Northamptonshire Police, Money to Burn?

Hunt Saboteurs Association News Release 30th December 2013

Hunt saboteurs from the Northants and West Midlands groups visited the Oakley hunt on Saturday 28/12/2013. On their arrival the hunt were clearly hunting foxes and the sabs had to intervene to enable an animal to escape.   Shortly after this a police helicopter arrived, which it later transpired was called in from Leicestershire expressly for this incident.

The helicopter repeatedly flew very low over the sabs heads and purposely placed itself between the sabs and the hunt to enable the hunt to get away. The helicopter continued to follow the sabs in this way for some time, always trying to stop them from following the hunt and then they decided to land. Once on the ground the police from the helicopter tried to detain people, but when challenged had no answer as to why they were doing this.  The sabs continued to follow the hunt and eventually the police helicopter left about forty-five minutes later.

Simultaneously six police cars were also surrounding the sab vehicle and members of the public were stopping to see what incident had led to such a high police presence.

Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, stated:  “It beggars belief that in times of austerity the Police are willing to waste so much public money protecting illegal hunting.  We can only assume that members of the Oakley Hunt have friends high up in Northamptonshire police and we wonder how local residents feel about their council tax being misused in this way.”