerful binoculars around his neck, allowing him to closely follow the activities of the hounds on the fells.
The HSA understands that Nicholson sits on the BHSA National Board as the representative for the Central Committee of Fell Packs (CCFP), the organisation that oversees the seven fell packs which hunt on foot across Cumbria. In this role, he helps shape national BHSA policy and shares a table with such luminaries as former Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace and hereditary peer Viscount William Astor.
The presence of this individual only reinforces what the HSA has been saying for years: the BHSA is not a legitimate regulatory body. Indeed, the BHSA is simply a rebrand of the notorious Hunting Office, the organisation that collapsed following the HSA’s publication of leaked webinars that proved that trail hunting is a ‘smokescreen’ designed to conceal illegal hunting.
Lake District Hunt Saboteurs are working hard to identify all the individuals present and complicit in the revolting torture and killing of the fox a week last Saturday.
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