Happy birthday to the Hunting act.
It was 15 years today February 18th 2005 that the hunting act came into force. At the time huntsmen signed an agreement to carry on hunting and ignore the law, and that’s exactly what they’ve done. Our local hunt tbe Flint and Denbighs first meet under the hunting act was at Coed Coch estate in Dolwen, the estate owned by the Fetherstonehaugh family. Mrs Fetherstonehaugh being a huntmaster of the Flint and Denbigh hunt and her husband Harry being the lord lieutenant of Clwyd, basically meaning he’s the head of our magistrates. Our then huntsman Jeremy Reed vowed to carry on hunting and our other huntsman Rikki Profit claimed numbers had soared claiming 80 riders to be out, hmm they are lucky to get 25 today. North Wales hunt saboteurs formed at the start of the 2013 hunting season after as monitors we’d spent the previous 3 years chasing the Flint and Denbigh hunt around with only 3 if us. At the end of last season February 2019 Mr Reed quit as the Flint and Denbigh huntsman and huntmaster after stating me could no longer continue to hunt because of hunt sabs. Nigel Cox took over for this season but is also now leaving. Despite what they say the hunts are slowly dying off but they are not going quietly. 15 years of hunting illegally has now seen a dramatic drop in numbers just how long can the hunts keep it up? It’s hard to tell but we’ll be there until the end.
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