As we reported two weeks ago, members of a covert HSA intelligence unit attended a number of West Country staghound meets in Autumn 2025.
Last week we exposed the Tiverton Staghounds; today we focus on the Devon & Somerset, who were infiltrated back in September 2025.
Like the two other stag hunts, the Devon & Somerset routinely switch between different loopholes as required, but they chiefly rely on the ‘Research and Observation’ exemption of the Hunting Act. This states that two dogs can be used if:
“the hunting is undertaken for the purpose of or in connection with the observation or study of the wild mammal.”
In a competitive field, this is surely the most outrageous claim of any hunt in the country. The stomach-churning spectacle of the Devon & Somerset Staghounds pursuing stags with relays of two hounds, together with a gang of screaming thugs on quad bikes, is about as far from scientific research as it is possible to get. Indeed, in the two decades the pack has been exploiting this exemption only one – yes, one – piece of supposedly scientific ‘research’ has been produced.
An operative from the covert unit attended the Simonsbath meet on 30th August 2025 to witness the brutal hunting and killing of a fine Exmoor stag. Supporters were keen to point out that this very animal had been hunted to exhaustion just a few days before by the Tiverton Staghounds. No doubt broken by that earlier pursuit, the stag was easy prey for the Devon & Somerset Staghounds.
A week later, other members of the unit were back at the Devon & Somerset to witness another healthy, mature stag be hunted to exhaustion and killed. This animal should have been entering the rut – leading a herd, passing on strong genetics, and playing his role in a stable ecosystem. Instead, he was run for ‘sport’, surrounded, and killed so the hunt could celebrate another killing in what one supporter called their “best season ever.”
As at the Tiverton, our operatives witnessed the ritual butchering of dead stags, with the huntsman ripping open the abdomen so the hounds could gorge on the intestines.
Once again, this investigation revealed how determined, 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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