Gilders ordered to pay over £15,000

Notorious clan of live exporters, hunt supporters and biosecurity breachers, Gilders have been subject to many demonstrations over the years.

You would see their lorries up and down the country, even in London at Countryside Alliance events (sometimes with protesters halfway up the side of them, sometimes trying to run said protesters over…) and, of course, all over the Cotswolds where they are based. Right where the cull will be taking place. And right in an area where we sab. And once again, more breaches of biosecurity.

Some people just don’t change.

Gloucestershire Echo article

*£11,000 fine + £4,662 costs = £15,662… we’re better at maths than the Glos Echo. Obviously.

Ledbury Hunt: 18th and 22nd January

The Ledbury was sabbed twice this week. On Monday we kept tabs on them from a meet at Rushall where they hunted a fox from Dymock wood and got told off by a local farmer.

On Friday from Corse End Farm we potentially prevented 2 dig outs at badger setts which foxes escaped down. These setts have been heavily targeted over the last 3 badger culls in the area. Terriermen were chased off of one sett and there was a sab presence at the sett filmed.

Facebook Video

Ledbury Hunt support chaos

Good to see some sense posted on Countryside Capers regarding the Ledbury Hunt (joint meet with South Shrops) on Friday – these photos were taken by a hunt supporter and photographer and show how chaotic the field were. The hedge damaged is on land owned by Master David Redvers and sabs have once before run in to offer first aid to a woman who had fallen jumping the hedge.

On Friday (when we were out with Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch and when we had our tyre slashed) sabs shouted at riders to stop jumping the hedge as we saw this horse fall upon landing. Several riders jumped before others stopped – some then rode round to a gate we opened for them. They couldn’t see the ground on this side, but, more importantly, they didn’t to look to see if the horse in front had safely landed before also jumping – they could have seriously injured the horses and riders who had come off.

Many of the riders had no patience and the field master had not stayed around to ensure members of the field had jumped safely. We saw one woman on a horse jump cleanly and confidently, further down the hedge from where the majority jumped too close together. One horse and rider. Out of the entire field. We’re happy to offer first aid to hounds, horses and people on any side of the debate. But we prefer not to have to.

We asked everyone we saw fall if they and the horses were ok. We later saw an ambulance leaving Tweenhills Stud (Redvers’ place) but Mark Meladay and Tim Pearce-May wouldn’t / couldn’t tell us if everyone was alright. Glad to hear she wasn’t more seriously hurt!

Video from rider

riders

South Herefordshire Hunt: 16th January 2016

Yesterday’s report from our visit to the South Herrie Hunt with very good friends from North Shropshire Hunt Sabs. We found them around the Kentchurch area and got inland with them soon afterwards. There began a lot of confusion, mostly on the part of the hunt, which this very silly video will explain. Not a bad day, especially as we’re still getting to know the hunt.

Ledbury Hunt and South Shropshire Joint Meet: 15th January 2016

Well, following on from last week’s events with the quadbike and the shit, we were ready to post something up about the Ledbury’s high turnover of terriermen and write about terrierwork. Lately they don’t seem to have been turning any over, just piling more on top and we’ve ended up with about 8 people who will get involved in dig-outs, etc. whether they’re official terriermen or not.

And then we went back out with the Ledbury today, with our very good friends from Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch and there were some new boys out on a quad. Not masked up. We’d briefly mentioned some hunt support apologising to us in last week’s report and today we were stopped early on by supporters saying that they had complained to the hunt committee about what was happening! It was also very much appreciated when hunt officials also apologised to the sab who had been assaulted. We may be on different sides when it comes to hunting, but hopefully many of us can agree that there’s no need for that kind of shit! tongue emoticon

The men involved in the usual bad behaviour were spotted in various vehicles during the day, so they were still around, but not on quadbikes. We shall see how long they can go without their usual mischief for…

We had the ‘pleasure’ of Otis Ferry’s company as he was hunting hounds for the day and the hounds picked up soon after leaving the meet in Woolridge Wood near to Hartpury (once again, Glos cull zone territory). A fox was spotted crossing the busy A417 and his line was covered. A muntjac, roe deer, various hares and another fox were spotted soon after, running from the pack on the other side of the road after hounds had crossed. This fox hid up in a covert, helped by sabs who covered his scent too. Through Hartpury and Ashleworth, a long chase took place up into the Limbury Hill area and we lost them for some time before catching up again and keeping a watchful eye on them.

Brilliant teamwork once again with CIHW – always nice to meet up, whether at the Ledbury or the Beaufort.

If you can help either of our groups financially, let us know by chucking a few quid this way – we’ll pass on any monies CIHW need to them too: Paypal

Ledbury Hunt: 8th January 2016

Today, Friday 8th, the hunt were back in the Malvern area with a meet in Welland. A couple of somewhat-under-the-weather-feeling sabs headed out to keep an eye on them the best we could! We knew they would probably target an area known as ‘The Stanks’ as it is a large area and they often pick up in there (indeed The Stanks has been featured on a couple of our sab videos in the past – see our Vimeo page).

They picked up early on and a fox was run to ground in a badger sett in a field, making its escape, and was left alone (we checked back on the sett after the hunt had packed up and have it on our list for future reference). Huntsman Mark didn’t look best pleased at having to leave…

Early in the afternoon one sab had gone inland as a lead hound, on its own, seemed interested in a scent and soon brought the remainder of the pack across fields to him. The sab made her presence known and the hunt pulled the hounds out of the area. On her way out, the sab heard a quad bike arriving in the area and, seconds later, received a radio message from the sab who had stayed with the car that “I’ve just had shit thrown in my face”. Obviously the terriermen were not content with the urine they threw over her in her car in Castlemorton last week! Luckily it wasn’t human waste! Other hunt supporters apologised to us for what we have to deal with…

The delicate little flowers (all 6 of them) on the quads apparently mask up to avoid nasty comments from keyboard warriors on facebook. No wonder the Ledbury have such a high turnover of terriermen. Although they seem to just be adding more and more to the pile these days and not getting rid of any. Any more and those quads really will be overloaded – they’re already illegally riding on public roads with no number plates and with 3 people on each… Probbly a good thing we’re not so scared of the odd nasty word by “the other side” or we’d never leave the house again.

We did lose them for a time, but found them as they were hunting once again. Sabs stopped the car and rated the hounds, whipper-in Tim lifting the hounds and taking them round to where they believed the fox had run (at least this gave the fox a few extra seconds to get away!) Following some silly attempts at intimidation by the terriermen, a sab ran back inland as hounds started to speak, watching them run towards a farm and with the whole pack in sight, gave a holloa a go… bringing the pack towards her and off the scent. Tim wasn’t happy and, popping out of a hedge on his horse, was going to ride at her but she stepped into the hedge and walked away.

They drew coverts until dark, hardly noticeable in the twilight on the roads… Terriermen were obviously so scared of being put on facebook that they then attempted to get into the sab car.

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Ledbury Hunt: 4th January 2016

Today the hunt met at The Brainge in Putley. The terrier-bike was out very early and seemed a little nervous when they realised some of us had also got into the area before the meet. Well done to one of our sabs for picking them up!

For the most part of the day we kept an eye on them pretty well, when they hunted a fox through Lady’s Wood and the bit where a hunt supporter pointed out a fox to another who then pointed out the location to the huntsman, Mark. Hounds were cast into the wood, splitting once they were rated and picking up on another fox in a nearby woodland. We believe they lost both of these.

We did have a small issue when one sab came out on to a road near to Putley Riding School, seeing hounds running down the fields towards her and stopping to keep an eye on them. One girl mentioned the hunt weren’t supposed to be on their land due to the mud and the sab told her the location of the hounds and said to just let her know if she needed to move out of the way as they were moving their horses before the hunt came past. It was all very amicable (we don’t treat people differently in situations like this regardless of their views on hunting) until the girl’s mother turned up to see if the hounds were on her land and asked the sab if she was into hunting. Then the pushing started (sab was on a public road) and the shouting and the allegations (like putting up pictures of people’s horses so they could be stolen) and the threats from the daughter (“I’m going to shove that camera up your arse!”) all in front of the youngsters they were in charge of. Very nice. Very narrow-minded. As the hunt and hounds weren’t doing anything interesting at the time, the footage wouldn’t have even gone online…

We stayed with the hunt as they picked up, stray hounds all over the place and sabs splitting up to keep an eye from different directions. We told whipper-in Tim that he wasn’t doing his job properly to which he replied with “neither are you – we’re hunting aren’t we?!”

We kept an eye on them when they marked to ground and when they hunted through yet another person’s garden, losing them from time to time, but certainly keeping them on their toes!

Beaufort Hunt: 2nd January 2016

Thanks to Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch for writing this report.

The Beaufort Hunt met in Shipton Moyne on Saturday and Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch teamed up with Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs to monitor them. It was another soggy wet outing with cameras and equipment suffering from too much moisture. That said we did manage to get some interesting footage of the hunt chasing foxes and drawing coverts throughout the day. The usual local wildlife was scared out on to lanes – we saw a beautiful hare cross right in front of us. There is never a thought for terrorising the animals that live in countryside including the domestic ones – several times during the day we saw sheep huddled together in the corner of their fields as the riders and hounds rampaged through.

Once we’ve established where the meet is it’s just a case of finding out which way they are going – inevitably it will be to the surrounding woods in the area. Heading West the hunt surrounded ‘Rough Grounds’ and the hounds were speaking loudly enough for us to be worried – we put sabs in at both sides to move them on and saw our first two foxes of the day. I fox ran by us and 1 took shelter – hounds were gathered. This was where the hare ran out looking for shelter and the first lot of sheep huddled together. It’s amazing the landowner allows the hunt through his land where livestock are grazing but of course the hunt rely on the local farmers to support them and several turn out to open gates for them. It was here that a local lady stopped to talk to me and declared she was anti fox hunting and was considering helping us! Nice to know we have support in the area.

‘Rough Ground’ borders Westonbirt Golf Course and school where we could hear the huntsman’s horn and cries encouraging the hounds on. Surely they wouldn’t take them into Westonbirt School – Oh yes they did and that’s where we heard the hounds on cry again and saw another fox – maybe one of the brace we saw before. They quickly moved on to Garden Plantation and Rushmore Covert but hopefully it escaped via a dung heap near the sewage works.
We encountered the usual blocking techniques – that is hunt supporters either completely blocking our way with their cars or dangerously standing in the road not letting us through. Three Counties Sabs recognised one car which belongs to supporters from the Ledbury Hunt on a day out – Mark Meladay and his 2 chums who were earlier seen enjoying beverages on the side of the road.

Nearing darkness they decided to pack up for the day and we headed home satisfied that we had helped to save foxes lives – most of the day we had them well covered.

Video of the hounds in Westonbirt School Grounds