© 2025 Hunt Saboteurs Association
A lot has been going on up in the Lake District. We’ve seen two well-established sab groups, Lancashire Hunt Sabs and Cumbria Hunt Sabs merging to form one super group: Lake District Hunt Sabs.
With the groups joining forces, we’ve seen more of the lesser known Cumbrian hunts receiving attention – packs like the Lunsdale Foxhounds, Coniston Foxhounds, North Cumberland Hunt and the Eskdale & Ennerdale Foxhounds are finding themselves regularly sabbed, along with hunts you may have already heard o such as the Blencathra Foxhounds and Melbreak Foxhounds. The Lake District has some of the most challenging terrain for sabbing. We asked the newly formed Lake District Hunt Sabs the reasons behind the two groups merging, and this is what they told us….
“The logic behind the name change was that ‘Lake District’ is infinitely more likely to get a hit on social media than Cumbria or Lancashire. Plus we were often replicating reports, because we work together all the time. It also highlights the fact that there are hunts still criminally active in Britain’s premier National Park. We aim to work on the social media aspect this summer”
A CPW (Criminal Protection Warning) is issued under the ‘Anti-Social Behaviour and Policing Act 2014’. CPW’s are issued to prevent people, or in this case hunts, from committing antisocial behaviour that negatively impacts the quality of life in a community.
Criminal Protections Warnings have now been issued to both the Blencathra Foxhound and Melbreak Foxhounds following fantastic work from Lake District Hunt Sabs, and also complaints from members of the public who have been impacted by these hunts (for more on CPWs check out the HSA website). Both the Blencathra and Melbreak hunts are guilty of Illegal hunting, trespassing on National Trust land and antisocial behaviour. In October of last year Lake District Hunt Sabs filmed the Blencathra Foxhound pursuing a fox to ground in a badger sett. The hunt then allowed the hound to interfere with the badger sett by digging away at it, this despite sabs warning the hunt to call the hounds off.
CPW’s give a hunt a chance to clean up their act, failing to do so can lead to further sanctions in the form of a CPN (Criminal Protection Notice). A CPN will result in further and tighter sanctions on a hunt, which can make it difficult for the hunt to (illegally) function in the way they wish to.
However, despite the CPW all is not well up in the Lakes. This is Lake District Hunt Sabs take on what is happening with the Blencathra and the Melbreak Foxhounds….
“The CPW/CPN’s are as useful as a vegan chocolate fire guard. Most Police officers don’t even know that the hunts have been issued with CPW/CPNs, and even if they do they don’t have the will or gumption to do anything about even the most blatant use of quads on public roads. We have a wildlife officer that tells other officers that the CPW/CPN’s are invalid, which is bizarre. We have seen documentation where the police state openly that The National Trust did not cooperate or help the police with information to issue the hunts with CPW/CPNs. The only major land owners that didn’t help apparently. Moreover a CPW/CPN is only as good as the officers that are prepared to further the CPW to a CPN. In essence, the fox hunts in the Lake District have had another full season’s hunting, continuously trespassing at will on many tens of thousands of acres they are explicitly banned from.The hunts’ hunt foxes openly damage setts without any concern about the police, the courts or the new PCC (Police Crime Commissioner} Dave Allen. However we highlight all of the above at every possible opportunity.”
We have heard on the grapevine that the Melbreak Foxhounds intend to appeal their CPW. However, if you wish to read up on CPW’s it would appear, legally they shouldn’t have a leg to stand on.
Despite the lack of interest from the police in the Lake District, we urge you the public to report any incidents to your local police force. If you witness or are the victim of hunt trespass, antisocial behaviour, hound out of control or on public roads causing a nuisance, then please get in logged. The hope is that this will lead to further CPW’s then CPN’s, and eventually the police will have to take notice and action against these hunts that affect our quality of life.
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