Report from Kingston Hunt Sabs:
Whilst doing badger cull stuff, we still sab hunts. North Cotswolds Hunt cubbing meet early doors out of Evetts Farm, Wormington. Last year this farm was declared a TB hotspot. Despite this, and already having lost cattle to bTB this year, when asked, farmer James said he doesn’t mind the hounds – hunt hounds being proven carriers of TB – running free, through slurry, feed stores and drinking out of the water buckets. We have the conversation on film and will report the situation. We think he shouldn’t be claiming compensation for lost bTB animals when his biosecurity is so slack. We saw 2 foxes away. The hunt also put up deer. Calvin the falconer made a rape joke to a female sab. We have it on video. Trail obviously not laid through hedges, and they hunted in cattle fields amid cattle, on a bTB farm. Good morning’s sabbing with a handful of other sabs from Croydon and 3C.
Our report:
We were up and about early this morning checking setts within the North Cots cull zone and received a tip-off that the North Cotswold Hunt were meeting in the area of Wormington. Ryefield Farm was the meet at which a 3C sab’s camera and glasses were broken at this time last season as she was ‘lifted’ out of a field by a hunt supporter on a horse. Despite the obvious assault West Mercia police did not pursue a case against the rider
We had the pleasure of the company of some sabs from Croydon and Kingston groups and at around 6.15am we watched terrierman Will Haines* heading into a covert with a known artificial earth in it near to Wormington Grange. He spotted us and called in our presence and the hunt headed east and away from the coverts he had just been messing around in…
*who recently received a caution for attempting to run a 3C sab over on his quad at the end of December last year and was decidedly more polite and quiet today
A couple of maize fields later and the hunt had picked up on a couple of scents back near Wormington Grange, but we were close by. Having recognised a familiar face – Tim Pearce-May, ex-whipper-in of the Ledbury Hunt – out with terrier and joining Haines on the quad, we watched as the hunt drew the hounds through a small piece of shrub, hounds picking up and running towards sabs. A fox cub was spotted trying to break from the adjacent hedge and soon made eye contact with a lone hound who hesitated before bounding into the hedge as the cub backed off. We rated hounds and told huntsman Nigel Peel that we had fox on camera which slowed the hunt down before the cub broke into the field. We intercepted, rating, and turned hounds back before spraying the area to help cover the scent.
Calvin Crossman, falconer and desperate alibi for the hunt, turned up after the attempted chase, making a lame attempt at watching out for hunted cubs at the next covert (where sabs saw another cub run to safety) and made a rape joke about one of our sabs before excitedly calling other hunt staff to tell them that the sab obviously wanted him… back in December he assaulted a 3C sab – the same sab attacked by Haines – but West Mercia police took no further action against him
It wasn’t long before the hunt returned to Ryefield Farm – a farm which had a bTB breakdown in 2016 – where hounds drank from water buckets, ran around cow sheds and into slurry and jumped in and out of separation crates where calves lay. Strange that the landowner thought it perfectly ok for hounds to run around like this, despite bTB also being present in other areas of the NCH hunt country, including where they dug out and killed a fox last season just south of Evesham especially after the Kimblewick Hunt hounds contracted bTB earlier in the year. Kingston Hunt Sabs have some great photos of hounds around the farm.
We asked Pearce-May how he’d managed to spiral so low, going from whipper-in of a fairly prestigious hunt to terrierman of this lot (turns out he hasn’t even managed to get to terrierman stage… and he ended up doing more whipping-in duties than the whipper-in himself!) He told us that “someone needs to kill things for them, don’t they?” And Mark Meladay (Ledbury huntsman) had said he wasn’t a real enough man for him…
We’ll be out again soon. Support us if you can! paypal.me/threecountiessabs
