The HSA has received a hotline tip-off that a number of English beagle packs are travelling to Scotland at the invitation of a recently-convicted Scottish fox hunt. 

 

The hare-hunting beagle packs have been invited by the notorious Lee Peters, new huntsman of the Jed Forest Hunt. These “hunting holiday” are designed to train the new hounds before the season proper begins in late October. 

 

The Brighton, Storrington, Surrey & North Sussex Beagles will conduct illegal leveret and hare hunting for the whole of next week. The hounds will be kennelled at the Jed Forest Hunt, Abbotrule, Hawick, TD9 8J.

 

HSA Press Officer Lee Moon commented, “Trouble just follows loose-lipped Lee Peters wherever he goes. He’s only just arrived in Scotland but is already annoying the locals by bragging about his English hunting mates killing Scottish wildlife. Fortunately, hunt sabs will be there in numbers to stop the slaughter.“

 

 

Notes for editors: 

(1) When Lee Peters was huntsman of the Ross Harriers, he regularly subjected hunt saboteurs to violent attacks and racist abuse. 

(2) His new pack - the Jed Forest Hunt - was convicted of illegal hunting in 2017. https://www.league.org.uk/news/borders-huntsmen-found-guilty-of-illegal-fox-hunting

(3) By travelling to Scotland the BSSNS Beagles and others are defying their own governing body, the Association of Masters of Harriers & Beagles. The AMHB have instructed their member hunts not to travel to Scotland, so as not to “cause trouble” for Scottish hunting which is facing a variety of political threats. 

 

 

IMG 1986

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Word has reached the HSA that three hare-hunting beagle packs are to fold. The Claro Beagles, the Vectis Beagles and the North Warwickshire Beagles are all set to close this season due to lack of support.

 unnamed beagler

This leaves just 55 beagle packs operating in the UK. These hunts use packs of beagles to hunt hares by scent. Like their fox hunting friends, beaglers employ the lie of “trail hunting” to disguise their illegal activities.

 IMG 1966

HSA Press Officer Lee Moon commented, “These closures are great news for wildlife and further evidence that beagling is in terminal decline. Hunt sabs have always sabotaged beagle packs and it is clear our actions are having a long-term effect. As the season gets under way, we are even more determined to target hare hunts across the country.”

 

 

 

(The Claro Beagles operated across North Yorkshire; the the Vectis Beagles were based on the Isle of Wight).

 

 

Details

 
Shocking statistics recently released by DEFRA revealed that 1,241,460 ready-to-hatch pheasant eggs were imported from Poland into the UK between 1st May 2018 and 30th April 2019. 48,170 pheasant eggs were imported from Poland in 2015, making an increase of 2400% in just four years.
 
Klon4
 
In May, we visited a pheasant farm located in the Polish village of Klon, which supplies the UK shooting industry with Bazanty pheasants. Over a thousand raised wire cages make up the breeding site, with each one holding one male and eight female pheasants. The farm boasts of producing 50,000 eggs per week between March and July.
 
Klon2
 
Each bird is fitted with a cruel and intrusive plastic 'mask' over their beak in an attempt to lessen injuries sustained by pecking at each other due to the extreme stress of confinement. These ‘masks’ were fitted by piercing the nasal septum, which is an illegal practice in the UK. The females are fitted with 'saddles', a piece of cloth designed to keep the birds productive as they have their back feathers ripped out by repetitive mating by the male in their cage. The flooring of each cage is just wire mesh, causing injuries to the birds' feet as their feet won't touch the ground for months on end.
 
Klon6
 
At present, Eurotunnel, DFDS Seaways and Brittany Ferries are all transporting factory farmed gamebird eggs into the UK, where they will be hatched and shot.
 
Our spokesperson, Lee Moon said;  "The shooting industry has grown significantly over the last few years, with a rise in gamebird imports largely fuelling this growth. Around 43 million pheasants are released into the British countryside each year and half of these start off life in factory farms in Europe. No environmental risk assessment is carried out as releasing such huge numbers of non-native gamebirds had led to an increase in predators of species such as curlew which the shooting industry falsely champions itself as protecting. All this suffering is simply to provide live targets for wealthy shooters to blast out of the sky. We're calling on Eurotunnel, DFDS Seaways and Brittany Ferries to all cease transporting gamebirds into the UK and in so doing end the lifeline that they are providing this cruel industry."
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