The Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt (BSV) have just racked up a total of eighteen convictions in three years. The latest is the conviction of regular rider Fred Ford, who during a cubbing meet last year, pinned a female sab to a gate while she was trying to access a footpath. While the sab was on the phone to the police Ford continued to tighten his grip on her, until another saboteur was able to intervene.
Ford was found guilty of the assault by beating at South Somerset Magistrates Court and was ordered to pay £660 plus £650 costs and £264 victim surcharge. A total of £1574.
The Fords are no strangers to criminal convictions as Fred’s son is none other than Charlie Ford, the huntsman for the Dorset and Somerset Bassetts. Only a few weeks ago Charlie was found guilty of illegally hunting a hare thanks to footage obtained by North Dorset Hunt Sabs.
On the 20th of August 2025 BSV huntsman George Pierce pleaded guilty to Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) and assault by beating. These charges were brought after George deliberately rode his horse into a sab causing a broken toe and extensive soft tissue damage. Three days later the same sab approached the hunt as hounds were marking a fox to ground in a badger sett and Pierce stamped on their foot, thankfully not the injured one. Pierce was ordered to pay a total of £1099.
This wasn’t Pierce’s first conviction, as along with three other members of the BSV, he was found guilty of hunting a wild mammal with dogs, in breach of the Hunting Act. This conviction came on the 9th of April 2025, sixteen months after the fox was killed at Pelsham Farm.
The other culprits were whipper in Conall McGrath along with Andrew and Freddie Osbourne who are terriermen for the hunt. Drone footage obtained by North Dorset Hunt Sabs shows the sickening lengths they went to, to kill this fox. The terriermen used torches to peer into the foxes hiding place, whilst Pierce and McGrath actively encouraged hounds on, only stopping them from tearing the fox apart when they noticed the drone overhead.
In August 2024 rent a thug Shane Cooper was issued with a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) by Dorset Rural Crime Police. Cooper pleaded guilty to assault and theft following an incident in September 2023 whereby he attacked hunt saboteurs and stole their equipment. Weymouth Animal Rights stated that Cooper and a group of other thugs targeted a female sab and attacked her from behind, knocking her to the ground and stealing her camera and radio. Another sab was attacked and beaten with a thick branch and had their body camera and radio stolen.
After a three-week trial, on the 4th of April 2024, committee member and rider Charlie Mayo was unanimously found guilty of Actual Bodily Harm (ABH). The attack which took place in December 2021 resulted in a North Dorset Hunt Sab receiving hospital treatment after Mayo struck them over the back of the head with the bone end of his whip.
The Mayo’s are notorious for their love of violence and cruelty, as Hunt Master and father Anthony Mayo and Charlie’s brother Henry both ride with the BSV. Furthermore, Charlie’s other brother Harry filmed a sickening video of the Avon Vale Hunt digging a fox out of a badger sett and throwing it to hounds.
The BSV’s convictions are made up of an array of offences;
This list of convictions provides an extensive picture of the spectrum of violence involved in hunting. These are organised crime groups who will go to any lengths to chase and kill foxes, while all the time claiming they’re a ‘trail’ hunt.
The BSV alone are the perfect example of a hunt who cannot keep up the pretense of ‘trail’ hunting and whose continuous criminality completely contradicts anything the Countryside Alliance or British Hounds Sports Association says. And when married with the behaviour of hunts all over the rest of the country it is screamingly clear.
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