We went off to see the North Cotswold hunt on Sunday 24th July at their kennels at Kennel Lane in Broadway – where they had an open day – and to do a counter demo along with other locals and not so locals. To the 2 ladies who came up from Wiltshire you have our utmost respect and we were delighted to see you.
An open day means that they tell big fibs to the public about how they follow trails and flush foxes to Flora the big NCH bird of prey. As she is normally wearing a hood we are not sure how she is supposed to catch foxes but hey ho! West Midlands Sabs have filmed the NCH putting down food for foxes where they have also been filmed hunting and one lady went to talk to the master about this after looking at our banners. Nigel Peel (Senior master and huntsman) arrived a bit late in the day though.
We have also seen the many setts blocked hard when the NCH are in the vicinity so were keen to point this out to the many tourists who always flock to the town this time of year. We also spoke to many about the proposed cull in the area. One lady was a local farmer and very opposed to it. An NCH member (surprise, surprise) said he was signed up to have badgers killed on his land . Many leaflets handed out and discussions had. Many of those pouring money into the Cotswold tourist industry were horrified that illegal hunting, sett blocking and a possible badger cull were going to be happening in the surrounding area in the near future.
Meanwhile in Newent Gloucestershire Badger Office had set up by the lake to support the intrepid 100 mile challenge cycle ride. We arrived back to eat some cake and buy some wonderful Z16 jam.
Well done to those who participated and those in support roles and to those who did a cycle ride to raise funds last week as they weren’t able to make it to the fundraiser yesterday:
As a few of us are unable to join the main group of cyclists raising funds for the Badger groups next weekend we decided to go out around the Newent area. We took our mascots with us and as you can see they had great fun posing for us as we went past ten of the churches in the villages that are in the West Gloucestershire cull zone. The route took us just over three hours and we rode a total of 31 miles. Thanks to our efforts and the many folk who have kindly sponsored us for this worthy cause and we’ll have raised around £260 when all the money is collected in! Thank-you all!