*** more blocked setts at hunt meet * fox escapes hunt due to sab presence ***
First we’d just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who keeps supporting us, from tip-offs to donations, pick-ups to messages asking how we are after assaults and kills, etc. And a huge shout out also to everyone checking setts before, during and after hunt meets. You’re all awesome and we make a good team!
Today we had a tip-off that the Ledbury had been spotted gathering in the Upleadon area. We were already headed out to look for them following information we had previously been given and caught up with them drawing through some coverts. Remember, this is still all within a current badger culling zone, the West Gloucestershire zone.
One of our sabs was up early to check setts around the area for signs of culling as well as blocking by hunts and others and was soon joined by another 3C sab plus a sab from Bristol Hunt Saboteurs. After a couple of brief draws, the hunt attempted to get away from us by heading inland from Upleadon Court but we’re very familiar with the area from years of fighting the badger cull so cut them off from the north.
Hounds picked up in a stream but were rated by sabs and proceeded to lose the scent repeatedly. Huntsman Mark tried to re-cast them but hounds couldn’t stick to the line. Knowing of setts in the area we checked some (quad bike tracks running straight to them) and found entrances thoroughly blocked. With the hunt nearby we kept an ear out for hounds picking up whilst we unblocked the sett but they were on the move away from us and weren’t spending enough time letting hounds look for a fox.
Back to the vehicle as hunt left the large landlocked area and we kept up with them, despite slow driving by hunt supporters. Inland again and we rated hounds repeatedly off a scent before Mark moved them on again before they ‘second-horsed’.
On to Staunton Coppice and after hounds were chased by the resident ponies, a fox was seen running from the hounds through the covert. His line was sprayed to cover it and hounds were rated to stop them following him but we know huntsman is likely to try to gather them and take them round to pick up on the scent further away. Heading into the adjacent field we saw fox running towards a flock of sheep (which they often do to try to cover their scent) with hunt supporters watching and hounds heading our way through the Coppice. Again they were rated and hunt gathered them up and left the area.
On to Eldersfield and another blocked sett was found so huntsman took hounds away fairly quickly and to Gadbury Bank (owned by the hunt) but were again flushed out by sabs. To Berth Hill where they pretty much drew blank, trying to draw a small hedgeline in desperation but calling hounds off due to sab presence when they did pick up. And it was a 4pm pack up at Pigeon House Farm. Footage to follow. Photos are from the blocked setts found today. Lots of miles covered, many setts checked and those tampered with reported to the authorities.
We’ll be out again tomorrow but sett-checkers will be out in this area (and further afield) looking for other blocked and tampered with setts.
This video is from Friday’s Ledbury Hunt meet in the Upleadon / Redmarley / Eldersfield areas – report has already gone online, but main points include early-morning sett-checking, a fox escaping from the hunt with the assistance of sabs in Staunton Coppice and the hunt having to abandon the chase, 2 freshly blocked setts found (we have evidence of both setts looking healthy, active and not blocked either just days or just hours before the hunt meet) and 1 sett, on land owned by the hunt, having been blocked very recently (probably only days before).
The video shows sabs rating the hounds (basically telling them off firmly so that they stop following the scent) and a fox heading for a flock of sheep – foxes will often run across piles of manure, through farmyards, through flocks of sheep or across roads, even between the legs of the horses being ridden out to the hunt, in order to ‘foil’ their scent, making it harder for hounds to follow their line. Often when sabs have helped to foil (cover) the scent or when foxes have done something like the above, the huntsman will gather the hounds and take them further on where the fox is suspected to have run, trying to get hounds to pick up on the scent again.
On this occasion huntsman Mark Melladay did gather the pack and take them in a similar direction to where the fox had run, but with a road nearby, foot sabs present and right with them and our driver on the road and ready to intervene and without having seen where fox had headed, he abandoned the chase and left the fox alone. A small, but effective, team out on the day – huge thanks to the sab from Bristol Hunt Saboteurs who joined us again. With setts still being blocked* (although far less often than in all previous seasons) we’re planning to purchase some more ‘trail cameras’ (wildlife cameras which we can put up on setts to prove that they are active and that badgers live within them or to catch people blocking or digging out the setts).
*over the seasons we have conducted ‘early morning sett-blocking patrols’, deterring and catching people blocking badger setts which is done in order to stop foxes escaping below ground during a chase. Our data (which we worked on alongside Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch) hit the news earlier in the year and has been handed to the local police forces in our areas who have started to take ‘badger crime’ more seriously. Sett-blocking has massively decreased as a result, although it still occurs, especially with the more cocky of hunts and those that we don’t get to visit very often