In early December 2024, Lake District Hunt Sabs prevented a fox from being killed by the Blencathra Foxhounds near Bowscale in the Northern Fells.
Acting on a tip-off from concerned hikers, sabs arrived in the area to find the Blencathra’s hound trailer parked up on Swineside Road and hunt supporters lining fellside tracks with binoculars at the ready.
As sabs began to make their way up the valley, the hounds suddenly went into cry in close pursuit of a fox. The terrified animal ran up the fellside – with the lead hounds just metres behind – making for the shelter of a large rocky outcrop. Fortunately, the fox found refuge just as the frenzied pack arrived, swarming all over the rocks in an effort to get at their victim.
Had sabs not been present, there is no question that hunt terriers would have been entered into the outcrop to attack the fox, either killing her underground or forcing her to bolt to be hunted again.
Though a long distance away, sabs were able to pull some of the hounds away using a gizmo – a device that plays the amplified sound of hounds in cry – and the hunt dispatched a lackey to try to remove the remaining hounds. The video shows this individual beating a hound, though it was a full forty minutes before the pack finally lost interest and left the scene. On being deprived of a kill, the disgruntled supporters eventually trudged back to the road to answer questions from the two units of Cumbria Police that had been dispatched to the scene of the crime.
The mountainous terrain of the Lake District makes mounted hunting impossible, so the six ‘fell packs’ pursue foxes on foot. The fell packs place an even greater emphasis on terrierwork than their lowland cousins. This is because – as seen in the video – hunted foxes will seek shelter in the many rocky refuges, known locally as borrans, that litter the fellside. Indeed, the activities of the fell packs are so controversial that they had to set up their own ‘governing body’ – the Central Committee of Fell Packs – after being refused membership of the Masters of Foxhounds Association!
The six packs are the Blencathra, the Coniston, the Eskdale & Ennerdale, the Lunesdale, the Melbreak, and the Ullswater.
This new group is an amalgamation of the former Lancashire and Cumbria sab groups, both of whom have many years of experience of sabotaging the fell packs. They are out saving lives in all weathers and in some of the most challenging terrain in the country – they deserve your support!
We are the only organisation that works directly in the field to save wildlife through direct action.
