We had two meets within half a mile of one another. The North Cotswold met at Kinetonhill farm and along with our friends Cirencester Illegal Huntwatch they were kept an eye on and many setts checked.

The Heythrop met at Condicote and early morning patrols found setts blocked the day before. They hunted a fox over the B4077 and one sab was surrounded at a blocked sett by pony club and some rather excitable adults. The behaviour of the children was exemplary but the adults were a bit odd to say the least accusing said sab of blocking setts!

On to land owned by Donnington Brewery who really should not associate with such criminal practices as illegal hunting and sett blocking their website is here. The third blocked sett of the day and as they has just hunted a fox towards Merryman’s brake you would have thought that they might be a bit contrite at being found out but oh no. Some histrioinics about footpaths and some chap from the Fernie being a bit silly.

They were around Han’s Brake alot and eventually hunted a fox over the A44 into Sezincoate and got all over the road in appalling weather conditions risking horse, hound and human.

Amyway here is the video link https://vimeo.com/253295514 and please, if you like what we do please support us.

Sabs from 3C were out again yesterday both sett surveying new areas and fending off a shooter in the old Gloucs badger cull zone.

*** MULTIPLE SETTS BLOCKED BY 3 DIFFERENT HUNTS IN THE NORTH COTSWOLD BADGER CULL ZONE ON SATURDAY 13TH JANUARY 2018 *** ONE SETT BLOCKER CAUGHT RED HANDED BY ONE EARLY MORNING PATROL NEAR HAWLING, COTSWOLD HUNT ***

We were out in the field by 06.00 and just as we thought nothing would happen a man arrived to interfere with a sett that has been repeatedly targeted in Cotswold hunt country. He ran away after filling in several entrances with boulders and staves. Another sett nearby was also filled in with boulders. All so that the Cotswold Hunt would not have their fun disturbed by a fox going to ground in a sett. Rupert Inglesant is the master and huntsman and is also responsible for the multiple setts blocked Saturday morning. Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch found more and kept on them for the hunting part of the day as did badger protectors who were out sett checking.

Just a couple of miles away 4 setts were found to be blocked by the North Cotswold Hunt. We were in the right place at the right time when one fox crossed the road near Cutsdean, Nigel ran the other way leaving Calvin Crossman to fly his eagle to no avail.

More blocked setts are being found today by badger protectors from the Heythrop meet at Eyford who met less than a mile from the NCH.

They are all out again this week 2-4 more meets each.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, dozens of setts filled in on one day in an area where Natural England has decided to licence a badger cull!!

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****NORTH COTSWOLD HUNT TERRIERMAN FILMED PUTTNG HIS DOG INTO AN ARTIFICAL EARTH******

Joint meet of the North Cotswold Hunt and the Duke of Beaufort’s. Ryefield farm.

Ermm,well, what to say really. The artificial earth was staked out by a sab on the off chance that someone would turn up and do something silly. Sure enough Will Haines turned up with all his Beaufort terrierman chums. They waited outside the covert whilst his terrier ran into the AE, after being encouraged by him to do so, to bolt the fox out to the Beaufort pack hunted by Matt Ramsden who was drawing the top of the covert. The sab’ had to jump out of their hiding place in order to stop proceeedings. Will was not too happy to see the sab but did make an, ultimately, successful attempt to call his dog out and catching them before they escaped back down the earth. The Beaufort boys were asked to assist him with his predicament and then all left the covert.

The Beaufort pack had picked up what is thought to be another fox’s scent and started to hunt him. They were very effectively sabbed by the Beaufort terriermen who rated them back to the huntsman. It is thought that the fox in the AE was not bolted out (although the terrier had a good try), the fox being hunted was let be as they all ran away quite fast. Suprisingly Richard Sumner who was convicted of several counts of illegal hunting was outside the covert watching proceedings, you would have thought he would know better.

Of course, a blocked sett was also found, reported and unblocked. They ran to the hills…

It was a very busy day yesterday – Saturday 16th December 2017. North Cotswold cull zone, Heythrop and North Cotswold Hunt.

The Heythrop and the North Cotswold Hunt very often meet very close to one another which usually means sett blocking on an industrial scale. Some very weary sabs were in the field at 5.30 to keep an eye on known vulnerable setts after sabbing the Ledbury the day before. It was very cold, the snow still lay thick and the sabs were hoping for a cancellation. With no sounds of quads and no signs of blocking an early finish began to look promising but at a very well earned breakfast news of horse boxes rolling up all over the place for both Slatepits (NCH) and Donnington (Heythrop) came in. At least they met an hour late to wait for the ground to thaw a tiny bit but even we were struggling to stay upright on foot.

Sabs checked one more sett to find that it like all the others had been blocked recently and that the badgers had dug their own way out. Off it was to the Heythrop who hunted a fox from Donnington over the A424, hounds were running amongst the traffic. Fortunately a foot follower seemed to avert disaster by getting them off the road and back to Merryman’s Brake.

Then things all got a bit surreal…hounds hunted from Swell Wold and were heading fast to another very busy road the B4077. We managed to slow them down first by lifting their heads and then by rating them but over the road they went at speed into a large piece of land. With Master and huntsman Charlie Frampton (who had changed into a black coat) galloped on a very icy road to catch up. As we drove around to Springhill the North Cotswold were hunting a fox across into the same large piece of land. We stopped the pack but the huntsman Nigel Peel took them on to hunt south as the Heythrop hunted north.

They have been known to crash into one another, don’t think it happened on this day, but it was close. What happens to the poor foxes running from one pack and then into another does not bear thinking about.

NB the Heythrop claim to be trail hunting. Now the correct etiquette for hunt country boundaries was always that it was ok to continue to hunt a fox that was found in one hunt country into another, but a faux pas of massive proportions to pop over the border and go looking for one. So… why would they lay a trail over a main road into another hunt country which was being hunted by them at exactly the same time???

Our day was far from over when they tried packing up (at least one horse box was stuck in the snow). More sett checking and none found blocked by either hunt.

****8 freshly blocked badger setts found today in Heythrop country / North Cotswold badger cull zone (so far….)****

We would not expect any of our local hunts to be out mounted today… alas, they had different ideas.

So Saturday 9th December very cold sabs were on the ground first thing looking for any signs of sett blocking. With quad bike tracks in the snow 5 blocked setts were found pre hunt. Which confirmed that they were actually going to ride out in very slippery conditions.

After a few hours of unblocking in freezing conditions and dodging gamekeepers feeding their pheasants quite an appetite was built up so it was off to Stow on the Wold for some very nice muffins and an oat latte. Brunch was enhanced by some vegan sausage rolls.

At least the Heythrop had the good sense to start late, 12.30 in fact and we got picked up pretty quickly by our stalkers, however some sabs thwarted the Heythropian anti/sab tactics by running off into Eyford Park prior to them getting organised.

The usual cat and mouse games insued. They only played at hunting in Eyford park with sabs hiding up goodness knows where. Another sab (accompanied by stalker) did see a fox run to safety from where the pack were hunting. Whether or not this was the hunted fox is unknown but he went one way, the hunt another. Some citronella was sprayed on his line and as it is normal for the Heythrop to run away from being filmed going onto the line of a fox he was safe.

On then to the old railway at Naunton where they chased a fox across a main road to Cold Aston.

They packed up as the light began to fade and sabs then went to work sett checking finding 3 more blocked setts.

This week 14 setts have been found to be blocked on the same day as the hunt were out. 13 of them were in the North Cotswold cull zone. This is unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg in this area…

We sabbed the North Cotswold hunt from Cutsdean in the North Cotswold badger cull zone with freinds from Cirencester Illegal huntwatch. An early morning sett patrol pre hunt led to the discovery that the setts targeted by the cull and then by sett blocking had slowly started to recover, no blocked setts were found by us. An attempt to puncture the tyres of our long suffering Ford focus were thwarted by noticing that something was amiss on return to the car. More on that at a later date…To all sabs and monitors, check before you drive off.

Sadly Nigel Peel let himself down by either not having full control of the pack OR could it possibly be that they chased a fox over the B4077 and into some gardens. Anyway the end result was chaos on the roads as can be seen from this film.
He kept running away from us after that and we don’t think he got much hunting done after using the Heythrop counter sab/monitor tactic of 1. getting stalkers to stick with us and 2 running away if it looks like we are anywhere nearby.

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*****Badger sett dug out and blocked by Beaufort hunt****

The Duke of Beaufort’s hunt met in one of the Wiltshire badger cull zones today. This is what they did to an active badger sett. The badgers had not dug themselves out overnight when the sett was found the following day. The sett has now been unblocked and the authorities informed.

It is unknown as to whether or not the killed a fox as a result of this digout.

Report from Fox Hunt off Malvern Hills:

TERRIERMAN ASSAULT UPDATE:

We have received notification that the charge of AFFRAY against terrier man/tree surgeon from Malvern, Ross Loader, was dismissed in Worcester Crown Court on Monday. Although disappointed we are pleased West Mercia Police took the incident seriously, interviewing some of those involved and taking it to court. We know too well the difficulties of making legally strong cases and convincing the CPS to prosecute hunt/wildlife/trespass/protesting related crimes.

The incident happened when Bristol Hunt Saboteurs found terriermen NR a badger sett that a fox had gone to ground in that they wanted to dig out – although private land, a stones throw away from Castlemorton Common, Malvern Hills Trust land. When a 3C Sab entered land to stop the dig-out he was also threatened by them but stood his ground and the dig-out was abandoned.

For more info Google ‘Ross Loader’ or visit Bristol Hunt Saboteurs Facebook page.

Kick On.

Just days after the RPJ Band pulled out of playing the hunt ball the North Cotswold held their opening meet…

*** North Cotswold Hunt sett-blocker caught on camera – Sabs out for fifth time this week – RPJ Band have pulled out of playing North Cotswold Hunt Ball ***

The North Cotswold Hunt met at Springhill this morning for their opening meet. Springhill is where they will be holding their hunt ball again this year and where ex-terrierman Rog carries on his ‘work’. No surprise there then that the Estate allows sett-blocking and illegal hunting.

Footage is being passed on to the police of the 5 setts found blocked this morning during our ‘early morning sett-blocking patrol’. Many setts had been blocked last night, to minimise work this morning… when moving on from some setts we left trail cameras in our place, so evidence sent to police includes video footage of one of the setts being blocked with rocks and a tree branch. More on that later once we have discussed the situation with the police!

Especially with the Heythrop Hunt meeting nearby and hunting around Sezincote, it was a busy day (other sabs were at the Ross Harriers Hunt – we’ll share their report soon). Heythrop terriermen and supporters were caught messing around not far from a known artificial earth and drove off swiftly at arrival of sabs.

Then at a fireworks display this evening information was also overheard about the Cotswold Hunt… that the new huntsman is sh*t and they only got on the scent of a couple of foxes all day at their opening meet. Be careful who you speak to and where boys!

A huge thank you to the individuals out yesterday and today ‘dog-walking’ and ‘rambling’ near to the hunt meets – your footage and intel is invaluable!

More on all this soon…

*** Setts blocked by North Cotswold Hunt within the North Cotswold cull zone — Quarry confirm hunt trespassed on to land to hunt ***

Facebook Video

Having received a tip-off that the North Cotswold Hunt were meeting in Cutsdean, within the North Cotswold cull zone, we arrived to find them in cry and running across a road. A hunt supporter yelled for ‘Libby’ and waved her hand frantically in our direction to warn her that we were there. Libby, who has been hanging out close to huntsman Nigel Peel during hunts, knows all about illegal hunting as her partner, Richard, was convicted for illegal hunting as part of the Heythrop Hunt a few years back.

Hounds picked up on scents on and off in a nearby wood then picked up and went into full cry, heading straight into a disused quarry nearby, the pack splitting as hunt staff were unable to follow them in and had to go around… we spent some time speaking to a local woman afterwards who had been upset when stray hounds ran on to the B4077. The quarry managers were contacted and confirmed that the hunt had no permission to be there…

But as they were hunting a scent in the quarry either they had gone in to lay a trail earlier on, they had been intending to flush to a bird on the B-road… or they were illegally hunting a fox. We’re accepting bets if you fancy a gamble!

We did some checking around the area on setts that have been targeted during the culls and, at the time of writing, 5 have been found freshly blocked with quad tracks running to them – one almost opposite Manor Farm where the hunt packed up. Sabs and cull sabs are continuing to check throughout this afternoon so this count will most likely increase.

At one point we spotted a young fox running, tired, through a field – a local man driving past a couple of minutes earlier said he had seen a fox running away from the hounds but they appeared to have lost the scent when the fox ran across a field. With hounds still nearby, the fox came running back from the covert he had been seen going into showing typical signs of a ‘sinking’ (exhausted) fox. What a surprise that the sett in that covert was also blocked, forcing him to carry on looking for sanctuary elsewhere…

We believe he got away finally, hiding up in another covert, but hounds remained in the area for a further couple of hours, packing up just after 1pm (!) having scared a young deer out of scrub and almost under the wheels of a passing lorry.

We’re astounded by the lack of common sense hunts have been displaying lately, particularly with regards to other people’s property and safety. Video to follow (plus report from yesterday’s Cotswold Vale Farmers’ Hunt opening meet).

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