Saturday was a very busy day. Whilst some of us sabbed the CVFH (see separate report), one of us joined up with our good friends Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch. We started the day with the Cotswold hunt near Yanworth. An estate manager, who clearly took his job a little too seriously, was very keen to warn us about trespass. The hunt then seemed to run away from us, somewhat unsuccessfully.

Later on in the day there was a tip off about the Heythrop behaving badly near Notgrove so we scrambled over to find them hunting a fox near Bang up Lane (between Cold Aston and Turkdean). We were followed by stalkers immediately but the hunt packed up by 16.00 giving us ample time to check setts in the area. We found 3 blocked setts in the dark and unblocked them so that the badgers could get out. 2 more setts that had been blocked were found today so 5 known blocked setts in total just so that the Heythrop can hunt foxes. This is in the North Cotswold cull zone and these setts have been repeatedly blocked over the years. As one of the local sab groups we will of course be keeping a watchful eye all year round for both cullers and sett blockers.

Today we also supported the Heart of the Cotswold badger group with sett surveying and training. The meeting point was attended by some rather unsavoury VWH supporters who tried to harass and intimidate sett surveyors, even trying to block cars. Of course Cirencester is home to the RAC so we are used to such antics but we do think that their parents should be told really… some more Bredon School success stories to add to their portfolio!