Catch up on recent news from the Hunt Saboteurs Association
WARNING: DISTRESSING IMAGES Here at HSA Towers, we try to keep our web posts positive – whether it’s celebrating our crucial role in the webinar trial, shutting down a beagling festival or announcing that yet another hunt has folded. But sometimes, the news from the hunting field is so unremittingly grim that we struggle to […]
It’s the video that’s been viewed more than seven million times and appeared on news websites in Australia, Africa, and the Americas. But now, for the first time, the Hertfordshire Hunt Sab who caught pony-puncher Sarah Moulds on camera speaks to the Hunt Saboteurs Association. “We were parked up at the Drift, Gunby, during second horsing and saw […]
With all the success we’ve been having following the conviction of leading foxhunter Mark Hankinson, it’s easy to forget that Scotland’s ten mounted fox hunts and several footpacks are unaffected by the judgment. Scottish fox hunts operate under the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 – a different law to that used in England […]
This brand new photobook details the inspiring history of the Hunt Saboteurs Association, from our formation in late 1963 all the way up to the present day. With many fascinating photographs and extensive text celebrating the actions of everyone throughout the years who took (and continues to take) direct action against bloodsports, this book is […]
The National Trust have permanently banned hunting on their land following their AGM held in Harrogate today. This was the first chance for the trust’s 5.6 million members to vote on hunting since 2017, when the board used discretionary proxy votes to defeat a motion calling for a ban. Accusations of unfairness followed, with members […]
This week hunt saboteurs from across the country have shut down a major hare hunting event in Northumberland. Monday saw over sixty sabs storm into the meet near the remote village of Ingram. Sabs then immediately blockaded the exit route to prevent them hunting elsewhere. A day-long standoff then ensued with the hound van eventually […]
Over the last few weeks, the HSA has confirmed that a further three hunts have folded this summer. The Eastern Counties Minkhounds, who hunted the rivers of Essex and Suffolk, threw in the towel after being consistently sabbed for several years. They have also faced allegations from their own side that they were targeting otters as well as mink. […]
Now that the champagne-induced delirium has started to wear off, it’s time to absorb the full scale of the defeat that was inflicted on fox hunting last Friday. Mark Hankinson – Britain’s leading fox hunter – wasn’t just found guilty, he and the whole hunting world had the book thrown at them by Deputy Chief […]
Master of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) director Mark Hankinson has been found guilty of encouraging others to break the Hunting Act following a three day trial at Westminster Magistrates Court. The court case came about after the HSA exposed online webinars run by the Hunting Office in August last year. The webinars evidence a nationwide conspiracy by hunters […]
The Hunt Saboteurs Association stands in solidarity with Chris Packham whose home was struck by arsonists last Friday night. This latest attack – believed to be the work of hunting or shooting extremists – is just the latest escalation of a terror campaign against Chris and his family. Previous incidents have included death threats and […]
A gamekeeper has been caught trapping birds of prey on a pheasant shoot in Shropshire. Two traps were found in mid-September in woodland near the village of Chelmarsh, just south of Bridgnorth. Footage passed to the HSA shows two homemade wooden traps, both baited with dead pheasants and located inside a pheasant release pen. Shockingly, […]
For seven years between 1903 and 1910, the UK was gripped and divided over the issue of the use of animals in medical research. This energy was triggered by the plight of one particular animal, a large brown dog who was reputed to have been spectacularly ill-treated for the purposes of a university medical lecture at University College […]
And so it begins… cub hunting, the disgusting and illegal practice of training new foxhounds to kill fox cubs, is now in full swing across the country. Hunts ride out very early in the morning – when fox scent is strongest – and surround woods or fields with riders to ensure foxes and cubs have […]
Since 2013 the Conservative Government and the National Farmers Union have spearheaded a policy that has led to the barbaric deaths of 140,830 badgers, an almost unimaginable figure. In 2020 alone more than 40,000 badgers were killed in 54 cull zones from Cornwall to Cumbria and from Lincolnshire to Cheshire. Almost the entire South West […]
Background to Beagling There are around 60 packs of beagles in the UK that hunt the brown hare for ‘sport’. Beagles hunt the scent of the hare and kill the poor animal by wearing it down over time. The beagles are followed on foot, so there are no horses involved. Beagling should not be confused […]
In a recent edition of the hunt sab magazine HOWL, we outlined a brief history of the Eastern Counties Mink/Otter hounds (ECMH), and efforts to sabotage them. If that could have been summarised as ‘the rise and fall of the ECMH’ then we’d probably need to entitle this one ‘The fall and fall of the […]
Over 100 hunt sabs have disrupted multiple grouse shoots in the Yorkshire Dales on the prestigious opening day of the grouse shooting season. Despite repeated claims in the media that shoots were either delaying or cancelling their seasons due to low grouse counts we knew that many of them still wouldn’t be able to resist the urge […]
The HSA can reveal that over 24 million pheasants and partridges were imported to the UK in 2020. Shockingly, 24,372,048 of these birds were shipped to shooting estates across the UK last year, despite the national lockdowns severely curtailing much of the shooting season. Factory farms across Europe, in which these ‘gamebirds’ suffer in tiny […]
From the late summer harvest onwards, as soon as local conditions allow, until the beginning of the “season” for fox hunting, hunts will be engaged in cub hunting as often as they are able. For some packs this could be every single day and is a side of hunting very rarely seen by the public […]
Exeter Magistrates’ Court this week heard the verdict in the trial of two terriermen of the Eggesford Hunt. Nathan Bowes and Seward Folland stood trial on 5 and 6 July 2021 for unlawfully interfering with a badger sett. Exeter court today found the pair guilty on all counts. The incident took place on 23 November […]
