Well, the day was a good one for intel. especially regarding hunt meets, and we spent the early morning deciding just where to go! One of our regular hunts, the Ross Harriers were out in the Peterstow area, meeting at the Red Lion, so a couple of sabs headed there to meet up with our friends from Southampton Sabs, South Wales Hunt Saboteurs, Bristol Hunt Saboteurs and a few other local sabs. We’ve put a lot of pressure on this hunt over the last two seasons and we’re not planning to ease up now. The hunt seem to have lost a lot of support so they need someone to turn up to their meets!

Our other sabs went out to respond to a tip-off about another local hunt meet, but it looks like they may well have cancelled due to the weather. Time wasn’t wasted as a number of badger setts were checked in the area at the same time. Not to be put off by the weather ourselves, we then headed to Eldersfield, part of our area within the Gloucestershire Cull Zone, to visit the Leadon Vale Basset Hounds who were meeting early afternoon at Pigeon House Farm (which you may have heard of numerous times during said cull).

Meanwhile, the Ross Harriers (who are kenneled with the Leadon Vale) were having a bad day, being kept on the run and seeing sabs (and not much of their own support) everywhere they turned.

The Leadon Vale’s intel. obviously isn’t as good as ours as they thought we were only out with them because we couldn’t find the Harriers and one of the hunt staff said “keep up if you can love” to a sab who loves cross-country running… She was too busy laughing to have a go about being called “love”. They can be fast, but we were either with them or in a better strategic position all day. We’ll have to spend more time with this lot so they can get to know us better…

Despite saying they were out hunting rabbits and squirrels, the hounds picked up on only one rabbit which ran into a nearby warren and picked up on several hare and even a fox. The hunt would likely have called the hounds back off the fox even if we weren’t there but we believe our presence stopped the hare being hunted. We played “adopt a hunter” for a while, sticking close to the hunt staff so we wouldn’t “put up” (scare) any hare from their hiding places and the hounds were very responsive to voice calls from sabs and hunters alike, often being confused as to who to listen to. Hunt staff were, nonetheless, rather polite (and almost as friendly as the hounds, though thankfully didn’t want as much fuss and cuddles!)

It’s not often that you can be certain of a no-kill day, but since we were with the hounds inland from soon after they left the meet until they returned, we are pretty sure there were no casualties. The Harriers packed up around 2.30pm having run out of places to hide and also had no known kills.

Report from Saturday 7th November 2015. Ross Harriers. The meet was a Wharton Farm, signed up to the Gloucestershire badger cull. We were joined by our old friends from Southampton, Bristol and South Wales sabs and the huntsman Simon Dunne basically ran away from the old railway line, past Richard Hammond’s pile (yes…he of top gear fame) and on to Chackley.

It was at Rudhall that hounds began to speak and pursue a very clever fox who evaded them in thick undergrowth before breaking covert and escaping. Sabs present did manage to stop the pack by rating them when the fox had passed but the hounds were very close.

Other sabs called hounds to stop them pursuing the fox and some time was spent gathering them back again. They didn’t get to do much at all for the rest of the day being caught between several different groups and were sulking by the end.

We also had some imaginative stories from some of the hunt followers but we won’t bore you with those.

Facebook Video

We went along to the opening meet of the Ledbury Hunt at the Corse Lawn Hotel (located in the Gloucestershire badger cull zone) today.

This is just a little medley of things that happened during the day: the drain in which a fox went to ground a couple of weeks back during cubbing had been blocked up with stones, a supporter tried to block our car from driving along the road as we were parking up to stop and listen out for the hunt, the same supporter then pathetically kicked a sab in the foot as the hounds were heard speaking near Roger Warner’s land in Tirley.

The supporter was, at the time, trying to help an old guy walk after he had fallen over – an ambulance was then called for him – so she should have really cared more about him. Indeed the sab whose foot she kicked had initially said “oh, sorry” as she thought they had bumped into each other and she turned as she apologised only to notice the woman’s foot sticking out and her laughing. How nice.

Sabs also had to slow down cars (driving within the speed limit) to stop them potentially having an accident with hunt horses who were walking around on the road around a bend and were not easily visible to drivers from either direction. Good start to the season Mark…

The Cotswold Vale Farmers’ Hunt had their opening meet at Apperley Court today. This part of their country is within the Gloucestershire cull zone so some of our sabs were out early doing some sett-checking to ensure their was no damage to setts, etc.

With it being another wet day, the scenting conditions weren’t fantastic for much of the afternoon and with us being out, the hunt went inland and tried to stay away from us, meaning their car support were left on nearby roads without much to look at… Martin Bingham (aka Turkey) kept driving by us and grinning and it was only when another supporter pulled up on his bike and had a go at him for drink-driving that he decided to go home. We believe it was a slight exaggeration on the part of the guy on the bike, but Martin was apparently “upside down in a ditch” and all the cars on the road had to stop for him until he got his vehicle out. He was told to “get home!” because the other hunt supporter didn’t want him getting picked up by the police… Surely the most responsible thing would have been someone parking up his 4×4 for him somewhere safe and giving him a lift home and not just allowing him back on to the main roads to drive all the way back to Longhope! The police were called to inform them. Once the other supporter realised who we were, he wasn’t quite so happy to talk openly about what Turkey had done as he didn’t “want anything to do with you people” as he yelled at us when we asked if he was ok at one point.

Cotswold Vale hounds are rather well-known for rioting on deer, regardless of which huntsman is with the pack at the time, although the hunt do try to call the hounds off when they do so. Still, we made sure we caught a deer on film when it ran away from where the pack were and were glad when the hounds weren’t following directly behind. Soon enough though, they had picked up on its scent, but did not give chase. Around the same time, a fox was spotted by one of the riders who, seemingly unaware of our presence, shouted “Tally-ho Back!” and raised his hand to show the huntsman where the fox had run. Another fox then ran past the rider and a couple of the hounds showed an interest. Luckily at this point, other hounds appeared to pick up on the scent of the deer again which confused the pack and the hunt did not give chase to either once sabs had made their presence known in the field.

Nick Hodges and Ben Hughes were obviously getting bored at this point as they hid up behind a nearby tree and started getting spades out of the box on the quad-bike, giggling like school-girls when a sab made her way through a bramble-filled ditch to go and check up on them. “We thought the others might be stupid enough to come through there, but we didn’t think you were that stupid. Would you like a lift back on the quad?” The sab chose to go back through the ditch… In other news, Nick Hodges has grown some interesting facial hair recently.

The hunt packed up as it started to get dark and the roads started getting really busy and they hacked back to the horse-boxes along the busy road… Not the most intelligent thing to do now was it Simon?! All-in-all not the most eventful day, although we did lose them on and off through the day, so perhaps they were having a jolly old time somewhere else…

We have had a fairly busy week. One of us was out on Wednesday to keep tabs on the Ross Harriers from Longhope where they had their children’s meet. Very poor scenting conditions combined with pre-spraying meant that they did very little and packed up at 13.30 (not unusual for a children’s meet). We are also out sett surveying and preparing for a week of Opening Meets.

Yesterday we found them at Hallwood Green. Again scent was poor and not much happened until they went into a field near Kempley. Simon Dunn, huntsman and joint master, was off his horse and drawing on foot when a fox ran and was followed by the entire pack in full cry. A very dangerous situation then arose in which the pack were hunting without any human control whatsoever for about half an hour. As the whipper in, Turkey, frantically galloped down the road sabs followed. No major catastrophe occurred that we know of but the A449 was near where hounds were eventually found as we watched Turkey call them back. We found one and handed him back, poor creature was terrified of humans. An entire pack of hounds hunting unsupervised is a very dangerous thing indeed to all other animals and road users.

We hoped that they had finished but alas no. They hunted around the woods at the meet which are both extensive and thick. Bizarrely a local Jack Russell terrier decided to accompany sabs and was very much on side telling the hounds off and even when we sprayed the line of a fox cocked his leg and joined in! The fox was clearly trying to get to an enormous badger sett, where he would have been safe, and so we stood right back. A hunt follower stood on the sett so the fox ran around him and onwards through a field. We stopped most of the pack but the lead hound was away chasing the fox alone for some minutes before the rest of the pack got through. It was getting dark by the time they abandoned the chase. We returned to the car with our new friend who was handed back to his, very relieved, person.

A couple of 3C sabs were joined by Bath and Bristol, Southampton and South Wales Hunt Sabs today to go to the Ross Harriers Hunt. Unfortunately a hare was killed when she was chased by hounds into a wire fence which she got tangled up in, sabs hearing her scream as the hounds caught her. 3C sabs filmed the aftermath…

Two Three Counties sabs went out for a little look around as the Ledbury Hunt are still out cubbing at the moment. We found them near to Ashleworth, noticing that someone had come off their horse. We were about to offer assistance when an ambulance arrived, so we left them to it and went to find the hounds. For quite some time the hunt stayed inland and were difficult to pinpoint exactly as they hunted around the Corse Hill and Corse Grove areas (which you may recognise the names of from during the badger culls here).

We checked on nearby badger setts as we know this hunt sometimes like to block up sett entrances in order to stop foxes from being able to “go to ground” and escape the hounds. We kept an eye on them the best we could as hounds went into cry, but cannot guarantee no kills as we weren’t with the hounds the whole time and it doesn’t take long for a kill to take place. The quadbike was also spotted acting suspiciously on various occasions which we investigated, once being confronted by an irate David Mansell (jockey and former star of a couple of 3C videos). Dragging his horse around, he spooked it when trying to re-mount back on the road and could have seriously injured it the poor thing…

The hunt tried to find foxes in a number of fields and hedgerows, drawing blank in some, the hounds “feathering” at points and, eventually, they picked up on another fox near to Tirley Knowle. One of our sabs witnessed “holding-up” behaviour by riders (making noises to stop foxes from running in their direction – a well-used tactic during cubbing in order to keep fox cubs in a specific area for the hounds to kill).

We didn’t tell the hunt at first when we spotted the fox in case they hadn’t yet noticed him – it is always difficult to know what to do in such situations – some hunts will call the hounds back when they know you’ve filmed a fox, others will try to take your camera from you, sometimes you’re in a position to intervene and sometimes there’s not much you can do physically so the footage becomes a priority. In this case, the sab who had spotted the fox knew she couldn’t run into the land in time, that the Ledbuy hounds are extremely difficult to take control of and with a main road right behind her, there was no way a horn or gizmo could be safely used.

Hounds aren’t speaking in this footage (although you can hear huntsman Mark Meladay ecouraging them on with horn calls in the distance) which should have alerted the hunt to the fact they were not on a false trail. When the hounds hunt by scent, they will speak and have their noses down to the ground. The hounds in this footage are coursing, hunting by sight, as they are so close behind the fox – the lead hound at least knows what he’s doing and the others soon catch on.

Tim Pearce-May, whipper-in, was forcefully informed of the presence of the fox (although as we’ve said, it should have been obvious to hunt staff what was happening!) as they started to move off. Terriermen were quick to jump on the quadbike, they or other support heading the fox back inland as they sped along the main road. The fox headed straight back towards the hounds and sabs were sure that there would be a kill (a hunt supporter later told the hunt groom that “there was only 6 feet in it” and that “he [the fox] changed his mind and went straight back”). The fox jinked and raced towards a hedge on the road where hunt supporters waited. Vehicles attemoted to slow us down and block the road
but the fox managed to escape – it appears to have gone to ground in a drain.

Supporters both pointed and tried to tell us fox had crossed over the road… so if they believed that, why was Mark Meladay taking the hounds over there unless he wanted to pick up on the scent again?? Get your stories straight lads! Sabs are almost 100% certain that the fox holed up in the drain (especially as the terriermen and other supporters were very interested in the area for the remainder of the day).

Other than that, there’s was some very dodgy use of public roads by riders and quadbike alike (the latter with no number plate) but that’s not surprising… Lavinia also told us that the cull operators managed to reach their minimum target within the first week of the cull. We think she exaggerates a little, but with the minimum target set so pathetically low and the number of cull operators being even higher than previous years, it’s hardly a shock that they would manage to achieve target this time round.

All in all an intense morning and we’ll see you again very soon Mark!

3C

As we get back into the swing of things with the hunting season now that the cull has finished in Gloucestershire, there’s something that’s been annoying some of us here in 3C and that’s the fact that so many people commenting in support of the hunts or defending them keep using the term “drag-hunting”.

Now the principle is very similar in drag-hunting and trail-hunting (which is what hunts which “used to be” foxhunts should be doing now that “real” fox-hunting is illegal) in that a scent is laid on the ground instead of a live animal being chased. But there is a difference…

For a start, the term ‘drag-hunting’ is a term owned by the Masters of Draghounds. It belongs to them, not the foxhunts. There are only about 10 hunts in the UK which are actual drag-hunts (check out the Baileys or Horse and Hound hunting directories, there’s a whole separate section dedicated to them, it’s just not very big. If the hunt you’re talking about isn’t in there, they’re not a drag-hunt). Drag-hunts tend to be a lot more focused on jumping and the scent tends to only be laid a few fields or so ahead, usually at a spot in open country and with a predetermined route. They’re probably not too fond of constantly being associated with hunts who are trying to pretend they’re not chasing live quarry!

Hunts which hunt foxes should now be trail-hunting using a false scent; this is usually still the scent of a fox (to keep the hounds ready for when the anticipated repeal comes through) and even the ones that do genuinely lay a trail will still try to simulate the same kind of scenario, laying the scent through covers, etc. where foxes would normally be found.

Of course, many of them are not, in fact, trail-hunting. We’ve witnessed first-hand hunt staff calling back hounds when they’re not supposed to give chase or when they’re chasing an animal towards a main road or railway line, even when those hounds are in full-cry, so we know it can be done if the hunt staff know what they are doing and are actually in control. There is no excuse not to be, or to be “a couple of miles away” which we have heard used as a defence when a fox has been chased – even if the huntsman falls off his horse and is badly injured, whippers-in (who tend to be in training to become huntsmen) should be able to step in efficiently. If this isn’t the case, the hunts should not be out there.

Bloodhounds, by the way, are totally different again and they will chase the scent of a human runner. Harriers, Beagles, Minkhounds, Staghounds and so on are all different again…

But we don’t know anything about hunts do we, so we should probably just shut up now. But make sure to get your terminology straight before you try to argue with us. Thanks!

Hound killed by lorry on A40

It is not exactly unexpected that certain pro hunt pages would come out with such ridiculous lies about us regarding the events of today. We have to assume that they are very worried indeed and assuming that if they tell huge whopping fibs that they will somehow make any consequences go away. This is what actually happened as far as we know.

One sab was at the meet. Three more of us arrived later (there is a badger cull on and this is the cull zone) and the sab inland relayed where hounds were. Two sabs were dropped off on a footpath and went inland. The driver went down the A40 to pick up the lone sab. They missed the turning, turned around and saw a lorry on the road with hunt supporters picking up detritus, metal and plastic. Obviously there had been an accident. The sab parked up at Water Pumps and a hunt supporter said a hound had been killed. They walked down the road to where the lorry was and noted that whipper-in Martin Bingham was there. It was then that supporters and Martin started to flee the scene. The driver was very shaken and the sab took footage of the damage to the lorry and what was left of the hound on the road. A 999 call was made by the sab and police arrived very quickly. Other sabs, all three of whom were inland and nowhere near the road were also informed.

The police monitored the hunt all day and had to rebuke them later in the day when hounds were again all over the A40. Nothing to do with the sabs. A local woman had called the police fearing an accident.

At no time was the gizmo used. In the 20 minutes of so prior to the police arriving there was no tactical reason to use it. When the police were present the hunt were not quite as blatant as they are normally, we had to do nothing but walk around with cameras.

Interestingly Jack Hudd and James Smith made an appearance, these were 2 of the 3 terriermen convicted of illegal hunting in the summer.

We went from the Harriers straight out into the field to protect badgers until the small hours and want to make it very clear that one of us arrived AFTER the hound had been killed and called the police whilst hunt supporters scarpered without giving the hunt’s details to the driver for insurance purposes.

This was in the Gloucestershire cull zone – they hunted on land involved in the cull from Wharton Farm.

16th October 2015

The last 6 weeks and even the weeks before that have seen all of us out day and night thwarting the badger cull. To say we are knackered is an understatement! Many 3C sabs were out every day and night for the entire period and were sett-checking every single day during the weeks leading up to the cull.

Thanks to all who donated and helped us in other ways by giving us food, lifts and worked alongside us in the field. Thanks to the Hunt Saboteurs Association for their financial contribution to our fuel fund, to those who ran the camp, to those who just mucked in either in the zone or from home.

The local hunts have not been neglected entirely. Lots of sabs and patrollers on the ground at all hours have led to many sightings and sabs have been mobilised to various meets. On Monday the Ledbury met within the zone at Pauntley Court and were found drawing Chinn’s asparagus fields near Red Marley. You may remember that the Chinns are signed up for the cull and supply M and S with asparagus. Alas no photos of hounds peeing on it. No scent meant that they appeared to be having a blank morning but sabs were on hand to round up some rabbits that had ventured from a nearby garden.

The Ledbury were cub hunting again in the zone today at Forthampton but were only found when they were packing up.

Normal service will resume shortly.