On Saturday 5th November we met up with our close friends Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch to visit the (Duke of) Beaufort Hunt at their opening meet. Soon after the hunt left the meet at Worcester Lodge, a couple of 3C Sabs drove round to intercept the hunt and spotted a couple of quadbikes parked up in the corner of a field. With others on their way round to find the hunt, we stopped to check it out and were soon joined by three more quads, two of which also drove into the field.
As a sab passed these quads, one man was on the phone, we think warning the others that sabs were in the area. As the sab reached the original two quads, she could hear people within the wood and walked in to find a number of people with spades at an artifical earth.
We are unsure as to whether they had flushed a fox out of the AE as hounds were soon heard in full cry just a few fields away or whether they were attempting to get to a fox. We will certainly be keeping a closer eye on this area in the future!
Later in the day, as the hunt were just about to pack up, we spotted the same quadbikes and went to make sure they weren’t up to no good. One sab was surrounded by about 10 hunt riders, 5 quadbikes and 3 4x4s with horses being ridden at her and guys from the quads trying to grab her. Another sab coming in to make sure she was ok was punched in the face after a woman tried to steal her radio from her. Great way to act in front of your kids! Despite being known for some violence ‘back in the day’ Captain Ian Farquhar told the thugs to back down as he would not have 2 women being assaulted on his land. We appreciate his interevention and hope he might do something about these thugs in the future – why would anyone want to be associated with such people…
If you can support our work at all, we’re out 3, 4 or 5 times a week, often splitting the group in order to get to more than one hunt – Saturday saw other 3C sabs out with the Ross Harriers and Leadon Vale Bassets at their joint meet – and it does end up costing us a lot of money. We’ll be out there regardless, but if you’re able to chuck us a few quid to help out, it’ll be money well spent!
*please also check out NORTH Shropshire HUNT SABS’ page as they were out with our sab at the Harriers / Bassets meet and will be posting details on there about their day