© 2024 Hunt Saboteurs Association
Here at HSA Towers, we try to keep our web posts positive – whether it’s celebrating our crucial role in the webinar trial, shutting down a beagling festival or announcing that yet another hunt has folded. But sometimes, the news from the hunting field is so unremittingly grim that we struggle to find a positive angle.
Last Saturday was one such day.
The South Dorset Foxhounds, for example, hunted and killed two foxes despite the courageous efforts of Weymouth Animal Rights who fought desperately to save them. One fox was eviscerated, the other was literally torn in two. It goes without saying that the hunt riders laughed and joked when confronted with the foxes’ bodies.
Not far away, Devon County Hunt Sabs witnessed the recently-convicted Eggesford Hunt sink to new depths by using a dead fox to lay a ‘trail.’ We can only speculate as to the cruelty inflicted on this wretched animal before its body was further abused as a ‘smokescreen’ to conceal the illegal hunting of other foxes.
Hundreds of miles north, even more grotesque scenes were playing out at the Lanarkshire & Renfrewshire Hunt. Glasgow Hunt Sabs had repeatedly pulled the hounds off the scent of a fox but were unable to stop the poor animal being chased into a line of guns. Sabs were then forced to watch as the huntsman – literally foaming at the mouth with excitement – threw the fox to the hounds to be torn apart.
What makes this incident particularly shocking is that it was entirely legal under Scotland’s so-called Protection of Wild Mammals Act (2002) which allows foxes to be chased towards guns. We urge our supporters to participate in the Scottish government’s latest consultation (here) on strengthening this useless piece of legislation.
A HSA spokesperson commented:
“Last Saturday hunt saboteurs up and down the country put themselves in harm’s way to save foxes from the hunters, as they do every week. While countless animals were saved, it seems the hunters are resorting to ever more extreme and blatant acts of cruelty as their so-called ‘sport’ unravels in the national media. There is no other way to put it: fox hunters are absolute scum.”
Please help fight this cruelty by donating to or joining the Hunt Saboteurs Association.
We are the only organisation that works directly in the field to save wildlife through direct action.