*** Heythrop Hunt caught ‘holding up’ during cubhunting meet for first time in several seasons ***

Since being taken to court (and 2 of their members being scapegoatedand forced to take the blame for illegal hunting) several years ago, the Heythrop Hunt have been much more skittish. Employing people to stalk monitors and sabs, the second anyone anti-hunt is spotted in an area, the hunt tend to move on swiftly. Our locations and actions are reported constantly during hunt meets, the hunt moving on when they can and the stalkers trying to cover up any illegal hunting when it’s happening in front of us.

We got inland early in Eyford Park on Monday morning and were able to catch the hunt using ‘holding up’ tactics, including spreading out around a covert and making noise to scare any foxes back into the covert and toward the hounds. The video shows a small part of what was going on and footage from other cameras, which is being given to the police, shows that holloas and shouts of ‘Tally Ho Back’ and ‘Gone Away’ were used throughout the morning’s meet. These shouts indicate sightings of foxes to the huntsman, as does the phrase “there’s one coming towards you now!” although that is not quite the correct hunting terminology.

Being within a cull zone, we also had the opportunity to check badger setts in the area and look for signs of cull activity and other wildlife persecution, such as the blocking of setts, etc. An injured pigeon was also found and taken to local wildlife rescue Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre for treatment.

With Covid rules set to change again in the coming days we will see what happens regarding hunting. In the meantime it is business as usual.

In what is thought to be part of the new Warwickshire badger cull zone (zone 52, officially).

This sett has been dug out before. The area is frequented by the NCH. Now been dug out again with much fresher spade marks. They have survived as there are badger signs of life. So with the hunt, badger diggers and now the cull looming, they really need help.

Please get in touch with a local group near you or just regularly visit setts that you know, be the deterrant needed.

The Old Berkshire Hunt

6am – first cubhunting meet of the season
Near Longworth

A 3C sab and a Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch sab attended with very little to report other than that the huntsman drew where no trail would ever have been laid. Furthermore apparently sabs need permission to attend hunts (we’ve apparently been affiliated to the MFHA now not the HSA… bit of an admin error on our part) and we are being reported to the Hunting Office who have links to the police. Can’t see that one taking off really…

*** CAGES SET TO TRAP BADGERS IN A HEATWAVE TODAY ***

Two cages have been reported in Gloucestershire supplementary zone 9 this evening, both set to trap. One was in a wooded area, the other in a hedge with the temperature recorded at 29°C; there was no shade in contradiction of the cage trapping guidelines for hot weather.

They can legally leave badgers in cages until midday, without water, in this heat with weather warnings in place. Near these cages there were signs of historic sett blocking and digouts and the North Cotswold Hunt are known to hunt here.

Please keep the information, reports and tip-offs coming in!

*** Wildlife shot at whilst escaping combine harvesters ***

This is within Cotswold Hunt country and the Gloucestershire badger cull zone (North Cots, zone 9). This is another way in which wildlife are persecuted, which is often not talked about, but has always happened at multiple locations at harvest time.

Basically wild beings use the cover of a crop, in this case oil seed rape, to hide and seek shelter. They think they are safe. The combine harvesters go in to harvest the crop (and we are all complicit here as we all eat food thus harvested) but many animals do die rooted to the spot in fear. Most run or fly out to escape the blades.

The Salperton Estate is a huge shooting concern (David Cameron used to shoot here) and 2 men on quads were observed riding up and down on quad bikes with guns on their laps in order to shoot any foxes that were hiding within the rape, as we were told by one of them. So the choice is to be killed by the combine, or killed by being shot whilst fleeing.

This will happen in many different places as farmers bring in wheat, barley, rape, etc. An added stress on wildlife.

Please just keep an eye out for wildlife at this time of year.

Report from the North Cots cull zone (officially ‘Gloucestershire zone 9’)

“More cages found – they had killed a badger earlier today, the smell of blood and shit was overwhelming. Nearby, tourists were cycling, walking and enjoying their day. Was this a young cub who is not yet frightened of new things? Were they thirsty and hot as they waited for the gunman? The temp was 21 degrees centigrade”.

Please continue to check setts and support all those fighting the killing in the supplementary zones now.

With the good weather the combines will soon be out harvesting the crops. This means more ‘free shooting’ will happen (crops can hide cages but are no good for shooting free-running badgers).

Paypal.me/threecountiessabs (3C funding) and PayPal.me/badgerwelfare (GBO funding)

Thank you for the mention Kate and good work by The Canary with this article…

As usual at the end of the season, we have updated our article ‘Hunts vs Badgers‘ to include our latest sett-blocking table for 2019 – 2020 (data we’ve collated of incidents of sett-blocking and other tampering of setts from the season). We also add new quotes and information as and when we find / receive them throughout the year, so check it out!

Friday 5th June 2020 – Earliest known badger cages have been found in Gloucestershire (North Cots – zone 9). Young cubs can also be caught in these. Set to trap found (not tied) and therefore the cull is active.

Please help your local badgers and check setts, especially if you’re in supplementary zones.

We’ve had an anonymous report sent in of a ladder trap found in Oxfordshire recently. There were 5 different corvids inside the trap, 2 of whom had already died. The other 3 had no shelter from the blazing sun and other elements and little water (what was there was green and filled with poo). There are also the biosecurity issues of having cow’s hearts dumped in the trap to entice birds to come down to feed…

According to the report the trap was opened and the surviving birds checked over and allowed to fly free. Ladder traps work by having 2 raised areas of roof coming down to a ‘ladder’ style middle where birds can get through the ‘rungs’ whilst landing but are then unable to fly back through (the ends of the ladders are not open, so birds are unable to use their beaks and claws to climb up the sides of the trap and climb out).

For more information on ladder (and other styles of) trap, check out our information pages on traps, snares and pits here.