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.
Back in December we received a tipoff that the Eggesford were hunting near Chulmleigh. Two sabs drove to the location and came across the hunt near Trunk Bridge. Various hunt followers were watching from the road with their binoculars and quickly got on the phone to let huntsman Jason Marles know we were in the area.
Huntsman, Jason Marles, was off his horse in the valley. Hounds were speaking, and we spotted two quadbikes, one of them equipped with terrier boxes, speeding away from the edge of a copse. One sab went in on foot, following the quadbike tracks straight to the copse, where she found the aftermath of a very recent digout of a badger sett:
All of this was clear evidence that the terriermen had left in a hurry, sadly having killed the fox but not having managed to retrieve their tools or cover their tracks.
While the sab on the road rang the police, the sab at the sett documented the scene and found somewhere to wait for the terriermen to return. Before they did, a second fox appeared from the area of the sett, crossed the valley and ran to safety. It’s possible the hunt had been trying to dig out this second fox when we arrived.
A short while later, a hunt rider came past to check if the coast was clear to return to the sett, followed by two quadbikes driven by Danny Pearce and Simon Dodd. They stopped at the sett. Pearce got off and hurriedly picked up all the nets before stashing them back on his quad.
While Dodd took the dead fox back to his quad, Pearce used his locator device to find the terrier underground and then dug another hole into the sett. He pulled the terrier out of the sett and both men scarpered.
They had no idea that our sab was there, filming the entire time. See the video for more.
Police sent an expert witness to confirm that the sett showed clear signs of current use by badgers. We had already filmed plenty of evidence of this on the day: badger runs, hair, latrines etc. When questioned by the police, the landowner denied having even given the hunt permission to be on his land. The law had been broken in several ways: entering a dog into a badger sett and interfering with a sett in any way (such as by blocking or digging) is a crime under the Protection of Badgers Act. Even if this hadn’t been a badger sett, digging for a fox and causing death by any means other than a firearm (and without written permission from the landowner!) is illegal under the Hunting Act. When presented this evidence at interview, Danny Pearce admitted his actions and told police that he had since had his terrier put down because of “behavioural issues”…
The police & justice system may see the issuing of a caution to Danny Pearce as a success because it constitutes a conclusion to their investigation and an admission of guilt. However, cautions are intended for minor first-time offending, not organised crime of the likes of the Eggesford, whose members are back out breaking the law this week.
We regularly bring evidence like this to the attention of the police. Our sabs go to great lengths and put themselves at personal risk to gather this evidence. More often than not, cases like this run out of time through police inaction or botched investigations in spite of the quality of the evidence we provide them. Police continue to insist they will act when presented with evidence, though they never seem willing to proactively investigate hunts themselves. But even when we do present copious evidence, prosecutions are very rare.
Devon & Cornwall Police are our local force and are responsible for policing hunts such as the Eggesford. This is the very force that is home to the NPCC Lead on Fox Hunting Crime (Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman). If he wants to show he’s serious about hunt crime, he has dozens of hunts to choose from on his own doorstep. He could start by taking the following actions:
This is just one of many incidents involving Eggesford terriermen that we’ve reported in recent years. We have other cases still ongoing but at risk of failing due to police inaction.
As supporters of our movement are aware, the law doesn’t stop hunting. The only people intervening to stop criminal gangs like Eggesford are hunt sabs. Unfortunately we can’t prevent every kill, and on this occasion we were probably about five minutes too late. However, for as long as they keep hunting, we’ll keep doing our best to stop them.
Only hunt sabs stop hunts.
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