Once again we are in the all too familiar situation of being let down by North Wales Police, they’ve strung us along (again) for 6months before telling us they’ll be taking No Further Action against the Flint and Denbigh hunt after they intentionally killed a fox in Trefnant on November 20th 2021.
On Saturday November 20th 2021 we were joined by Cheshire Hunt Sabs and attended a hunt of the Flint and Denbigh who met at Plas Newydd Estate in Trefnant, it was clear from the off they were intent to kill on this day. Just after they’d set off and still in the grounds of Plas Newydd Estate they got onto a scent of a fox, and rather than call the hounds off with sabs right there, they hunted on, with the terrier men using voice calls to encourage the hounds. Fortunately they lost this fox, but hounds were now all over the place. Whipper-in Toby Dunn was on the A525 collecting the stray hounds.
The hunt moved off to Perthewig Woods then to an area known as the dismantled railway line. At this point the huntsman Robert Medcalf “blew away” which is a signal that a fox has bolted. Then the hunts whips, Will Deague and Toby Dunn were hunting the hounds on as they went into cry after the fox. The whole chase last around 20mins. The hounds then chased the fox back towards Bodfari Road where the hunt supporters were waiting. Sabs witnessed the fox running through the fence into bushes at the edge of the dismantled railway line. By the time sabs had got through the fence the whipper-in Toby Dunn was already off his horse leaning over the foxes dead body with a bin bag ready to dispose of the body. Before sabs had even reached Toby Dunn he started shouting “Assault Assault”. A sab tried to retrieve the body from Toby Dunn as he continued to claim he was being assaulted. Whipper-in Toby Dunn admitted on film they had killed the fox but claimed it was an “accident”. Back up arrived for Toby Dunn in the form of hunt terrier man Robert Smith, who along with Dunn managed to get the foxes body from the sab. In all the commotion the hunt supporters on the road couldn’t hide their excitement, with Pat Vickers screeching “They’ve actually got one”. With hunt supporters and hunt riders all over the road members of the public had now got involved after their vehicles had been stopped from passing through.
Police turned up yet the hunt was allowed to continue. PS Nathan Jones refused to tell the hunt to pack up, we told him that other police forces tell hunts to pack up after they’ve killed, but Jones replied “I don’t necessarily agree with other forces doing that”. Just moments later the hunt then killed a lamb in Plas Heaton Estate. The lamb dropped to the ground after having a seizure from being scared of the hounds running amongst the sheep. The hunt again disposed of the body, although this would have been prevented if PS Jones had told the hunt to pack up.
Statements were given to police along with a lot of footage which clearly showed the intent to hunt and kill the fox, plus footage of Toby Dunn admitting they’d killed the fox by calling it an “accident”, that in itself should have been a prosecution under the dangerous dogs act. Admitting the hounds are capable of killing and that they were out of control. In the aftermath Toby Dunn wasn’t seen out with the hunt for a fair few weeks and he’d been suspended from his other job as an estate agent for Carter Jones. Also notable was the head of the Flint and Denbigh hunt Davina Fetherstonehaugh wasn’t out any more. Davina owns Coed Coch Estate where Toby works and her husband is Lord Lieutenant of Clwyd.
see footage here:
The Police informed us that they’d be taking No Further Action against Toby Dunn because at his interview he’d submitted a letter from the Flint and Denbigh hunt saying he’s not the whipper-in for the hunt. That is a load of lies! Toby is one of the whips and there’s even footage and photographs of him on the day acting as whipper-in. We pointed out to the police that we can prove Toby Dunn is a whipper-in, because during lockdown regulations the Flint and Denbigh hunt supplied the police with a list of hunt employees to try get around the rule of 30. The police said they were unaware of the list but would look it up. But what they would now do is ask the huntsman Robert Medcalf to come for an interview. The police also informed us they attended the hunt kennels after the kill to try retrieve the body of the fox for an autopsy. But the hunt claimed they no longer knew where the body is and they’ll asks the person who took it and get back to the police…… which they never did.
With the 6months time limit fast approaching we were chasing up this case with the police, because they have previous for allowing the time limits to expire. But we couldn’t get a response. Then on 2/6/22 we found a voicemail left on one of our phones from May 20th, which happened to be the day the 6months time limit was up. The short voicemail said “I’ve been asked to give you an update, No Further Action will be taken due to insufficient evidence”.
With Rob Taylor gone from Nwpruralcrime team and the review into hunting to be carried out by Glyndwr University we may have hope North Wales Police would have turned over a new leaf….. But NO it’s the same nonsense that we’ve been seeing from them for years.
When we speak to the research team from Glyndwr University we’ll be giving them our brutally honest opinions, backed up with plenty of evidence.
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