Hit report 15/9/20
Flint and Denbigh hunt cub hunting
Rhuallt.
We imagine the Flint and Denbigh hunt weren’t hoping on seeing us this morning as they headed out to torment young foxes, but we could practically feel our ears burning once the hunts hound van left Cefn Meiriadog kennels at 6.40 this morning and spotted a landy of sabs. Presumably they weren’t nice words being muttered I the hound van. The hunt had decided to terrorise the wildlife of Rhuallt, which was a new meet for us. The huntsman and hounds arrived in Rhuallt at around 7am but weren’t too keen on leaving the meet knowing we were keeping watch. By 7.30am they decided to brave it and actually left the meet. If you were to draw a line of todays hunt route it would have looked like a plate of spaghetti, as the hunt went back and forth on themselves, half trying to shake us off half trying to pick up on the scent of unexpecting foxes. It didn’t take new huntsman Rob Metcalf long to lose his hounds again, with half the pack in thick brambles that not even the dullest of Denbigh coppers would believe a trail could be laid through and the huntsman attempted to take the rest of the hounds down a farm drive until the farmer came out and told him to hop it. Following the hunt today on a quad was their former huntmaster Rikki Profitt, who kept praising us for keeping up with the hunt, weird! Profitt was the huntmaster of the Flint and Denbigh back when the hunting act came into force, an article from that day quotes Profitt as saying “the hunting act has make the membership soar and they have 60-80 riders out on the hunt” hmmm 15 years on and the Flint and Denbigh had 12 riders today. As the hounds went into cry on the scent of a fox sabs were close by and able the stop the hunt in their tracks. Our wildlife police who once again were nowhere to be seen today, like to harp on about livestock worrying, had they have bothered coming out today they could have witnessed the hunt doing this first hand, as the hunt continuously bothered the sheep and at one point ran towards some calves only for mother cow to then chase to hounds off (video to follow). By around half 9 it looked like the hunt may head back to the meet but not before putting the hounds into a maize field. As some of the hounds came back out the maize field the huntsman appeared to blow for home, but at this point the rest of the pack went into cry in the maize. The fox bolted and the hounds gave chase, encouraged on by tbe hunts new whipper-in. As the fox ran for it’s life with hounds just behind and the whipper-in joyful screeched “Get on it ger onit!” …….. fortunately they lost it.
Hopefully now the hunt were going to pack up? They headed back towards the road with sabs in tow, but instead of packing up they crossed the road and into another maize field, and again went into cry! With hunt riders stood on point at either end of the maize field attempting to keep the fox inside for the hounds to maul, sabs used voice calls to try pull the hounds out the maize. It was at this point a sab witnessed the panting fox confused and running back into the maize, the huntsman was off his horse search for the fox but by now he must have realised sabs were all over him. The hunt did now finally pack up. It would be a shame not to mention everyones favourite angry Councillor Ed who made a rare appearance today but was rather camera shy. Trelawnyd and Gwaenysgor community council must have told him to wind his neck in a bit….
Thanks for all your support you can donate to North Wales Sabs on this koffi link https://ko-fi.com/nwsabs
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