The wide scale persecution of badgers by hunts is revealed in new data seen by the Hunt Saboteurs Association.
Of the 3,405 incidents reported in the National Wildlife Crime Unit’s ‘Badger Related Incident Analysis Summary,’ over half (56.9%) relate to interference with badger setts, with the largest proportion of these incidents, around 270 (or 13.9%), attributed to hunts.
A further 11.3% of sett interference incidents are described as the blocking of setts, a practice routinely carried out by hunt terriermen ahead of a hunting day.
Sam Staniland, ex-huntsman of the Essex & Suffolk and Meynell & South Staffs Hunts, was sentenced on 10th April at Norwich magistrates court following his conviction on six charges of animal cruelty. Despite what judge Matthew Bone described as “depraved” and “frankly sadistic behaviour”, Staniland escaped the prison time he so richly deserved.
Mink hunting has its roots in the ancient summer bloodsport of otter hunting. In 1978, the otter was granted protected legal status, despite the best efforts of the hunting lobby.
A lot has been going on up in the Lake District. We’ve seen two well-established sab groups, Lancashire Hunt Sabs and Cumbria Hunt Sabs merging to form one super group: Lake District Hunt Sabs.
With the groups joining forces, we’ve seen more of the lesser known Cumbrian hunts receiving attention – packs like the Lunsdale Foxhounds, Coniston Foxhounds, North Cumberland Hunt and the Eskdale & Ennerdale Foxhounds are finding themselves regularly sabbed, along with hunts you may have already heard o such as the Blencathra Foxhounds and Melbreak Foxhounds. The Lake District has some of the most challenging terrain for sabbing. We asked the newly formed Lake District Hunt Sabs the reasons behind the two groups merging, and this is what they told us….
In yet another blow to the hunting lobby, two Somerset hunts – the Weston & Banwell/West Somerset Vale Hunt (W&BWSV) and the Taunton Vale Harriers – have been forced to merge in a desperate attempt to survive.
Members of the two hunts gathered at an Emergency General Meeting last Tuesday evening at the Fox and Goose Pub near Highbridge. They met to decide on their future and vote on an amalgamation with the neighbouring Taunton Vale Harriers.
On Saturday 15th March, West Midlands Hunt Saboteurs and Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs attended a Croome & West Warwickshire Hunt meet at Marshall’s Transport Ltd on Pershore Airfield, Throckmorton.
After hunting behind Evesham Crematorium – whilst a service was in progress – the hunt moved on north and the hounds were put into a barn at Middle Buildings which is part of Hill Court Farm. With the hounds hunting through the farm and the huntsman encouraging the hounds on, a Three Counties Hunt sab nearest to the farm radioed through to West Mids Hunt Sabs that they may have been on a fox and they quickly got the drone up and over the farm.
Warwickshire Hunt member Benjamin Halsall, 24, from Whatcote Road, Shipston- on-Stour, was yesterday found guilty of hunting a wild mammal with dogs after hounds were filmed killing a fox.
York Hunt Sabs sent the following report.
The notorious Middleton Hunt met at Woodside Farm Bed & Breakfast/Holiday cottages in Westow/Howsham on Wednesday 12th February.
Twenty years on from the birth of the Hunting Act, sabs are still defending wildlife.
The 18th of February marked the 20th anniversary of the hunting act coming into force, and even after all this time hunts up and down the country are still continuing as if it never happened.
The Two Bridges hunt club meet is an annual gathering of the four Dartmoor hunts (the Mid Devon, South Devon, Dartmoor, and Spooners & West Dartmoor) that grotesquely commemorates the anniversary of the Hunting Act.
This week sees the 20 th anniversary of the enactment of the Hunting Act, an occasion marked by a special report on BBC’s Countryfile programme.
Viewers were treated to the sight of a hunt sab, an MP, and Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman – National Police Lead for Hunting with Hounds – all agreeing that illegal fox hunting was ‘widespread’ under the current Act.
This video shows hounds from the Ross Harriers Hunt rioting through a private garden in Gloucestershire, illegally chasing a deer. The disturbing footage shows one of the hounds fitting, presumably after being run to exhaustion by the hunt. The concerned land owner tried to take the distressed animal to the vets for urgent treatment […]
On the 23rd of November a fox was killed by the Ledbury Hunt’s hounds.
The Cotswold Vale Fox Hunt killed a pregnant vixen on Tuesday 6th March this year. While the kill was not seen on film, monitors heard the fox scream and managed to make their way on to land afterwards in an attempt to find evidence of the kill. It all happened so fast that monitors believe […]
Couple of clips of the Blackmore & Sparkford Vale foxhunt on Michael Eavis’ land at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset from a couple of seasons ago. Doesn’t show them actually hunting (there aren’t many footpaths over his land to film from) but they did chase a fox over the main road outside the festival site causing […]
Seavington hunt – Pilsdon, Dorset. Huntsman about to lay pack onto a fox’s line but gets phone call warning him he’s being filmed and thinks better of it. This is 5 1/2 years after a ban on hunting with hounds..
Cattistock hunt cubhunting in Dorset 10th August 2010. 6am behind the kennels thinking they were away from prying eyes (& cameras). The gorse they drew was at Lankham Bottom nature reserve – a fox was put to ground and terriermen attempted to dig out. Later the hounds nearly caused chaos on the busy A37 Dorchester […]
8 1/2 minutes of horror to satisfy foxhunters’ bloodlust. Filmed in Ireland in 1986 by a friend of the hunt. A fox is put to ground, dug out, bagged in a sack and then thrown to the hounds alive. Hunts have always denied instances of ‘bagged foxes’, despite them being written about in less PR […]
Reported to the police on the day, supplied with video, they still can’t be arsed to do anything about hunting in Somerset. It took 9 weeks for them to just view the video! There is no Justice….Just Us!
