We are only a few weekends in and this is the second time this season that we’ve felt it necessary to report on police bias. Out first report was written during the cub hunting season, but despite what the police say nothing has changed. North Wales Police are still acting as security for the illegal Flint and Denbigh hunt. This is out previous report https://network23.org/northwaleshuntsabs/2018/09/25/police-harassment/ 
Police overly friendly with hunt staff.
We’ve had a very successful season so far with the badger cull, cub hunting and now the full hunting season, and this hasn’t gone unnoticed… Particularly by North Wales Police. The cub hunting season we managed to hit more illegal cub hunts than ever before. This is a really important thing to do as this is the time of the year when new hounds are trained to kill. During the cubbing season the police used armed response to pull our vehicles over, on one occasion the excuse given was that armed response just happened to be in the tiny village of Cefn Meiriadog at 5.20am. Other times we’d turn up at the hunt kennels at 5am only to find police cars parked up at the end of the hunt kennels drive. All this is for us… If sabs aren’t at the hunt meet then the police leave. They have no interest in keeping watch over the illegal hunt that’s about to take place. In fact the police go beyond staying neutral and actual assist the criminals of the hunt by stopping traffic to help the hunt cross the roads. There is no such thing as police cutbacks when it comes to protecting the hunt.
Already this season we’ve seen 3 arrested against sabs, one resulted in a de-arrest the other 2 are still ongoing cases. Yet police have witnessed an assault on a sab and took no action. Police have followed sabs into fields despite the police telling us they are under orders not to enter fields… Well probably not to enter fields to investigate illegal hunting is what they mean. The police have told sabs to leave public bridleways and even more concerning the police have harassed sabs at their homes. So far this season we’ve reported assaults and captured footage of illegal hunting but so far the police have yet to contact any of our sabs to give statements or take in our footage. Following the first meet of the season on October 27th we have put in an official complaint against one officer who’d acted as an extra hunt employee for the day, we still await any update on this. When we complain against a hunt member nothing ever comes of it, but should a member of the hunt make a complaint even if it’s based on hearsay against one of us then North Wales Police are quick to act…. Sabs aren’t even asked to come in to the cop shop, calls are not returned when sabs volunteer to go in to the station, Oooh no, the police wait till hunt day to arrest the sabs and parade their catch in front of the hunt. Nwp have always shown favour towards the hunt but this season they seem to have upped their game.
Police clear the drive of the hunt, nice work !
Some encouraging news is our battles with the police hasn’t gone unnoticed either! Some lovely local people have organised a demo outside Denbigh police station for December 1st 2018 at 11am.
Full details are on this link here https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=demo%2C%20police%20acting%20security%20guards%20for%20flint%20and%20denbigh%20hunt
Leave a Reply