Double Trouble For Hunters As HSA Summer Campaign Continues

The Hunt Saboteurs Association summer campaign continues, with hunters hit in the East Midlands and East Anglia at the weekend.

In Derbyshire, Notts and Staffs Hunt Sabs found the Dove Valley Mink Hounds hunting the River Derwent at Draycott. Horn calls gave the location of the hunt away, and once sabs were on the scene the traditional ‘walk of shame’ to pack up followed.

Despite most of these packs claiming to follow ‘trails’ or ‘hunt rats’ since the Hunting Act came in nearly 20 years ago, they were equipped with the tools of their trade as if the ban never happened: a telescopic pole used to bash mink out of trees, and a T bar, spades and terriers to get hunted animals out of any underground refuge.

In Essex, a collection of groups came together and tracked down the Eastern Counties Mink Hunt who were hunting the Cripsey Brook and surrounds from Wood Farm, Moreton.

The original Eastern Counties Mink Hounds folded a few years ago in the face of sab pressure, and this newly reformed version is an outlier compared to other hunts, resembling a fancy dress club and using a labrador and a beagle to flush to guns. But as sabs showed on Saturday, we can and will find them and stop them.

A Hunt Saboteurs Spokesperson said,

“As well as the cruelty inflicted upon the mink and otter that many of these packs illegally hunt, they also cause huge damage to other riverside species and the fragile habitats in which they reside.

By using increasingly sophisticated ways to circumvent the will of the hunting ban, and by hiding behind the smokescreen of fictitiously ‘hunting rats’ or ‘following a trail,’ these hunts are able to continue with little legal worry. We look forward to the Government closing the loopholes and removing exemptions in the Hunting Act to end these bloodsports for good – but until then, hunt sabs will be here to stop them.”