Hunt Saboteurs Association Press Release December 26th 2011

Normal Boxing Day activity

Surrey Union press release

Another day of hunting on Boxing Day, no doubt the Countryside Alliance will paint a picture of thousands of people enjoying a picturesque day in the beautiful English countryside, hoping to ignore the hidden truth. The hunting community is in its death throes, it wants to be allowed to kill animals with impunity once more, and as this possibility becomes more and more distant the hunters get more desperate.

The Surrey Union no doubt sees itself as one of the more prestigious hunts located as its territory is, in the home counties. This boxing day it met at the Punch Bowl, Oakwood Hill, Surrey. As usual the local hunt sabs were in attendance keeping an eye on any illegal hunting. Towards the end of the day a 4WD vehicle rammed the saboteurs Land Rover from behind and proceeded to shunt it about ten yards down the road, while another hunt vehicle tried to block them in from the front. Managing to extract themselves from this incident the police were called, but the attacking vehicle was kept under observation to assist the police, the driver then pulled out a catapult and fired at the vehicle hitting close to the drivers door. The police duly arrived and a man has been arrested and charges are expected shortly.

The Surrey Union fox hunt and the Countryside Alliance will distant themselves from such activity, but this is the second occasion a catapult has been used to fire at sabs this hunting season, the last time causing an injury. Sabs will be blamed for just attending hunts, but the reality is that the presence of sabs stops them killing, and hunts are getting increasingly desperate. Why this level of violence against people just observing their activity? What do they have to hide?

Crawley & Horsham press release

As usual as large crowd gathered outside the George & Dragon in Dragons Green, West Sussex for the Boxing Day meet of the Crawley & Horsham Hunt.  Many riders and followers only appear for the 3 main hunts of the season – the Opening Meet at the beginning of November, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. 

Hunt monitors managed to keep check on where the hunt was with no incidents until close to the end of the day when the hounds crossed Dragons Green Road and went into cry as they entered a field, closely followed by the riders.  Anti-hunt monitors were right on the scene and one rider was heard to ask another if we’d seen anything!!! 

At that point, in their haste to follow the hounds, one of the riders rode down a monitor who was standing on the verge and he was closely followed by a speeding quad bike.  Luckily the man was not injured and the incident was caught on video by both the victim and a fellow monitor.  A report has been made to the police.  The hunt gathered the hounds in the nearby field and packed up straight away shortly before 3.45pm. Another fox’s life saved just by our presence.