The North Cotswold Hunt hunted this morning. We expected them to be going out so kennel-watched and followed them to the meet in Didbrook.

After leaving the meet the hounds were cast into a large maize field, several small groups of hounds picking up on and off on a number of scents. 2 fox cubs were briefly spotted jinking through the maize and there were no obvious kills at this time (sometimes hounds will come up on a fox and kill on sight with little fuss or excitement so we rarely say for certain that there were no kills).

On to another field and hounds picked up on a scent and hunted across the B4077, busy with lorries and other traffic. Huntsman drew the pack through a wood and a brace of foxes (two) ran along the fenceline, hounds just metres behind. With one fox racing past a sab, she rated hounds back and they lost his scent, but the pack had split before this and another group of hounds had killed the other fox further on. They were rated off the body and the fox was taken to the car as evidence.

The hunt went on to another field where they blatantly hunted, they were observed holding-up, saddle-slapping and making noise to scare cubs back toward the hounds, and they were still doing so when they police arrived. Officers took the fox’s body for autopsy, viewed video evidence and pulled over the quadbike as terriermen had turned their number plate round so it was blank. Statements will be taken regarding the hunting and kill and we will release footage when able to do so.

Thank you to all our supporters for their messages of support, donations to keep us in the field and shares of our posts to raise awareness, everything adds up. See you in the fields! 3C