As we reported last week, several members of an HSA covert intelligence unit attended a number of West Country staghounds meets in Autumn 2025.
This report focuses on the Tiverton Staghounds who on each occasion were witnessed relentlessly hunting, brutal killing and ritually carving-up of mature, healthy stags.
As with the two other West Country stag hunts, the investigation revealed how the Tiverton Staghounds switch effortlessly between Hunting Act loopholes as and when they please. The team also saw how the Tiverton claim – absurdly – to be engaged in trail hunting, using a full pack of hounds and a large vehicle with ‘Trail Layer’ signage (whose exhaust fumes would quickly cover any trail if one was laid!)
The Tiverton Staghounds were regularly seen dragging a ‘trail’ along the line taken by the hunted stag after it had passed – as advised in the infamous Hunting Office webinars – they ensured that hunt supporters were on hand to video the hounds apparently hunting this ‘trail.’
But if this didn’t work, the Tiverton claimed that the stag was “injured” or use their followers like extra hounds to flush the poor animal out so he can be chased again. As with the other two stag hunting packs, the Tiverton simply switched at will between several different loopholes in the 2004 Hunting Act.
On 1st October last year, a prime rutting stag was hunted from a meet at Burches Cross, Templeton onto Witheridge Moor where he was chased to exhaustion and finally killed.
Just a week later, the Tiverton Staghounds were at Upcott Cross, Bishops Tawton where another mature stag was hunted so hard and for so long that his legs simply gave way beneath him. As soon as the stag was dead, his feet – known as “slots” in hunting parlance – were cut off and handed out as trophies or kept for use in hunt fundraising events.
This is not conservation or wildlife management – it is trophy hunting.
But the indignity visited on this stag was not over: the huntsman cut open the abdomen, allowing the hounds to eat the intestines straight from the body, with blood pooling across the grass where livestock graze. This practice exposes the countryside to biosecurity and bovine TB risks, including contamination by raw gut matter and organ material.
A set of fresh faces from the unit were back at the Tiverton Staghounds on 11th October 2025 at Cobbacombe Cross, Cove and witnessed them kill another healthy stag after a long, gruelling chase over the hills above Stoodleigh. As before the team witnessed the stag’s feet being “slotted” to be given out as trophies to the keenest hunt supporters.
To avoid suspicion, yet another new face attended the 18th October meet of the Tiverton Staghounds and witnessed further depravity. Their young victim – described on the day as “more of a springer” by sick hunt supporters – was hunted, turned, and driven for miles before being killed. ‘Turning’ involves hunt supporters screaming at the stag to force him away from areas where he might seek refuge from his tormentors. Their wretched victim was found in Knowstone Wood and ultimately killed at Nomansland but, crucially, the hunt was operating on Devon Wildlife Trust land during the chase. This is supposed to be a refuge for wildlife, not a playground for mounted hunts and marauding packs of hounds who are a law unto themselves.
The unit’s final visit – for now – was 27th October 2025 when the hunt met at Two Posts Cross, Pennymoor. This mature stag was killed at Cadleigh after yet another long, agonising chase. Once dead, he was dragged by the antlers, trussed up and then hung from the back of a quadbike in a final indignity.
Above all else, this investigation reveals how committed, extremist stag hunters are constantly adapting to evade accountability or charges: a ban on ‘trail hunting’ – though urgently needed – will not be enough in itself to stop these hardened hunters in their tracks.
Only our comprehensive set of proposals – based on over sixty years of sabotaging all types of bloodsports – will really end hunting with hounds.
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