HSA news release 19th January 2002

Hunt saboteur hospitalised after being run over by horsebox at Four Burrow Hunt

A hunt saboteur came close to losing his life today after he was run over by a horsebox at a meet of the Four Burrow Hunt in Cornwall.

In an incident bearing horrifying similarity to one which claimed the life of hunt saboteur Tom Worby in 1993, hunt saboteur Andy Pollock was run over by a hunt supporter’s horse trailer. After a successful day’s sabotage against the Four Burrow Hunt, Andy was walking down a lane late this afternoon, when a Four Wheel Drive vehicle and horse trailer drove towards him. He moved to the side of the lane and pressed himself into the hedge. However, the vehicle was allegedly steered straight towards him. The vehicle narrowly missed him, but the horse trailer hit him. Andy said “It was only pure luck that I managed to get into the hedge as close as I did and the vehicle missed me. The horse trailer took my legs from under me.”

An ambulance was called and he was taken to Treliske hospital with a suspected fractured fibia. Following X-rays he was released from the hospital.

The driver of the vehicle did not stop, and despite the incident being a serious “hit and run” incident, police did not arrive for almost 2 hours. One officer at the scene said that it was “difficult to prove it was a deliberate act”. The police are still making enquiries.

Two hunt saboteurs have died under the wheels of vehicles driven by huntsmen and a third was recently critically injured. In 1991, Mike Hill died under the wheels of a vehicle belonging to the Cheshire Beagles. In 1993, Tom Worby died under the wheels of a vehicle belonging to the Cambridgeshire Hunt. In September 2000, Steve Christmas was run over at a meet of the Old Surrey Burstow and West Kent Hunt, and air-lifted to hospital with a crushed pelvis, four broken ribs and internal bleeding. Someone was apparently charged but the victim not informed fully.

HSA Press Officer, Nathan Brown commented “When I heard the news that Andy had been run over by a horsebox, I feared that I was going to have to break the news that another sab had been killed. What we have seen happen in the past leads us to have little faith in any prosecution being brought. How many more lives – human and animal – have to be taken before Labour will live up to their manifesto pledge and ban hunting?”