Finally, over 20 years since the flawed Hunting Act was introduced, Labour has announced they will stop the charade of trail hunting. The ban is part of an Animal Welfare Strategy that is due to be published today and was a manifesto pledge of the Labour government. Hunt sabs in the field realised within weeks […]
Last week, the Hunt Saboteurs Association shared exclusive and shocking footage of the Coniston Foxhounds digging a terrified fox from its earth, before dragging out the poor animal and feeding it live to a pack of baying foxhounds in what can only have been an excruciating fate.
On Saturday 8th November, Lake District Hunt Sabs filmed the Coniston Foxhounds in the act of digging out a fox and ripping her to pieces. Just weeks before the government’s hunting consultation is due to begin, hunt saboteurs have once again exploded the myth of trail hunting! When the HSA showed the footage to presenter […]
The Hunt Saboteurs Association has produced a booklet titled ‘Witness The End Of Hunting’ which outlines our plans to stop hunters in their tracks or – at least – get them into court with a high chance of prosecution. With the government’s consultation on hunting to begin “early in the new year” this is the […]
The Hunt Saboteurs Association and its affiliated groups have been actively opposing all forms of hunting with hounds since 1963. This means we have over sixty years’ experience of studying hunting in the field and developing tactics to sabotage it. Chris Packham helps to launch our campaign. As such, we are the only people outside […]
It was the will-they, won’t-they, on-off relationship that had the nation gripped for months, but the HSA can exclusively reveal that the Herefordshire-based Ross Harriers have walked out on hunting’s regulatory body, the British Hound Sports Association.
This week has seen sabs across the country out in force while most people are still asleep. For many hunts, the cubbing season has now started. Sab groups have been keeping an eye on their local hunts and have reported that many of them, who would usually still be ‘hound exercising’, are instead now surrounding coverts and sending their hounds in to kill foxes. The early start to the cubbing season has come about largely due to farmers harvesting their crops early, as well as a sense amongst the hunting community that this could very well be their last season if Labour stick to their manifesto pledge to ban ‘trail hunting’.
August has arrived and with it, the start of the heinous Autumn Staghunting season, which is the trophy hunting portion of the stag hunters’ “sport”. From August to November they target mature rutting stags, royal stags or greater, in the prime of their lives, forcing them to now run for their lives but hampered by their impressive spreads of antlers and heavy body condition following their summer feeding. They are not well adapted to long chases and with so many supporters eyes watching, there is nowhere for them to hide and recover.
A guest article by Devon County Hunt Sabs. Includes video footage of a dig out.
A few weeks ago we were informed by Devon & Cornwall Police that their investigation into one of several incidents we reported last season had concluded. The outcome is that Eggesford Hunt’s Danny Pearce has received a caution for interfering with a protected badger sett and using a terrier to dig out and kill a fox on land he and the hunt had no permission to be on. Pearce is a gamekeeper for Lord Stucley’s Affeton Estate, which also hosts the criminal Eggesford Hunt.
The vixen looks up, startled by a sudden noise. Alert now, she gathers her young cubs and moves swiftly toward her den. It’s dawn, and she is just returning after a night’s feeding. Her cubs are just over four months old — still playful and dependent on her for food, but gradually becoming more independent.
About a year ago, the British Hound Sports Association announced that it would hold a ‘National Trail Hunting Day’. They promised their gullible supporters that this country-wide spectacle would “start to change minds” and go on to “dominate the news agenda.”
Yesterday, four members of the notorious Blackmore & Sparkford Vale Hunt were found guilty at Weymouth Magistrates Court of hunting a wild mammal with dogs in breach of the Hunting Act.
On this day in 2005 the Hunting Act came into force. It should have stopped the cruelty of hunting with hounds, but 20 years later hunts across the country are still chasing and killing foxes, hares and deer for fun. And often, hunt sabs are still the only people stopping them.
This week sees the 20 th anniversary of the enactment of the Hunting Act, an occasion marked by a special report on BBC’s Countryfile programme.
Viewers were treated to the sight of a hunt sab, an MP, and Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman – National Police Lead for Hunting with Hounds – all agreeing that illegal fox hunting was ‘widespread’ under the current Act.
A summary of events over the last month – it’s been a busy and intense start to the year for all our groups across the country.
The Hunt Saboteurs Association has teamed up with naturalist, environmental activist and TV presenter Chris Packham to shine a light on the cruelty and criminality rife within the hunting world.
The series of 20 hard-hitting videos are being released across the social media pages of Chris Packham and the HSA in a countdown to the festive hunting period, exposing many shocking aspects of present day hunting.
With many hunts having their opening meets last Saturday and the remainder due to meet this coming November 2 nd , the HSA is today releasing the second of three videos – filmed by hunters – showing the cruel and illegal practice of ‘bolting.’
The video opens with a group of hunters and hounds gathered on a distant hillside. At least one hunt terrierman can be seen banging a stick or spade on the ground – a common technique for frightening a fox into bolting from their underground refuge.
Following the HSA’s devastating exposure of the Axe Vale Harriers digging out a fox, we have been passed new video showing the Wrexham-based Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Hunt using terriers to locate foxes in a badger sett.
Just two days before National Trail Hunting Day – the farcical event that has become known as Smokescreen Saturday – we release damning footage of what one of the participating hunts gets up to when police, politicians and journalists are not invited to attend.
The HSA is today urging our supporters to share the first of our hard-hitting election videos. Narrated by Chris Packham, the video attempts the impossible task of distilling the cruelty, criminality and chaos of hunting into just two minutes!
