*** Hunt dig out at a badger sett, trespass on wildlife trust land and attempt to flush a fox from an artificial earth ***
The day started wet and windy but we headed out to visit the CWWH in Peopleton for their opening meet and check on Simon French who has been whipping-in for them since the beginning of last season. He was previously the huntsman for the Cotswold Vale Farmers’ Hunt and was notoriously bad at keeping control and keeping count of the hounds despite having his own whippers-in to assist him. Why anyone thought giving him a job where keeping control and count of a pack of hounds was a good idea we’ll never know…
Setting off from the meet, the hunt immediately went inland, travelled north and soon were trespassing through a wood, field and orchard. They weren’t just straying on to the land… huntsman Ben Dalton was drawing the hounds through the land in search of foxes until the landowner told them to leave. Apparently they are repeatedly told they are not welcome but continue to turn up and hunt regardless. And the landowner isn’t even anti-hunt, so we can only imagine how they treat anti-hunt landowners. Nevermind the fact that a trail obviously wasn’t laid considering they have no permission to be there. Hounds checked on a scent giving landowner time to convince the hunt to go.
If you have any issues with hunt trespass a fantastic resource is Hounds Off
Scent was good in the cool weather and hounds picked up easily, although scents were also lost regularly. They had a few long chases however. We try to keep an eye on the terriermen as much as possible whilst out at hunts, but they are not always near the pack or easy to keep up with… part way through the day we came across a blocked badger sett (unusual for this hunt unlike some of the others we deal with) and it soon became apparent that the entrances had been blocked in order to stop a fox escaping while they dug down to them as an obvious filled in dig-out site was found.
Whether this fox was killed or thrown back into the fields so that the hounds could continue chasing we do not know, but hounds picked up on a line in this area and ran across a main road before checking. A known hunt supporter on foot with a terrier was seen within Naunton Court Fields, land managed by Worcestershire Wildlife Trust and encouraged hounds on as they picked up again within the land. Sabs managed to hold them up temporarily by rating and holloa’ing but with hunt staff nearby the chase was fast and hounds continued further inland. As foot sabs caught up with them we spotted terriermen off their quad and witnessed one with his terrier out of the box by a stream and reaching into the quad for a locator collar. His friend was on the floor moving something and upon inspection we found what looks to be an old land drain, the orginal entrance unused and a new entrance made where we believe an old dig out must have taken place – this entrance was blocked off. A further 2 locations along the pipe showed clear evidence of previous dig outs and where potential chambers have been made in the ground. The entrance at which the terrierman had the terrier and collar was also typical of an artificial earth and had been blocked up previously, possibly to keep in a fox in order to be flushed to the hunt. We believe we stopped them doing so this time round.
