UPDATE (29th Oct): Having attended a police station this morning, statements have now been taken by police regarding yesterday’s incident and enquiries will be made as to the identities of the perpetrators. Outpaced are assisting us with following up on the handling of incidents such as this, although a police officer this morning did apologise as an individual for not realising the severity of the situation yesterday evening

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We attended the North Cotswold Hunt’s newcomers’ meet this morning with hounds running around Ryefield Farm in Wormington once again (which still has an unresolved bTB breakdown) and several foxes chased plus badger sett blocking has begun again.

When the hunt packed up, we went to find the Croome and West Warwickshire Hunt who were holding their opening meet not far away. There was little action for the most part while we were around but the hunt stayed inland as much as possible and we had basically no interaction with hunt staff. At the end of the meet we dropped one of our guys off at his car to head home but as he drove down the road, drunk hunt supporters threw a heavy boulder at his windscreen. He managed to swerve and the boulder broke a back window.

So yet another 999 call went in to police…

Sab: ‘a hunt supporter has just thrown a boulder at my car as I was driving which has smashed through the window’

Call handler: ‘oh, the hunt wouldn’t do something like that… they’re really well mannered’

Many thanks West Mercia police… perhaps your total lack of action is the reason you’re not trusted by the general public?

Full report and videos of this morning’s sabbing at the North Cots to follow. Please contact us with any info on this hunt or their supporters or if you know of anyone who lives in Peopleton with private CCTV cameras which face a road. If you can help us support our sab with his vehicle repair costs please chuck us a few quid on paypal: threecountiessab@live.com and let us know it’s specifically for him

On 28th October 2017, the North Cotswold Hunt held a newcomers’ meet near to Wormington. They certainly showed newcomers what the hunt was all about, picking up on a fox within the first few draws and chasing him through Ryefield Farm (yep, the same farm that has an unresolved case of bTB and which allowed the hunt to meet on their land back in September) and on to Wormington Grange. Further along, a badger sett was found blocked at an area where a fox was seen breaking cover (another also running from the same area) who had, most likely, been trying to ‘go to ground’ and escape the hounds, but had to run on further due to the blockages. They then moved on to Little Mocho Coppice, just south of Childswickham, where we found an artificial earth in the top corner earlier on during cubhunting. Hounds were hunted on by hunt staff despite knowing that foxes were on camera, riders stalked sabs in order to keep tabs on them and relay locations back to the hunt staff and parking / driving skills of supporters were atrocious as usual. So a pretty spot-on impression of what to expect from the hunt for the remainder of the season…

On 7th October 2017 the Ledbury South* killed a fox during their last draw by a river bank. Several other foxes, however, made it to safety earlier in the day (and others escaped by the river) including this one… so we thought we’d share some positivity.

*an amalgamation of the remains of the South Herefordshire Hunt and the Ledbury Hunt who, last year, were quick to try and distance themselves from the actions of the South Here at their kennels…

Facebook Video

North Cotswold Hunt – Childswickham – North Cotswold badger cull zone

We got an early morning phone call today telling us that the North Cotswold hunt and hounds were gathering in Childswickham, near to Broadway, within the North Cotswold cull zone (although in an area where so many setts have been blocked / tampered with / dug out over the years that it seems void of any badger activity). We jumped in the car and headed over to check it out.

As we arrived, hounds were being put into a covert near to Little Mocho Farm where they picked up repeatedly. On the road, our driver filmed a fox trying to escape from the covert and whipper-in riding towards the fox, making noise to scare him back in towards the hounds. On the other side of the wood, a fox was spotted trying to break from the tree line a few times, with hunt supporters making noises to scare him back in and pointing out his location to other supporters whose conversations increased in volume in response. Within the wood, landowner and other supporters stood around an artificial earth to prevent foxes being able to seek shelter within it. Just off-camera, one sab spotted a brace of foxes finally make a dash for it from the covert and along a hedgeline, hounds giving chase not long after. We believe they lost the scent in some nearby run-down farm buildings.

Heading south next, hounds picked up again in another covert, so we drove round and followed terriermen into the area to see what they were up to. Smoking liquorice-papered roll-ups apparently… as hounds moved back into the covert from neighbouring fields, we found ourselves in a perfect position to film and rate hounds as a fox ran from them.

Back to the original area and they tried to pick up on the scent of the earlier brace again, before having a little gathering between themselves and packing up. Calvin Crossman, falconer and failed-attempt-at-alibi for the hunt, tried to prevent sabs from walking to a footpath, wanting them to instead climb (and potentially damage) a fence and hedge belonging to the landowner. As sabs walked past him regardless, the words “piece of sh*t” and “fuck*ng c*nt” were quick out of his mouth, directed at the female sab who he assaulted back in December. When she turned to ask why the bad language was needed, he started to complain that she was harassing him… we think his views on the world are a little skewed!

Speaking of falconry, we’d like to quickly address the falconry exemption of the Hunting Act. In brief, it allows falconers to use dogs to flush foxes out from coverts in order for a bird of prey to hunt them in the open. The dogs are just to be used to flush the fox into the open, not to give chase themselves. So we would not be seeing packs of hounds running, in cry, on a line, for several fields or more. Additionally, we would not be seeing hunt staff and supporters making noise to scare them back into the covert as the idea is to get any running fox into the open…

We were told today that the hunt were using the falconry exemption and we were also told that they were following a trail. For argument’s sake we’ll say that they were intending to trail hunt. 1. Trails do not need to be scared back into a covert, so no noise is needed. 2. If a fox tried to run from hounds, you would let them run, not scare them back in, because you’d want hounds to be able to hunt the trail properly. 3. Especially during cubhunting, you would not make noise because, even if a trail were laid in a covert, you wouldn’t know if hounds had ‘accidentally’ picked up on a real fox and wouldn’t want to ‘accidentally’ cause it to be caught and killed.

Which makes us believe that the hunt are fully intending to hunt foxes in breach of the Hunting Act. Not a major surprise really….

A quick myth-buster to finish from the personal view of one sab out today… 1. I do have a job. 2. I fit work and sabbing around each other as much as possible. 3. It is a job that helps humans – why do hunt supporters always assume I don’t care about humans instead of just asking what I do? 4. When you say ‘why don’t you do something to help humans instead of being out here?’ whilst sitting on horseback in a field waiting for hounds to rip a fox apart, don’t you see any hypocrisy in your question at all? All in all not too bad a day (unless you’re unhappy-looking-huntsman Nigel Peel). We’ll be seeing you again soon we reckon Nigel and co.

Just a couple of weeks ago the Malvern Hills Trust (formerly the Malvern Hills Conservators) authorised a new policy on hunting (the previous one being in place since the 1980s). This follows various incidents filmed by our sabs over the seasons and further exposure and collation of evidence by Fox Hunt Off Malvern Hills. It also follows drafts of the policy being commented on by ourselves, Fox Hunt Off Malvern Hills, the League Against Cruel Sports and ’round table meetings’ with representatives of both the Ledbury Hunt and the Croome and West Warwickshire Hunt both of whom disputed the Trust’s powers to restrict access for hunts – the Ledbury Hunt even getting a solicitor involved.

The main points talked about include:

– activities mentioned in Schedule 1 of the Hunting Act (i.e. ‘the Gamekeepers’ Exemption’, flushing to a bird of prey, etc) are not permitted
– permission must be sought at least a month before the first planned event – maximum of 4 events allowed in total between October 1st and January 31st
– details of the exact route that the scent trail will be laid must be submitted at least 10 days in advance of each event and the huntsman or master must have full knowledge of the route (the area may also be made public)
– trails must not be laid through cover and hounds must be encouraged to keep moving and not be allowed to loiter in covert, scrub, gorse, undergrowth, thicket

A future ‘Dog Walking (group) policy’ may also be written up which would cover dog walking / actual hound exercise. The policy also states which areas of land may be used, stopping hunts from using certain areas that they have previously run to.

Comments made on the drafts included the Ledbury contesting that ‘submitting written applications’ for events would be applicable to them; they also worried that ‘other [non-hunting] groups’ might try to block-book hunting spaces to push them out (errr… we think they didn’t read the section properly).

The Ledbury also stated that they did not use quad bikes during the 2016 – 2017 season… MHT staff comments included that they had photographic evidence of the quad (and ‘masked operator’) being present on two occasions during that winter. Hunts are expressly told that terriermen are not permitted to operate on MHT land and that the driving of quadbikes over MHT land is against the bylaws.

When the hunt suggested that MHT staff have no legal requirement to attend and monitor meets, MHT state that having been informed of an event that may conflict with their bylaws they have a duty to so monitor the event.

It’s good that the hunt have confirmed that hounds ‘are well trained and kept under control by experienced professional hunt staff. A contravention of the bylaws would only occur if there was a deliberate act by the hunt staff to let hounds hunt’. Presumably this applies to all hunt meets and every time hunt staff have seen hounds chase foxes and allowed it to continue!

While the policy has some similarities with the policy proposed by the National Trust (and which many of us have issues with) there are some fairly important differences which have made us far happier with the policy adopted by MHT. One of these is the fact that MHT staff have been and will continue to be present at meets to ensure that the route is being stuck to. Last season already showed great changes to the hunt when on the hills, stopping hounds when they picked up on scents and having somewhat less terriermen-presence. Additionally the area concerned is far smaller and easier to monitor than NT land. The MHT have also made much more of an effort to learn about how hunts work than the National Trust who appear to be far more trusting and naive.

We’ll see how it goes this season – at least the 4 or so days on which the hunt will be on the land will be 4 or so days on which we know where they are and may even just be able to have locals out monitoring the route taken as opposed to having sabs in the area.

A long day for our sabs today following various tip-offs over the last few days. It seems that the Ledbury Hunt were hoping to miss us this week when they hunted South Herefordshire Hunt country yesterday and returned to traditional Ledbury country today (for a large meet to attract new people this afternoon).

We started with an early visit to Stow-on-the-Wold as the North Cotswold Hunt were to be meeting at Nosehill Farm for 7.30am and the Heythrop, about an hour later, at Swell Buildings Farm (just a minute’s drive away from Nosehill and both meets in the North Cots cull zone) where they would be having a hunt breakfast. A 3C sab attended with an independent cull sab and gathered around an hour of footage of the North Cotswold Hunt blatantly ‘holding-up’ (making noise to keep foxes within a covert). A vixen showed her cunning when she dodged in and out of the brambles, avoiding hounds and, despite speaking on and off for a long time while drawing the covert back and forth we don’t believe there were any kills within it.

When asked if the hunt were following an artificial scent or flushing to the bird of prey that was present, hunt members just laughed… obviously making noise would be pointless as an artificial scent would not need to be scared back into the hounds and to flush to a bird you would want the fox to run out of the covert. So that just leaves illegal hunting…

Police arrived and asked what the hunt were up to – we told them that we would forward on any footage of the hunt’s behaviour. We will also be sending them links to information about cubhunting – all information written by hunts themselves regarding the activity and why it’s done, descriptions of ‘holding-up’ and so on (though we’ve never found any descriptions written by Beckford, Jem Hills, David Brock, Clifford Pellow or anyone else known to the hunting community that refers to the playing of sh*t youtube videos or monophonic ringtones to head foxes…)

With the arrival of our usual ‘stalkers’ from the Heythrop Hunt just after they set off from their meet, we decided to pay them a little visit. Both hunts had headed inland and we soon had other cull sabs in the area to check on known badger setts and artificial earths. With stalkers still following us, we took them away from the hunts around 10.30am and let them watch us eat breakfast whilst others kept an eye on the hunt and checked on areas unhindered. We soon came across hunt supporters in town who were overheard talking about the Heythrop ‘going downhill’ and how they only hunted around about 5 fields all morning which was off-putting for some of their supporters.

Sett-checking within the North Cots zone as usual in the early afternoon was quickly followed by a visit to the Ledbury Hunt where the 3C sab from this morning met up with 2 other 3C-ers and a representative from Outpaced and headed to the meet at Pigeon House, Eldersfield, West Gloucestershire cull zone. A sab’s personal vehicle was damaged by a hunt supporter who then spent an embarrassingly long time bigging herself up to her mates about it afterwards (later she would also swerve in front of 2 sabs on a motorbike).

The terrier quad bike, not road legal or safe with 2 passengers plus rider and minus number plate, attempted to give chase to motorbike sabs, getting within a metre of the back wheel of the bike on a couple of occasions and with one passenger then trying to kick sabs off the bike. Riders later unlawfully ‘removed’ sabs from a piece of land when they were checking that terriermen were not about to do a dig-out.

All in all some great teamwork between cull sabs, 3C sabs, locals and Outpaced. We’ll be following up on the various offences committed soon so watch this space!

Keep an eye on our facebook page for more regular updates about hunt meets we’ve sabbed and goings-on in the zones…

We continue to spend day and night thwarting the cull in all Gloucestershire zones. Badgers are not the only animals targeted. These are fenn traps found whilst sett checking this morning. One has a decomposed weasel in it who will have died a horrific and painful death. In the other trap was just a little paw. As for the setts? Well the Gamekeepers and the North Cotswold hunt have done their worst. 2 massive setts no longer active. Both setts were routinely and regularly blocked. We will continue to keep an eye on this place all year round but that’s the Cotswolds for you… pheasants and sheep on an industrial scale and nothing else allowed to live.

The badger cull is only a small part of a massive persecution programme. We need to continue this all year round to highlight what is going on

A couple of our sabs caught a shooter in the North Cotswold cull zone last night. Once compromised, him and his buddy jumped on to their quad and sped off for the main road, gun in hand and bright light shining in to the face of the driver of our vehicle…

Three Counties Sabs are out night and day at the moment attending cubbing meets and out protecting badgers from culling. Dealing with various tip-offs and anonymous calls with hunt and cull information. This morning we had a call saying the Ledbury Hunt were in Forthampton and, soon after, another call with information of a badger shooter prebaiting. A 3C sab rode his bike out to Forthampton to monitor the rest of the meet whilst others went in pursuit of the badger shooter. The sab watched the hunt draw various copses and witnessed hunt riders holding up (making noise to keep the foxes in).

When the hunt packed up huntsman Mark Meladay got all excited about the sabs bike and its registration plate as did the terrierman on his quad (which had no registration plate). There was a sign the hunt may have killed as there was blood on the quadbike box (see photo). The blood could belong to a hound, horse or person but also might belong to a fox that the terrierman could have put in the box to take away after being killed. When the sab told the terrierman there was blood on his box he replied ‘yeah mate’ smuggly. We will be reporting the quad with no number plate on the road and the blood on the quad to the police.

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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