Mink hunting with packs of hounds started in the late 1970s. It has its roots in the summer bloodsport of otter hunting, which also took place across the country’s water courses during the summer months.
In 1978, the otter was granted protected legal status, despite the best efforts of the hunting lobby, and several otterhound packs folded.
But others were keen to keep hunting, and suddenly claimed they would instead go after the American mink, a species that had become well established on Britain’s waterways since escaping from ramshackle fur farms in the 1930s and ‘40s.
By the mid-1980s there were about twenty mink hunts around the country – some hunting mink, others using the practice as a cover – a smokescreen – to continue hunting otters.
These often enjoyed a large following with supporters of the local fox and hare hunts turning out in numbers whenever the mink hunt was nearby. Highlights of the summer would include week-long hunting festivals, with packs travelling from across the country to join up, as reported in an eyewitness account published earlier this summer.
But hunt sabs were soon on their tail, leading to some notorious campaigns against certain packs, such as that against the Ytene (previously reported here).
After the Hunting Act came into force effectively banning many forms of hunting with packs of hounds, the mink hunts did what most other hunts did; they claimed to be using one of the many loopholes left in the law (such as hunting rats, or rabbits), and carried on much the same as before when they thought they weren’t being watched.
The tables really started to turn in 2014, when the Hunt Saboteurs Association re-engaged these summer hunters following a sophisticated intelligence gathering campaign. Unable to hide under a cloak of secrecy that they had in previous years, unsuspecting hunters found themselves faced with hunt sabs for the first time in years. Around 10 packs the length of the country were targeted, many of them have multiple days shut down by sabs over that Summer.
This increased attention once again pushed these hunts further underground, making already hard to find hunts (with huge countries) even harder. But determined sabs have kept up the pressure every year since, with great effect.
In the following decade, we’ve seen many once well-established hunts fold, including (but not limited to) the Valley, Northamptonshire, Eastern Counties, Teme Valley, Cheriton, Wealden Mink Hounds.
What’s left is little more than half a dozen packs, often riddled with paranoia and with an ever decreasing handful of ‘trusted’ followers – a situation where even seasoned hunters are no longer ’in the loop’ of what hunts are still active or not. Many hunts have dropped prestigious meets, changed their traditional meeting days and times and are constantly looking over their shoulder for hunt sabs.
Hunt Sabs will continue to find and stop these riverside vandals – but for that we need your help!
If you have any information on a mink hunt, or see anything suspicious that you think might be a mink hunt please contact our tip off line immediately on – 07443 148426.
We are the only organisation that works directly in the field to save wildlife through direct action.
