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With the official start of the hare hunting season just a few weeks away, news reaches the HSA that the Sandhurst & Aldershot Beagles – unaffectionately known as ‘SAB’- are no more. This is excellent news for local lagomorphs as the Sandhurst had a reputation as fast, effective pack who killed a lot of hares.
The season so far.
The stag hunting season has only been underway for just over a month and already stags in the Southwest of England have been subjected to abhorrent levels of cruelty and pain by the stag hound packs, who, for over twenty years have hidden behind loopholes such as ‘Research & Observation’.
Since the Devon & Somerset Staghounds official opening meet on the 30th August multiple stags have been terrorised and killed. A common tactic by stag hunt supporters is to use their vehicles to block roads, preventing stags from seeking respite or escaping, and the 30th August was no different, as followers prevented a group of stags from crossing the B2332 in Ashcombe and again at Simonsbath. Despite fifty car followers being present, it was clear that support for this barbaric hunt is dwindling with a noticeable decrease in both riders and car followers for their opening meet. Thankfully on this day a combination of poor weather, sab pressure and another stag from the herd creating a diversion, meant that the hunts chosen stag escaped on this occasion.
For decades, Bath Hunt Sabs have been on the front lines against hunting. Let’s take a look back at their history.
The HSA is delighted to hear that pro-hunting lobby group the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA) is to waste more of its member’s time and money by holding another ‘National Trail Hunting Day’ on Friday 10th October. The HSA thoroughly enjoyed reporting on last year’s expensive and pointless fiasco, where packs laid on a highly […]
On Saturday (6th September) hunt sabs shut down the Three Counties Mink Hounds in Warwickshire.
Sabs from the Nottingham, Severn Vale, Three Counties and West Midlands groups mobilised after receiving intel that the hunt would be meeting at Whitehouse Farm, Aston Cantlow in Warwickshire – the home of former hunt master, Mark Allen.
The hunt was stopped in their tracks less than half an hour after they started, moving south along the River Alne.
All charges have been dropped against members of Severn Vale Hunt Saboteurs who were arrested back in January 2025 as they prevented illegal hunting by the Radley College Beagles near Faringdon in Oxfordshire. Severn Vale sabs – who specialise in disrupting hare-hunting beagle and basset packs – arrived in the vicinity of Pidnell Farm near […]
It was the will-they, won’t-they, on-off relationship that had the nation gripped for months, but the HSA can exclusively reveal that the Herefordshire-based Ross Harriers have walked out on hunting’s regulatory body, the British Hound Sports Association.
Our annual campaign to disrupt the high-profile ‘Glorious 12th’ – the opening day of the gamebird shooting season – every August targeting the grouse moors of the north of England has been immensely successful. Many shoots now deliberately schedule opening meets later in the week and beyond to avoid us. However, today is where the […]
As the government’s consultation on so-called ‘trail hunting’ edges ever closer, the increasingly desperate Countryside Alliance have launched a scheme where new members can nominate a hunt to receive fifty pounds from CA coffers.
This week has seen sabs across the country out in force while most people are still asleep. For many hunts, the cubbing season has now started. Sab groups have been keeping an eye on their local hunts and have reported that many of them, who would usually still be ‘hound exercising’, are instead now surrounding coverts and sending their hounds in to kill foxes. The early start to the cubbing season has come about largely due to farmers harvesting their crops early, as well as a sense amongst the hunting community that this could very well be their last season if Labour stick to their manifesto pledge to ban ‘trail hunting’.
Avian Influenza has been a significant problem in the UK since 2021 and it’s no coincidence that the latest outbreak comes as the shooting industry gears up for the pheasant and partridge shooting seasons. In August 2022 the HSA revealed shocking undercover footage of gamebirds being reared at Shelford Pheasantries in Newark on Trent. The appalling conditions at the farm failed to comply with DEFRA’s own Code of Practice for the Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purposes.
Cubbing – the sick form of hunting used to train their new hounds – is already underway in parts of the country. Cubbing takes place in the early morning or late afternoon when the summer day is cooler, and the scenting conditions are better for inexperienced hounds.
Last Saturday, Devon County Hunt Sabs were tipped off about an evening cubbing meet of the Eggesford Hunt at Ingleigh Green.
A large contingent of sabs from across the country saved the lives of hundreds of red grouse today on the ‘Glorious Twelfth’, as shoots were stopped in the Forest of Bowland and the Yorkshire Dales.
There is never a dull moment as Hunt Sab groups across Britain continue to confront illegal hunting and wildlife abuse in the fields and in the courts. July was no different. Mid-summer is also the time where many of us can find some time to fundraise to support our operations for the rest of the year….and manage to have a little fun at the same time. Here’s a round-up of what’s been going on out there this month.
August has arrived and with it, the start of the heinous Autumn Staghunting season, which is the trophy hunting portion of the stag hunters’ “sport”. From August to November they target mature rutting stags, royal stags or greater, in the prime of their lives, forcing them to now run for their lives but hampered by their impressive spreads of antlers and heavy body condition following their summer feeding. They are not well adapted to long chases and with so many supporters eyes watching, there is nowhere for them to hide and recover.
“In order to get young hounds trained to hunt they start hunting in the very early morning or evening once the harvest is clear usually in August or September. They are accompanied only by invitation of the Master for this beagling equivalent of the foxhunter’s cub-hunting.” – An Introduction To Beagling by Iain Clarke
A guest article by Devon County Hunt Sabs. Includes video footage of a dig out.
A few weeks ago we were informed by Devon & Cornwall Police that their investigation into one of several incidents we reported last season had concluded. The outcome is that Eggesford Hunt’s Danny Pearce has received a caution for interfering with a protected badger sett and using a terrier to dig out and kill a fox on land he and the hunt had no permission to be on. Pearce is a gamekeeper for Lord Stucley’s Affeton Estate, which also hosts the criminal Eggesford Hunt.
The Decline of the Hunt Uniform
In the Deeply Conservative World of Hunting, What You Wear Matters. the Traditional Dress Code Is Highly Fetishized, with Hunters Agonising over the Correct Number and Position of Buttons That Should Adorn the Hunt Coat. Having a Ribbon on the Back of Your Hunting Cap Is a Serious Offence That Could Get You Sent Home Unless You Are Master or Huntsman and Ladies Should on No Account Combine Jodhpurs with Ratcatcher. You Get the Picture.
Mink hunting with packs of hounds started in the late 1970s. It has its roots in the summer bloodsport of otter hunting, which also took place across the country’s water courses during the summer months.
As we settle in for a long, hot summer the Hunt Saboteurs Association is launching a new T shirt in a very cool camouflage design.
