*** Fox marked to ground * 5 blocked badger setts * Local people subjected to their homes being invaded ***
Update: In December ’22, former Quorn huntsman Ollie Finnegan pleaded guilty to illegally hunting having been reported by sabs on the ground on this day, and then being investigated by both Gloucestershire and Leicestershire rural crime teams – see our article for more info!
One of us joined with Herefordshire Hunt Sabs who kept an eye on them from the meet and around Rudford. The 3C sab stayed at Catspury Hill where terriermen from several hunts arrived before the hounds on quads with no number plates, including those from North Cotswold who drank tea and introduced themselves to one another.
When Quorn huntsman Ollie Finnegan put the Quorn pack into Carter’s Grove sabs spent the next few hours trying to limit the chaos. A fox was hunted over to the back of Corsend farm and tried to escape down a badger sett that was freshly blocked. They went back into Carter’s Grove and a brace of foxes were seen trying to escape, and another fox went to ground, escaping the hounds with a Herefordshire sab on the scene to make sure that they left him alone.
Back then to Corsend farm and before long both Ollie Finnegan and Mark Meladay (Ledbury huntsman) were seen going hell for leather down Blackwell’s End WITHOUT the hounds. The Quorn pack were doing their own thing unsupervised, which meant invading the homes of local people who were very upset and distraught at the pack trying to kill a fox in front of them.
Once Ollie had got the pack out they then went to Ashleworth and into the water meadows drawing towards Haw Bridge. At least then in the dark they decided not to draw where they had planned as sabs were ready to film them and went back to box up at Stonebow farm.
This is in Gloucestershire badger cull zone one, in its ninth year of culling and with the free shooting of badgers being allowed until the end of January. All setts found blocked today have been targeted by the badger cull. Another 4 badger setts were found freshly blocked!