With many hunts having their opening meets last Saturday and the remainder due to meet this coming November 2nd , the HSA is today releasing the second of three videos – filmed by hunters – showing the cruel and illegal practice of ‘bolting.’
The video opens with a group of hunters and hounds gathered on a distant hillside. At least one hunt terrierman can be seen banging a stick or spade on the ground – a common technique for frightening a fox into bolting from their underground refuge.
As the terrified fox breaks downhill, the pack are immediately unleashed and the huntsman ‘doubles’ his horn – blowing a series of staccato notes – to encourage the hounds in their pursuit. The cameraperson then tracks the progress of the hunt, picking up a gaggle of ghoulish thugs jostling for a view of the fox’s suffering.
The fate of the fox is unknown.
Far away from the sanitised spectacle that was presented by hunters at ‘Smokescreen Saturday’ events last month, this video shows the grim reality behind so-called trail hunting. In fact, this activity would not even have been permitted in the dark days before the passing of the Hunting Act. Back then, Masters of Fox Hounds Association ‘Conduct of Hunting’ rules stated that:
“In any bolting operation: (a) hounds must first be taken out of sight and out of hearing; (b) the fox when bolted must be given a fair chance of escape before hounds are laid on.”
Yes, as we saw with the recent Avon Vale Hunt videos, today’s hunters don’t even follow the rules from when hunting was legal twenty years ago, never mind being trusted with the current Hunting Act!
An HSA spokesperson commented:
“Apart from open criminality shown in the video, what comes across here is the perverted enjoyment taken in the foxes’ suffering. This footage was taken as a sick trophy, and we believe it was repeatedly shared in pro-hunt WhatsApp groups before being passed to the HSA. With hunts up and down the country beginning yet another season of illegal fox hunting, the new Labour government must act now on its manifesto commitment to ban the smokescreen of trail hunting.”
Please use the links below to write to your MP and Environment Secretary Steve Reed to tell them to ban the smokescreen of ‘trail hunting’ that allows horrific events like these to continue and to end terrierwork.