Catch up on recent news from the Hunt Saboteurs Association
In 2023, the UN released General Comment No. 26. This document updates the famous UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It explicitly states children must be kept safe from witnessing violence, including physical or psychological harm inflicted on animals. Yet every week across the UK children are taken out to participate in hunting, […]
The HSA has continually shared footage and information exposing the destruction and cruelty caused by the shooting industry. The extent of the persecution knows no bounds with badgers, foxes, corvids and all manner of wildlife being killed as the land is stripped of any natural balance just to appease those in tweed. So, as is […]
What is cubbing?Cub hunting or ‘cubbing’ is the highly secretive and illegal process by which new hounds are trained to hunt and kill foxes. Cubbing is visibly different from typical fox hunting as the hunt will appear to be more static, with much less riding across open country. As soon as crops have been harvested, […]
Guest post by Wiltshire Hunt Sabs: In July, after being alerted alerted to illegal practises at a local shoot, they paid a visit to the Stockton Shoot in Wiltshire and what they found was truly horrific – a bonfire full of dead charred birds, set next to the industrial sized operation.
With the current parliamentary reshuffles going on, the HSA shooting team takes a look at the influence of shooting interests in parliament in recent times. As has been widely covered in various HSA exposes, as well as by Animal Aid and more recently End Bird Shooting the pheasant and partridge shooting industry would struggle to […]
The Stowe School Beagles – dubbed “cruel and illegal” by Northamptonshire Police – have won a major prize at hunting’s showcase event, the Festival of Hounds.
In less than a few weeks the stag hunting season will begin, with the three remaining stag hunts in the south west, heading out to terrorise and kill mature autumn stags. This will continue until the end of October when they switch their sights to hinds. The autumn stag hunting season focuses on more mature […]
Recently, we highlighted a The Times article which exposed a plot by the current chair of the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA), Viscount William Waldorf Astor III, to “hoodwink” – or, to put it more plainly, deceive – government ministers over the forthcoming trail hunting policy. According to the uncovered plot, the proposal was to […]
Today the ever-shrinking hunting world will gather at the east of England Showground near Peterborough for their annual Festival of Hounds. For decades, this event was known as the Festival of Hunting but – as so often in the hunting world – language has been changed to hide their real intent. Fittingly, the Festival is now […]
HOWL – the magazine of the Hunt Saboteurs Association – has just hit the doormats of our thousands of members. As usual, it is packed with news from the front line in the fight against all blood sports. This forty-page edition is packed with articles on a huge range of topics including: the scourge of […]
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 […]
In March 2026 the BBC reported that ministers had declared a national emergency in response to the epidemic of violence against women and girls. The report also stated that “the UK government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.” Violence, misogyny and sexism have always been prominent within the hunting […]
The last few weeks have seen landmark court cases involving hare hunts, with the kennel huntsman of a private school beagle pack found guilty of illegal hunting after a hare was killed, and hunt sab’s footage securing the first ever conviction of a basset pack. The conviction of Phillip Kennedy, kennel huntsman of the Stowe […]
The recent rescue of a snared fox and caged corvid from a Larsen trap on a Wiltshire shooting estate, once again highlights the way in which wealthy interests are often prioritised over Britain’s already fragile biodiversity. The shooting industry often associated with wealthy landowners, the aristocracy and royalty (sometimes the plebs are allowed to join […]
Today, the HSA can exclusively reveal that Philip Kennedy, recently convicted kennel huntsman of the Stowe Beagles, is the son of Steve Kennedy, the longtime secretary of the Coniston Foxhounds, the fell pack at the centre of the country’s largest-ever investigation into illegal foxhunting. This revelation explains why the Stowe Beagles have made so many […]
As reported in The Times hunt leaders – including British Hound Sports Association (BHSA) Chair, father-in-law to ex-PM David Cameron – Viscount Astor, are plotting to hoodwink the government into making small changes to the types of scent used by so-called ‘trail’ hunts, enabling ministers to ‘claim victory’ without introducing the comprehensive legislation that would ensure an end to hunting wildlife with dogs.
On the 9th of June 2026, two members of the South Shropshire Hunt (now called the Shropshire Hunt), William Hand and Toby Holley, appeared at Telford Magistrates Court accused of interfering with a badger sett contrary to section 3 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. Previously Dave Conde, another terrierman for the hunt, pleaded guilty […]
After countless hours of footage showing foxes being hunted, chased and killed, Avon & Somerset Police have finally taken action, charging three members of the Beaufort Hunt with illegal hunting offences.
Charlie Ford, huntsman of the Devon & Somerset Bassets, was found guilty of a Hunting Act offence at Weymouth Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 18 June 2026.This is the first time a basset pack has been convicted under the Hunting Act. The offence occurred on the 13th of October 2024 at Mullins Farm in Bagber. North […]
One of the many disturbing aspects of the recent drone video that led to the conviction of Stowe Beagles Kennel Huntsman Philip Kennedy is the way that he and others gloat over the hounds ripping the hare to pieces. This was an aspect of the video noted by Northamptonshire Police Rural Crime Team who commented: […]
