Bristol Hunt Saboteurs

Today got off to a slow start with vehicle problems meaning losing a few sabs, but a smaller group left Bristol, met up with Southampton Sabs and paid a visit to our old friends at The Tedworth Hunt for their opening meet.

Upon arrival, huntsman Mike Lane told our sabs exactly where the hunt were headed, that he didn’t want any trouble and that he would keep his ‘lads’ away from us. Errrr, thanks??

We kept close eyes on the hunt and sabs in the field were with them as much as possible. For the first hour or so, they didn’t even attempt to hunt despite having many opportunities – fine by us!

Soon enough though hounds were in cry, but by this point, sabs in the field had split into two groups and managed to get into great positions to split the pack using horn calls and scupper any chance of a kill.

The hunt took off and tried to lose us, but it wasn’t long until we caught up with them again. As we did we noticed a large number of hounds around a badger sett where a fox had clearly just gone to ground. What shocked us the most was the fact that the hunt were just watching in amusement. We jumped into action immediately, getting the hounds away, and letting the scum know how we felt. Knowing they were being filmed, the hunt immediately took off.

Catching up with them for the final time, Mike Lane told us ‘you didn’t stop us killing earlier, and I’m gonna get another fucker now’. With that he took off again hell bent on encouraging his hounds to pick up a scent, but sabs took control of the pack again and the ‘peaceful’ Mr Lane and his sorry bunch of blood-junkies packed up for the day.

We’ll be seeing the Tedworth Hunt again…

Get yourselves down to Subvert Fest at the Exchange this Friday & Saturday. It is being put on as a benefit for Bristol Hunt Sabs and we will have our merch & info stall there! Tickets & info here.

Originally posted on Hunt Saboteurs Association website

The Hunt Saboteurs Association are today celebrating the complete abandonment of the Alston Hare Week hunting festival.

On their fifth consecutive day in the field, sabs were greeted with the sight of dejected hunters leaving Alston and beginning the long drive south.

This is a total victory for hunt saboteurs, who have prevented any animals being killed at what was meant to be the highlight of the hare-hunters year.

HSA Press Officer Lee Moon commented, “Simon Beckett, the organiser of Alston Hare Week, seriously underestimated the complexity of the HSA operation against his hare-hunting festival. We spent months developing contacts in the local community, employed drone technology and, most importantly, had incredibly brave and dedicated sabs in the field all week.”

Hunt saboteurs will continue to patrol the area until tomorrow evening. Attention will then turn to the Northumberland Beagling Festival organised by Rupert Gibson of the Newcastle and District Beagles.

Two of our local packs, the Severn Vale Beagles and the Chilmark and Clifton Foot Beages, were sabbed during the week long hare hunting festival

Today we paid another visit to The Berkeley Hunt who quite clearly have had enough of being sabbed judging by their efforts to stop us in our tracks.

We found the hunt just after 8.30am positioned around a wood with the huntsman encouraging the hounds to hunt. As soon as our presence was noticed, the hunt was on the run (this is getting to be all to common but we ain’t knocking it! If they’re running, they’re not hunting).

The hunt tried very hard to lose us but thanks to their supporters lining country lanes, we were never far behind them. As we approached them for a second time, the hounds were in full cry with the huntsman encouraging them on again. Sabs intervened and started to call the pack away from the wood and soon most of the pack were with us. This led to members of the hunt losing their cool and threatening us with all sorts. But luckily for any nearby foxes, the huntsman gathered up the hounds and took off again.

A smaller group of sabs caught up with the hunt and their supporters for a third time in a small lane and sabs were treated to abuse and more threats of violence. This was just after we’d seen a fox and made sure it got away to safety.

A few minutes later our vehicle rang us saying that the police had arrived, and before we knew it, four cop cars were with us. When asked if they wanted to walk up the road and watch the hunt breaking the law one copper replied with ‘I’m not interested in watching anything’.

We left the cops and carried on after the hunt who thankfully called it a day. Job done!

Whilst some of our sabs took to the cull zone today to stop the badger killers, another bunch of us headed to visit The Berkeley Hunt who we found immediately setting themselves up to surround a wood with the intention of murdering foxes.

As soon as they realised sabs were watching them, they packed up and moved off with us in tow. A few hunt supporters tried holding us up whilst the hunt had another go at illegally hunting. We pursued forward and once again, the huntsman gathered up the hounds and took off.

Again we got surrounded by support and riders (who just like a few weeks ago had their faces covered) who tried holding us up. The hunt took off at great pace in the distance but after a bit of scooting around, they were found again heading back to the exact same place we moved them off from. Once again, knowing they were being watched, they quickly moved off.

It got to 1pm and we found the hunt and a lot of supporters huddled down a lane not far from the kennels. They were clearly up to no good (bagged fox anyone?) but once we made our presence known, they packed up for the day.

No kills known.

We are fast approaching the final week of the planned 6 weeks of badger culling in Somerset and Gloucestershire.

This last week we’ve seen a bit of activity. Shooters have been chased out of the area (despite crap attempts at evasive driving, a bit of water ain’t gunna stop Bristol Hunt Sabs!).

We have also helped stop shooters with neighbouring sab groups. Some of the farm boys got a bit upset by this and have tried their hand (unsuccessfully) at intimidation, mainly turning their anger on vehicles and in this case their lone occupants.

Cages intending to trap badgers continue to be found, as do bait points, and we continue to keep an eye out on known cull farms in our zone.

This is the blood of a badger shot in a cage found by our sabs in Somerset yesterday. Help stop this needless slaughter, join us in the field for the last week to help stop the cull

As you have probably heard by now, Gloucestershire cullers are well off target but they are much closer down in Somerset. We have just over a week left and if we want the Somerset cull to fail as well then we need all hands to the deck!

If you want to stop the killing of badgers and stop the roll out of the cull next year, NOW IS THE TIME TO GET INTO THE SOMERSET ZONE! Get in touch with us or join the Somerset Badger Patrol who meet nightly between 7-8pm at Williton carpark. Everyone has a part to play.

Sabs keep watch over the badger killing fields in west Somerset

We are now over half way through the 6 week badger cull in west Somerset. 

Since our previous update things have been pretty quiet with little evidence of night time ‘free shooting’ taking place, however, a lot more traps are now being found.

We have made good links with badger patrollers in our patch and neighbouring sab groups in the zone, meaning we can make sure vulnerable setts are guarded and areas are covered when needed.

Whilst we were doing our morning rounds yesterday we bumped into the West Somerset Foxhounds (who are kenneled at Carhampton). They were on the way to their meet at Crowcombe Park on the Quantock Hills and were not best pleased when they realised that they had a tail!

If you’re out badgering in Somerset, keep your eyes peeled for these other animal murderers in the area. There are a number of packs that hunt in and around the cull zone and you can guarantee that staff and supporters of some of these hunts are involved in the badger cull.

Numbers of anti-cull activists (finally) seems to have picked up in Somerset this last week, with our group managing to have 3 vehicles out last night! But as word reaches us that the cullers are coming close to hitting their target of killing 52 badgers per week in the Somerset zone, we need as many people out in the fields as possible as we enter the final couple of weeks!

Get in touch or join the badger patrols who meet between 7-8pm at Williton car park and help to stop the cull!

It’s been a busy week for us over all. As well as our anti-cull activity, some of our sabs held a stall at the LUSH cosmetics store in Bristol on Saturday which raised over £230 to help us do our thing. Others partook in some covert monitoring of a local hunt to gather intelligence which will no doubt prove useful later in the hunting season.

We’re almost 2 weeks in to the second year of badger culling in west Somerset and sabs from Bristol have had a presence in the zone every night and most days since the start.

We had a fairly quiet first week, with us mainly looking out for signs of activity from the cullers and checking on setts and likely shooting/trapping spots, as well as backing up other sabs who were actively stopping shoots in their areas.

This last week has seen things step up a gear, with bait points found and more activity from known cull contractors both day and night. The last few nights have seen shooting in a number of areas. We have responded the best we can and are confident that we have moved on and stopped a couple of shoots, some in the same locations on consecutive nights.

Badger killers caught out in Somerset

Other successes have been seen across both cull zones; a lot of shooters have been stopped in their tracks, trapped badgers have been released from cages, those ‘pixies’ we heard so much about last year have apparently been dealing with any cages found and the intelligence picture on the cull and the scumbags carrying it out improves daily.

To carry on our activities against the badger killers we need your support- more people on the ground is vital if we are to successfully sabotage this years culls. Either get in touch with us, or join the nightly badger patrols who wander the footpaths of the zone and keep watch over setts (all perfectly legal) if that’s more your cup of tea. They meet between 7-8pm every night at Williton car park. We also need fuel funds to guarentee that we can have a vehicle out and about as much as possible. Please consider donating to our gofundme – http://www.gofundme.com/dxgjzc

Massive respect & solidarity to all the sabs and badger patrollers out opposing the killers in west Somerset and west Gloucestershire. Together we can stop it.

We were up at the crack of dawn this morning for another visit to The Berkeley Hunt who had spotter vehicles glued to us as soon as we entered their territory. The hunt met at a different location (no doubt to avoid having sab attention), but they were soon found and all eyes were on them.

We found ourselves in a decent position observing riders surrounding a wood and the huntsman encouraging his hounds to pick up a scent. We were ready to step into action but after 30 minutes of trying, failed in his quest.

The hunt moved off and we followed, despite riders trying to hold us up with the usual barrage of shit they give us.

As we approached the hunt from a distance we could hear hounds in full cry and two hunt supporters both alerted the hunt staff that a fox had been seen. At this point, the riders surrounding the wood were slapping their saddles in an attempt to scare the fox back into the pack of hounds. We quickly approached the area and were surrounded by hunt riders some of which had their faces covered (clearly as they knew they were being filmed illegally hunting). After a stand off the huntsman who now knew he had us for company, gathered his hounds up and headed for home.

Two foxes got away this morning thanks to us being in the right place at the right time.

Massive respect to our other sabs who are also out today in the cull zone opposing the badger killers. Thank you to all of you who have donated to our cull sab fund!
http://www.gofundme.com/dxgjzc