“Terrier work, this is our soft under belly.” This was a quote from Mark Hankinson, former Master of Foxhounds Association Director, Hunting Office Executive Director and former Master of the Wilton Hunt.
Hankinson said this during a Hunting Office webinar, during which the panel advised over one hundred hunt masters as to how they could continue illegally hunting. As a result of the Hunt Saboteurs Association exposing this five years ago today, Hankinson was found guilty of “encouraging or assisting others to commit offences under the Hunting Act,” and the Hunting Office rebranded itself as the British Hounds Sports Association (BHSA). His later appeal did nothing to restore hunting’s reputation.
However, five years on, terrier men continue to be a staple part of the hunting community and as we have seen in the recent footage of the Coniston Foxhounds, they are still committing atrocities such as digging out foxes to throw to hounds.
Only a month after the HSA exposed the Hunting Office webinar, the Avon Vale Hunt dug a fox out and threw it to hounds on Boxing Day 2020. Tom Ledbury, the terrier man for the hunt, was sentenced to a 12-month community order for his part. One of the most chilling aspects of this incident was that a small child was present for the entirety of the dig out.
Terrier men are notorious for the part they play within the organised crime world of hunting, not just for digging out foxes but for blocking badger setts and being particularly sadistic towards animals, including their own terriers. In November 2024 the HSA released covert footage of a South Shropshire terrier man, William Hand, blocking up an active badger sett. He first sends his terrier down into the sett to check for the presence of a fox. When the coast is clear he blocks the sett with his spade. The next day, hounds are seen on the blocked sett searching the woodland for a fox. Later that afternoon an extremely tired fox is witnessed trying to seek refuge at the sett.
Then, in December 2022 another video surfaced of the Avon Vale Hunt digging a fox out, again on Boxing Day. This time it was terrier man Alex Warden that removed his terrier from a badger sett as the fox was lifted out and thrown to hounds. A second fox then made a run for it, to the delight of the depraved onlookers.
In September 2024, footage obtained by Devon County and Mendip Hunt Sabs showed masked up terrier men digging to try and retrieve a fox from a badger sett. The gang dug at three separate sett entrances whilst sabs filmed the whole thing, despite being threatened with violence. When the terrier, that was underground, was located, one of the men uses a spade to separate the terrier from the fox, causing more injuries to both animals. The fox is flung into the air while the terrier men try to quickly bundle the terrier away attempting to conceal its injuries. After this incident the BHSA defended the terrier men’s actions claiming that they’d simply been a little “over-zealous.”
In October this year the HSA was passed footage from a year-long investigation into an artificial earth used by the Wynnstay Hunt. Again, it the same pattern that we’ve seen from hunts all over the country. Terrier men such as Ali Johnson and Ryan Brennan, with the help of whipper in Hartley Crouch, are seen sniffing around the sett and inserting terriers to flush out any foxes. At this artificial earth carcasses of birds were found, a clear indication that the hunt were encouraging the presence of foxes.
There is an exemption in the Hunting Act 2004 which states that terrier men can use a dog below ground to prevent serious damage to game or wild birds being kept for shooting. Only a single dog can be used and the flushed animal must be shot immediately. The Act, therefore, should prevent the “traditional” work that terrier men do, so why are they still present at hunts?
“A lot of people would say that if you’re going trail hunting why do you need terrier men following you around? Yes, it is totally legal for them to be out doing everything if they follow the correct exemptions but it does flag up a bit of a marker to everyone, you know why do you as trail hunting, do you need them there?”
– Mark Hankinson.
Terrier work could be stopped immediately and the BHSA should be condemning their presence, especially after the recent Coniston Foxhounds footage. The fact that they refuse to remove terrier men from the equation is a further admission of guilt and highlights their corrupt intentions.
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