6th January:
We joined up with our friends from Cirencester Illegal Huntwatch to the Ledbury hunt meet at Murrell’s End, Hartpury. Sett blocking patrols revealed that they had ceased to sett-block on Hartpury college land which is just as well because the college principal is none too pleased with this. However they had demolished a badger sett just at the back of the meet. This sett was heavily targeted during the cull. Other setts were found to be thriving and unblocked. CIHW saw a fox fleeing from hounds immediately after the meet onto Hartpury college land. They then drew a blank in Catgrove and did not appear to do much in Mount Oliver Wood. Later it was over to Maisemore park and they hunted a fox into some thick brambles. It is thought that this fox went to ground but with our presence they moved on quickly away from us towards Ashleworth
Video from Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch
7th January:
Update (due to certain pro-hunt people being all hysteric about this post): The owner of this sheep has been in touch saying that the sheep was already dead this morning but they did not have the chance to remove the body prior to the hunt coming along. We’ve left her comment up on facebook (as we usually do with everyone) so you can see what she’s said about it.
It’s pretty clear from our original post that we are writing about what we’ve seen and not accusing anyone of anything specific. As we’ve said “we will try and solve this mystery”. If, in the meantime, people from whichever side of the fence wish to speculate or jump to conclusions they’re entitled to do so. But those pro-hunt people who are not linked with this hunt saying that anti-hunt people will believe just about anything and then going on to say that hounds definitely were not responsible are being a little hypocritical… if you weren’t there, you don’t know any more than what we’ve posted here.
If we find evidence to suggest that hounds were responsible or that they were not, we’ll post about it. As always, if we at 3C do not have evidence of something, we will not state it as fact. We, on the other hand, are constantly being accused of things without any evidence to back up those accusations, so, please, if you can’t help using generalisations, stereotypes and bullshit allegations, get off our page. Thanks, 3C
Now back to the original post…
“Sabs out with CVFH, Linton Ridge. Joint master Chris Golding seen dragging dead, bloody disembowelled sheep to his land-rover out of breath and very jumpy. This is what we found in the field from whence he came fresh, blood soaked wool with hound prints. We will try and solve this mystery….. More to follow”
Cotswold Vale Farmer’s Hunt, Bromsash. We arrived late but they set off later. After bumping into terrierman Nick Hodges (he arrived later still) on Cutthroat Lane we were delayed by his lack of reversing skillls. Fortunately an elderly and fiesty lady who was late for a funeral berated him into getting out of the way.
Simon the huntsman seemed to dither a bit and driving back onto Linton Ridge we saw one of the masters, Chris Golding (who is also signed up to the Gloucestershire badger cull btw), dragging a fresh sheep corpse over a considerable distance. He seemed a bit flustered and we were suprised that he didn’t drive into the field to pick up the body. Now Chris’s fiance has told 3C that she found the body at 08.00 when she fed the sheep. All we are saying is that the hunting fraternity have been known to tell fibs and the blood on the ground was fresh. We can only speculate as to what happened here did hounds kill this sheep? Did they try and eat up a sheep that was already dead? Did the sheep die and get eaten by foxes/ravens and other scavengers? We do point out that we do not know at this stage but 2 things to point out 1. it is not unknown for hounds to attack sheep, 2. sheep get cast and often suffer appalling deaths from exposure, predation, maggot infestation etc etc (which is why we are vegan). Anyway, it is what it is and we are keeping an open mind.
They went on to whisk through the usual places, Withymoor, Cutthroat Lane, Warren Lane etc with not much else of note happening other than the police attending to esure that no laws were broken by either side.