We received a screenshot of a post on facebook from someone who believed they had seen the Cotswold Hunt killing a fox on Cleeve Common land. Cleeve Common Trust said that the land concerned was not their land but Michael Bates decided not to stop there with an explanation sent via private emails to those concerned about the hunt’s behaviour and stated that no fox was killed (how would he know if incidents happened off their land…?) and that misinformation was being spread by a local group of hunt sabs who have been known to do similar in the past!

Looking at Michael Bates’ facebook profile, he rides himself and his ‘likes’ include ‘Area 9 Pony Club’ whose members include riders out with the Duke of Beaufort’s Hunt and others in the area, hunt point-to-points advertised and so on. Questions are being asked about whether all the hunt riders have riding permits to be on the Common and what evidence is asked for to prove the laying of ‘trails’ because we’ve never known the Cotswold to lay trails anywhere else. We’ll be keeping more of an eye out in future on this hunt!