We had a last-minute tip-off that the NCH would be meeting in this area, so three of our sabs headed out to give them some company. Upon our arrival in the area hunt supporters started talking about the hunt’s meet on Wednesday… but not what the hunt had been up to – it appears that the fact a sab went out on her own and parked the car ‘somewhere’ to go inland on foot all morning was far more interesting than what the hunt were up to, either on Wednesday or, in fact, right in front of the supporters at the time of the conversation.

With a sab on the road (we can’t leave vehicles near any of our hunts as they get vandalised and we need someone able to be able to move quickly either to pick up foot-sabs or follow the hunt if they do a runner) and another inland, one foot sab jogged inland to the hunt staff who were putting hounds into a hedgerow full of thick brambles – we’d love to see the state of any trail-layer given the job to crawl through there! Sure enough, hounds picked up and, soon after, a fox was seen running along the hedge, past hounds and over piles of manure (to help mask his scent). He escaped, sab giving him help by rating hounds… and something unusual happened – the normally cocky kennel huntsman Guy Fitzearle and huntsman Ollie Dale gathered the hounds and left the area. Perhaps the fact that police are looking into the kills they’ve had this season (plus other stuff…) has rattled them a bit. Never underestimate the power of filming and knowing your stuff – it’s a perfect compliment to traditional sabbing tactics.

On across the busy B-road (more carefully than usual although this was not to last) and there was some silliness from a couple of riders, one of whom claimed to be the landowner, then backed down and said that he knew the landowner, then the other rider became the landowner then also backed down. Then they were friends of the landowner and, finally, the hunt had been given permission to be there by the landowner and therefore sabs (probably…) hadn’t. With the hunt drawing blank and moving off (after 10 minutes of waiting for Guy to manage to gather loose hounds), a foot sab and driver headed to a nearby covert, right next to a busy main road with numerous HGV’s (there’s a scrap yard nearby) and reckless car drivers. Hunt soon arrived as predicted and a supporter attempted to head a fox back into the pack but the fox jinked and carried on. Hounds, meanwhile, had found their way on to, and across, and back over the main road, drivers slamming on brakes and our driver being the only one slowing down traffic. The new whipper-in and terrierman Chris Trotman were abandoned to gather the remaining loose hounds as hunt carried on.

With the hounds picking up, two foxes were seen running from the hounds and their lines were covered, but a third fox was marked in a hay barn, hounds and terrierman both very interested in where he had gone. More on that later…

Hounds were brought round to where the two other foxes had run but we had had a brief few moments of sun (which is a deodoriser) and, coupled with the citronella sprayed over the lines, the scent was difficult to pick up on. Sab was nearby to rate hounds and huntsman gave up and took the pack back across his favourite main road once more. After a brief jolly and a quick check back at the original hedgerow for that first fox escapee, but to no avail, the hunt called it a day and packed up.

Longer video (and shorter write-up, we promise) to follow later this weekend, so watch this space. Huge thanks to the people who call in tip-offs, anonymously or otherwise, support us by liking and sharing our posts and those who can afford to throw a few quid our way to cover fuel and equipment. We couldn’t do what we do without you!

We kept close tabs on them to start with and when hounds managed to hunt a fox from Toad Corner we were ideally placed to rate the hounds off, allowing him to escape into some gorse.

Ollie Dale then took hounds the gorse, flushing the fox out just in front of hounds… but he escaped into a large badger sett. Since the police have warned the hunts about blocking setts, many remain unblocked and this fox managed to escape as a result!

The feeble explaination of “cold marking” (where hounds mark a hole with a fox in residence as opposed to one escaping from them into a hole) cut no ice with us.

Shortly afterwards another fox ran by and we sprayed across the wood to mask his scent. They went on for another hour or so with the terriermen getting a bit snotty towards the end.

As this is in the North Cotswold cull zone, sett checking was commenced afterwards, intermingled with brunch.

A short stop for tea and updating logs and it was then a matter of peanut harvesting. Another team from 3C was active in the West Gloucestershire zone.

These are very long days and people were busy into the small hours protecting badgers, with other groups and individuals working extremely hard and putting themselves in very uncomfortable situations too. Hats off to Cirencester Illegal Huntwatch who are doing so much in South Gloucestershire and all the independent local autonomous groups.

Our fourth outing of the week to a hunt meet (plus several hours a day out checking badger setts and looking for cull activity) and all meets were the North Cotswold Hunt. On Monday we believe they killed after a dig-out was found by a sab in the area, Tuesday we found them in Willersey, Friday they killed a cub in the Didbrook area and Saturday they were not happy to see us again.

Several hunts were out on Saturday – in this area we can sab every weekday with options on which hunt to attend on most days but on Saturday we will often have the choice of 9 different hunts to go to… we got a call while we were out and about saying that the North Cotswold Hunt had been spotted holding up at Little Mocho. Knowing of several badger setts around Childswickham and 3 artificial earths within a few minutes’ walk of each other, we headed straight over.

The black plastic AE (artificial earth) near Mocho was blocked with ceramic blocks – blocked in order to stop a fox from escaping into it? This hunt has also been known to block a fox into an AE to flush to the hounds if they don’t ‘naturally’ pick up on a scent. Upon finding this, Jamie Smith started to get ‘hands-on’ with the sab who was filming, demanding that she leave the land (despite being on a footpath at first). As she and the other sabs began to follow the hunt on foot Jamie and his colleague stayed with them, grabbing her arm and trying to block the camera. When asked why he had a blocked AE on his land he admitted it wasn’t in fact his land – he later pointed out the actual landowner to sabs, the landowner smiling and being more interested in watching the hunt than where the sabs had walked…! Jamie had already assaulted two sabs at this point (although the assaults were minor, hitting someone in the face and pushing another person off a gate could have been more serious…).

After a brief drive down the road on a non-road-legal quad, stinking of alcohol and with his colleague as a passenger (also illegal) Jamie continued to try to get us to leave land he didn’t own and wasn’t an agent of the landowner for. At one point he squeezed a female sab’s chest, later he was heard talking to his (even more inebriated) colleague about “having her face down in a ditch”. Jamie tried to remove sabs from several footpaths and kept telling hunt riders that he was just stopping to consult his map or that he was a bit lost… not sure he was the best candidate for telling anyone where they were or where they were allowed to be.

While another sab kept hunt supporters busy with conversations about hunting, animal agriculture and rewilding, our driver and the sab who had stayed with the car were able to follow and keep tabs on the hunt without being stalked. Badger setts and artificial earths were checked and the hunt had company for much of the day from sabs on the ground. We will be reviewing the extensive footage we have of Jamie and his aggression and speaking with the police later in the week.

A huge thank you to those who keep contacting us with tip-offs about meets and other insights into our local hunts, those who support us both with donations and online work (liking and sharing our page and posts) and to Those Vegan Pizza Guys for holding a fundraiser for us and Gloucestershire Badger Office on Friday.

See you in the fields! 3C

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

Willersey, North Cotswold badger cull zone

The day started early as we had a late-night tip-off that the NCH would be out hunting again (they also held a meet near Broadway on Monday).

There was heavy mist as the hunt gathered at Downrip Farm at 6.30am and, despite having young and inexperienced hounds with them and roads nearby, the hunt moved off on time. Scenting conditions were good in the mist and hounds went off in full cry, hunting along a hedgeline, back and forth along the lengths of hedge and through a field of cows with young calves – unlikely to be following a trail then – and we believe they may have killed inland not long after.

As the mist cleared, scent was less strong and further coverts were drawn blank (no fox found) or scent was on and off within them, hounds not staying on a line for long. We stayed with them, followed by terrierman Will Haines, while new terrierman Chris Trotman and girlfriend Georgia Ash Equestrian (both masked up for some reason) rode on the quad, trespassing on a local’s land, terriers and locator-collars (used when putting terriers below ground for illegal dig-outs) present on the quad with them.

Pack up was another early one at around 8.30am, terriermen and supporters having to do the whipper-in’s job as hounds ran around areas of the meet that they weren’t supposed to be in and whipper-in had ridden off elsewhere and wasn’t keeping them under control. With the lack of professionalism seen at this hunt over the seasons we wonder what new joint master Christian Kewk will think about what he’s let himself in for…

After breakfast and coffee in a nearby café, meeting two separate groups of locals who recognised us and told us of local hunt trespass and arrogance, we were off out to check setts and look for signs of badger cull activity. Really good to see healthy, active badger setts still exist in the area and meet anti-cull farmers and other locals!

We know the Cotswold Vale Farmers’ Hunt were out as well in the morning as terrierman Ben Hughes was spotted re-fuelling his pick-up (reg no. A006 CBV), terrier in front seat, quadbike on trailer behind (reg no. CT17 ATO) at 5.30am by one of our supporters – keep an eye out for him as he is also involved in the badger cull!

First thing this morning there was a call from an early morning sett-checker in the Broadway area. The North Cotswold Hunt were soon found in Lydbrook Plantation and appeared to be doing something a bit dodgy. They were challenged and then ran away, it may be that a dig out was foiled but as the quad stank of fox it is likely that they had killed. Setts nearby were checked and after brunch it was out again looking for cull activity. many peanuts were found and removed from baitpoints

Saturday 7th September 2019, Cotswold Vale Farmer’s Hunt – Norton Court Farm, Prior’s Norton.

A very early kennelwatch meant a 4am start. They were blatantly cub hunting at the first covert using the tactic of holding up.

For those not aware “holding up” means surrounding a small wood or field of maize with people on foot and horse, shouting and making a noise (such as clapping, slapping the saddle, etc) in order to terrify cubs back into the hounds. Braver cubs and adults will flee.

Those who are more likely to panic will get killed by the pack.

It was an ideal place to use a couple of holloas (voice calls) and so a sab’ at the first draw did so and this seemed to befuddle the young hounds, slowing them down a bit. The new huntsman, Matthew Vater, took them away from the covert.

Not long after this the terriermen chased a cub back and the huntsman returned and put the pack in where the fox had been seen. Huntsman was vociferously saddle slapping as can be seen from the film!

Hounds were later stopped from hunting a fox by rating and cracking a whip. They were taken to where 2 lead hounds were hunting on a line and the pack picked up but put up a deer instead. They were stopped again by a sab’. The hunt then packed up.

Another group were seen monitoring from the A38 from later on in the day so the hunt were covered from both sides at that point.

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North Cotswold Hunt blatantly hold-up coverts and kill fox cub at Springhill. More to follow.

We met up with Mendip Hunt Sabs, Cirenceseter Illegal Huntwatch and Ridgeway Illegal Huntwatch for a meet at 6am at Braydon Pond near Malmesbury, Wiltshire. There was some picking up in that area, scent on and off, and then they crossed the road and drew some maize.

They looked as though they were about to do some classic holding-up, but thought better of it with sabs present. There was some attempt to stop us getting near to where we could hear cubs being hunted deep within the maize crop and this went on for a while with them leaving us alone in the end.

We certainly cannot claim that there were no kills but this fox on the film, at least, ran to safety. The rest of the day (considering that everywhere we sab now is in one badger cull zone or the other) was spent looking at badger setts.

Last night local activists saw off a prolific shooter and his chums from where he was trying to kill. Just now a large bait point area with 23 holes has been found after following his tyre tracks. Unfortunately the badgers had been eating the peanuts with only a few skins left as evidence. Sett sitting and checking saves lives and the supplementary zones are now in their 7th year of culling. Did a little video to show what baitpints can look like.