© 2024 Hunt Saboteurs Association
With the autumn ‘sport’ of cub hunting resuming recently the HSA became aware of a covert in Great Habton, North Yorkshire, known by locals as ‘Bone Wood’ due to the unusually large number of animal corpses scattered around the place.
The wood in question is owned by champion racehorse trainer and former master of the Sinnington hunt Tim Easterby. In 2009, Tim’s father and former whipper in to the hunt, Peter, was convicted of taking part in illegal hare coursing on land he owned in the very same village.
Footage filmed covertly at Habton Whin covert was handed to the HSA which shows exactly where the bones are coming from. In late August none other than Sinnington huntsman Tom Cranage was seen dumping three dead rabbits in the wood, we can only presume to provide food for the local foxes.
The British Hound Sports Association says that “when trail hunting, the huntsman sets off with the intention of finding and encouraging the hounds to hunt the laid trails using their noses.” But here we have the Sinnington huntsman making sure there will be live foxes in an area to be chased and killed. “The timescale for laying a trail before the hounds start to search for it varies considerably from one pack to the next”. Tom Cranage clearly took this BHSA advice on creating a smokescreen, by preparing for cubbing season weeks in advance, leaving dead animals in a covert to attract foxes, who will be chased during the training of young hounds.
In 2020, Hunting Leaks found that the Sinnington themselves had even said ‘effective trail laying and record keeping lies at the heart of what we need to do’ after a lesson on smokescreens from the MFHA. They even declared the 2004 Hunting Act as an ‘enemy’. Clearly, the Sinnington intends to continue hunting fox cubs. It’s just a shame that their ‘low country’ was unable to hide them from covert cameras. Cameras captured the hunt surrounding the covert on the 13th September at 6:39am on the hunt’s opening cubbing meet of the season.
Even with North Yorkshire Council planning to discuss whether to ban hunting on their land in November, it seems the Sinnington still have no intention of changing their long history of encouraging a fox population, which can be chased and killed by their hounds.
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