Hunt Saboteurs Association News Release 25th July 2016
Our third compilation of undercover footage shows the Pytchley Hunt bolting a fox with a terrier to be chased by the hounds.
The footage starts with the hunt having chased a fox underground. The terrier men send a terrier down after it to flush it out. Once the fox is above ground and running, the huntsman puts the hounds back on the scent and they continue to chase it. Every single action in that sequence is illegal.
In the second half of the video, a fox has taken refuge in a pile of farmyard junk after being chased by the hounds. Various members of the hunt try to extricate the fox, including the huntsman and whipper-in. Fortunately this fox escapes despite the hunt’s best attempts to kill it.
Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, said: ‘This footage shows both the huntsman and the whipper-in of the Pytchley breaking the law. They are both employees of the hunt and would only behave in such a way with the express permission of the Masters and the hunt committee. The Countryside Alliance always claim it is rogue elements who break the law, but this footage clearly shows it is officially sanctioned behaviour.
We are pleased that the Pytchley Hunt were forced to pull out of Countryfile Live due to their illegal activities. We also look forward to hearing that Maidwell Hall School will no longer host them. There can be no place for hunting in a school.
Why have the Countryside Alliance and the Masters of Foxhounds Association not condemned these atrocities and announced an independent enquiry, as they have done in the recent South Herefordshire case? Until this happens, the whole hunting community is complicit in these acts.