Update: The hunt say that the pub is hosting the meet. The pub say they’re not, but everyone is welcome in for food / drinks. We’ll be there against the hunt next week and on the day itself. Want to join us in protesting? Sabbing? PM or call us!

Boxing Day at The George Hotel in Newent.

It has recently been confirmed that the Cotswold vale Farmers’ Hunt will meet at the George Hotel in Newent on Boxing Day.

The George have provided veggie and even vegan food and soya milk for badger cull sabs staying or having meetings there during the Gloucestershire cull. We’ve never thought them to be anti-cull, but have appreciated the fact that they have always made us feel welcome regardless of the fact we’re obviously anti-hunt and anti-cull.

The George may well be unaware of the activities of the CVFH and just want to support a local spectacle on Boxing Day, but this will not stop locals from holding protests outside of the venue against the hunt on Boxing Day and in the run-up to the Christmas period. If you would like to join 3C Sabs on Boxing Day itself either to help us monitor and sab them or to have a protest in Newent please get in touch with us privately.

Please also contact the George politely and let them know your thoughts on hunting in general as well as your thoughts on the hunt being allowed to hold their meet there on the day.

Not far from the kennels just a few years ago, Bozard’s Lane in the North Cotswold cull zone, the hunt killed a vixen in a field, the terriermen quick to grab what they could of the remains of her body. When sabs checked for further evidence of the kill in the area they found several unborn cubs who had been ripped from her abdomen during the kill.

Regardless of who the huntsman is for the hunt (we’ve had 3 different ones in recent years) the hounds are often seen out of control in the area by sabs and by locals. In 2014 we had flagged down a couple of police officers driving past us on the A38 to inform them that hunt hounds had been out of control and running in front of cars on the busy road just minutes earlier. During the conversation sabs had to run on to the road and wave at a lorry to slow down whilst a lone hound ran back and forth across the road looking for the rest of his pack. Over the seasons sabs have had to slow traffic on numerous occasions for loose hounds and the odd loose horse. A hunt hound was killed on the A38 a few seasons ago, his body initially thrown into a ditch in an attempt to stop sabs from seeing him as they arrived on scene.

Just last week in the area of Longhope, right by the busy A40, hounds rioted on a deer and the hunt lost control of the pack for around an hour, struggling to gather them safely. Soon after the hunt had packed up we received messages from a couple of locals (one anti-hunt, the other not pro- or anti-hunt, but in search of information as to the identity of the hunt) saying that hounds had run out on to the A40 in front of their cars, no hunt members arriving on the road for a number of minutes.

Occasionally the fact that hunt hounds are more interested in deer can be helpful for the local fox. During the opening meet of the 2015 season a member of the hunt raised his hat and holloa’d to indicate to the huntsman that he had seen a fox and which direction the fox had run in. Hounds were encouraged on to the line but deer had run from the same treeline in the opposite direction just moments earlier and hounds picked up on their scent instead. Sabs covered the line of the fox and he escaped out of the area. Hounds also rioted on a hare only 2 weeks ago.

Other incidents involving the raising of hats / hands and holloas include a day earlier in the season when the hunt were still cubhunting. A sab had filmed a young fox escaping down a hedgeline and was subsequently grabbed by a man claiming to be the landowner and 2 of his friends. The sab’s arm was twisted and her camera broken before the man realised she had a body camera filming and attempted to grab it also. Police are currently investigating.

While members of the CVFH are not under suspicion of being involved in the events that led to the South Herefordshire being investigated for keeping cubs and feeding them alive to their hounds, the hunts are very close, having joint meets together and supporters of the South also going out to support the CVFH (Mr. Whitehouse also rides out with the CVFH).

We’ve had the pleasure of working regularly with a sab from NORTH Shropshire HUNT SABS who has been able to gather her own footage during days out with the hunt, including this (long) video of sabs trying to keep hounds distracted and off a nearby road whilst waiting for absent (and not very appreciative) hunt staff to arrive on scene and take control of the pack. Huntsman Simon French didn’t earn the nickname ‘Scatterpack’ for nothing! Even the hunt’s supporters often ask us what the hell is going on with the hunt losing hounds all over the place. Last Saturday Master Chris Golding, as usual these days, ended up doing more work to rate / encourage the hounds that Scatterpack himself and car support were having to jump out of their cars and try to rate the hounds back off roads.

When sabs from 3C and North Shrops stopped hounds on the line of a fox during cubhunting they were sworn at and threatened by hunt staff. We won’t go into the number of times we’ve been ridden at by members of the hunt or field (the mounted supporters) even when on footpaths or the time that Woody climbed into a sab vehicle, drunk, and repeatedly tried to grope the 2 female sabs within whilst the hunt hunted nearby.

The hunt are a danger to their own hounds, wildlife and members of the public (especially those using roads nearby). The are not something to be celebrated. They claim to lay trails, then we come across hounds in full cry running across roads. Even if we believed that they were laying false trails, who would be irresponsible enough to lay one across a road, especially knowing how incompetent the hunt are at keeping hounds under control?! It’s also strange that we’re often told by landowners that the hunt are in fact trespassing on their land or were not expected on a certain day – who laid the trail there then?

Please contact the George politely and let them know what you think about their holding of a hunt meet at the venue.

Thanks. 3C