Drone Wars! Beaufort Hunt Brings Down Sab ‘Eye In The Sky’

On Saturday 29th November, the battle against fox hunting reached new heights – literally – as the Gloucester-based Beaufort Hunt launched a premediated attack on a Wilts Hunt Sab drone.

From the outset, sabs had deployed drones to keep track of the fast-moving hunt as they pursued foxes across the Badminton Estate. At one point, hounds were spilling onto roads precariously close to the busy A433, though the presence of the drone – and strategically positioned sabs – meant the first fox of the day got away.

However, as the hunt headed to Sherston then south towards Widley’s Gorse, the Wilts drone captured distressing footage of hounds killing a fox in the woods. The pack then quickly hunted on across the road to Commonwood Farm, where yet another fox was seen by sabs.

At this point a Beaufort rider, aided by the hunt’s ‘fence mender’, dismounted and launched their own drone, seemingly fitted with cables designed to snag the rotor blades of the Wilts sab drone.

With the sab drone downed – and then stolen – the Beaufort became even more blatant in their fox hunting, with hunt supporters blowing whistles to indicate the position of the fox and the huntsman instructing his hounds to “hunt for it”.

In a positive end to a difficult day, sabs at Lords Copse were perfectly positioned as a fox crossed in front of them seconds in front of the hounds. Seeing sabs and their cameras turned on them, perhaps even the Beaufort had enough of their own criminality and wisely stopped their hounds.

An HSA spokesperson commented,

“In recent years, drones have become an essential part of the hunt sab armoury, allowing sabs to coordinate in the field and gather evidence across inaccessible terrain. While we’ve had rocks and guns turned on our drones in the past, this is the first time a hunt has launched such a premeditated attack – and it is no coincidence that they did so just after they had been filmed killing a fox. The Beaufort Hunt will quickly regret this reckless act, and sabs are already developing countermeasures to ensure that such an attack can never happen again.”

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