Flint and Denbigh hunt trespass on Natural Resources Wales land

Hit report 30/11/21
FLINT AND DENBIGH HUNT TRESPASS ON NATURAL RESOURCES WALES LAND!

Together with Cheshire Hunt Saboteurs we paid a visit to the illegal Flint and Denbigh fox hunt who were meeting at Llandyrnog. Last time they were in this area they caused havoc illegally hunting foxes and trespassing in peoples garden infuriating the local residents. This might explain why the hunt didn’t use the usual meet point in Gellifor but instead parked their horseboxes along public roads using up all the lay-bys and parking spaces. The hound van and terrier men had met at Gales fawr. As the hunt arrived in the area we came across a member of public just out on a horse ride, her horse had come to a complete stand still refusing to go forward in the direction the hunt were in. We also received numerous tip-offs to our page from concerned locals who informed us they had no prior heads-up that the hunt would be in the area.

With the police already watching on we witnessed some quite comical scenes. The poor turn out of riders who had parked along a public road included three riders wearing green bibs claiming to be “Line layers” then dipped a rag into a bucket in view of the police. We haven’t a clue what was in the bucket, very doubtfully fox urine as they claim considering it’s illegal to import fox urine into this country. But how ridiculous must they feel knowing there has been a court case that proved trail laying to be nothing more than a smokescreen for illegal fox hunting. The riders and the green bibbed smokescreen then headed to Glyn Arthur shortly followed by the huntsman whipper-in and hounds. At this point we filmed the so called trail laying! The bib wearers rode up a field, under a tree and towards a fence line. The huntsman hounds and field riders then headed another way! Completely ignoring where the rag had been dragged across a field, despite everybody witnessing this so it’s not like the hunt could claim they didn’t know where the “trail” was. With some footsabs able to follow the huntsman along a bridleway from the meet other sabs were able to get ahead to cut the hunt off. Sabs had situated themselves on the tops of Moel Famau to get a great view point on the huntsman with the riders struggling to keep up. The rural crime team were also out and braved it up Moel Famau. From the top of Moel Famau we could see the terrier men on quads complete with terriers and digging equipment. It raises a serious question why they are allowed on a National Park, something we pointed out to the rural crime team.

The hunt had now turned back towards Glyn Arthur and attempted to hunt a woodland, but sabs were right on top on them, and when the hounds picked up on the scent of a fox sabs were able to intervene and told Rob Medcalf the huntsman to get his hounds out of there, which he did, probably knowing he was being observed by the police. The huntsman then rounded up his hounds and took them through a field of sheep causing them to panic before heading back onto the road. They rode up the road passed Glyn Arthur and onto a footpath with a sign on the gate clearly saying no motorised vehicle. The riders blocked the footpath and the huntsman took another path followed by some sabs whilst the terrier men rode their quads up and down the footpath making it a muddy mess.

The huntsman and hounds had followed another footpath to Coed Llangwyfan which is clearly marked as Natural Resources Wales land. Natural Resources have recently banned so called “trail hunting” from their land, not that this hunt ever were licensed to go on Natural Resources land. The terrain now had gotten very difficult and we had thought we’d lost the hunt. But at this point the sabs with our vehicles had again come across the rural crime team and made the point that the hunt had been trespassing. Around this same time it would appear the horseboxes had left the area and there was a sighting of the hound van moving from Gales Fawr only around 2 hours after they had set off. A quick check back at the meeting point of Gales Fawr saw the terrier men loading their quads onto the back of their trailer.

With the hunt packed we then came across a shoot which we cannot go into detail about at this time as this is a police matter.

On our way home we heard the welcomed news that the Police Crime Commissioner will be opening a consultation into the policing of fox hunting.

Thanks for all your tip-offs and support. There are many ways you can support us including a fabulous new CD also available to download with donations going to ourselves and other sab groups, we’ll post details in the comments section below.