For decades, Bath Hunt Sabs have been on the front lines against hunting. Let’s take a look back at their history.
The mini-bus made its way round the familiar pick up points, gradually filling up with its cargo of young adults and an air of nervous excitement. Everyone was there on time, which was impressive considering everything had been arranged by telephone the day before and not everyone even had a landline. It was a crisp morning in March 1964 and the group, made up of saboteurs from Bath, Bristol and the surrounding areas, were heading to sabotage a meet of the Duke of Beaufort’s Foxhounds in South Gloucestershire.
The HSA was still in its infancy, having only formed the previous year and hunt sabs were seen at this time as being quite radical. This was a time when people should ‘know their place’ and laying false trails and setting off smoke bombs against the gentry was considered the height of radicalism. There was even a suggestion in the right wing press that hunt sabs were communists in the pay of the Kremlin (this being the height of the Cold War).
There would be no social media for another 40 years and there was little public awareness of blood sports; except stag hunting which the Daily Mail had campaigned against. Animal rights activists, even vegetarians, were considered extremists. Animal rights wouldn’t take root as a movement until the early 1970s.
“We were just children of our time and did the best with what we had”
Much of the early sabbing was far from scientific but by the end of 1968 there were perfected techniques using horn calls and false trails that could well disrupt a hunt. By the mid-1970s sabs were using walkie-talkie radios in the field to keep in touch but prior to that it was mainly down to luck and judgement. There would sometimes be a ‘runner’ driving around the lanes trying to keep in touch with the various groups.
This early group of hunt sabs who set out to sab the Beaufort Hunt underestimated the reaction from the followers and the pressure that could be exerted on the police and press. There was extreme violence from hunt supporters, as well as dead foxes sent through the post and heads of foxes left on doorsteps. The group also sabbed the Berkeley and Wick & District Beagles. Meanwhile there were other west country groups forming in Street, Glastonbury, Wells, Taunton, Minehead and Bridgwater. Joining up with these groups, sabs would together target the Somerset hunts: the Mendip Farmers, Quantock Staghounds, Culmstock Otterhounds and later the Devon & Somerset Staghounds.
Between the mid 1980s and early 1990s there were around a dozen members of Bath Hunt sabs, with often a couple of vans carrying them. Many of the group members came from the two Bath universities and there was trouble once when they used a student union minibus to sab which had the university name on the side. Sabs used to do leafleting in Bath and found lots of opposition to hunting and good support from the public. Street collections would bring in funds.
Working with Bristol sabs, West Wiltshire, Swindon and for a time a group from Wedmore, the group sabbed using horns, garlic spray and home-made whips. They would unblock fox earths and badger setts and set up rook scarers to frighten foxes underground before the hunt arrived. These would sometimes be set up before the group then left to sab another hunt, leaving the rook scarers going off and the hunt furious.
Good organisation was key to a successful day sabbing and everybody would meet at the pub the week before to agree what they would be doing at the weekend. Sabs would be given a photocopy of a map for the day with agreed pick up points for anybody who got lost (mobile phones not yet being available). The main source of news was local newspapers and radio, so Saturday night would be spent typing up press releases to fax out to journalists about the day’s events.
Hunts sabbed at this time included the Duke of Beaufort, the Berkeley, Mendip Farmers’ Hunt, South & West Wilts and Blackmore & Sparkford Vale. Occasionally the Vale of the White Horse and Avon Vale. There were some large hits, including the Beaufort with over 100 sabs. Sometimes the group would travel further afield and had a week in Devon sabbing with other groups.
In the lead up to the Hunting Act 2004 the hunts started to become even more violent, especially the Avon Vale and Mendip Farmers’ Hunt, who targeted individual sabs and attacked vehicles at their homes. The police presence at hunts became extreme; on one occasion there were 7 police cars, 3 riot vans, a canine unit and a helicopter for a group of 8 sabs! The hunting ban came into force on 18th February 2005. The day before sabs at a hunt noticed a heavy police and media presence. For the first time the hunt were being kept under control. Could this be the end of hunting? Could wildlife finally be safe from hunters? The answer, as we all know, is sadly no – nothing had changed.
Since then Bath Hunt Sabs have maintained a regular presence at fox hunts throughout the
region and will continue to do so!
With thanks to all those sabs who played a pivotal part of the history of hunt sabotage in the south west.
Don’t wait – help protect wildlife today!
If you would like to join Bath Hunt Sabs, get in touch with them via email: bathhuntsabs@yahoo.co.uk or contact them via their Facebook page.
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