Action Against Staghunting begins – Gary Thorpe goes drag hunting – Chris Woodward and Jack Taylor plead guilty – Cotswold Hunt fined by BHSA – British Transport Police failures
latest news 13th May 2023
Latest News will be one year old on 22 May!
New Campaign Group
AAF now have a sister organisation AAS, (Action Against Staghunting). In case you missed it, here is the link:-
https://www.facebook.com/actionagainststaghunting
The group is a coalition of a number of other groups – sabs, monitors and AAF. They have a lot to do, but given their starting point, they are hitting the ground, running
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On the subject of stag hunting, here is part of a report from the Mendip Hunt Sabs:
“𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐧 & 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬
𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘢𝘺 29𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘭: 𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵, 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘺 𝘏𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘵𝘦.”
“…Car followers and field riders lined the hills for a view into the valley as the stag fled into Redcleeve Plantation towards the river Exe. As he was hunted further along the valley and approached the A396 towards Chilly Bridge, hunt support on the road made huge amounts of noise to head the stag and prevent him from running towards a LACS Sanctuary where he would have been safe. Sabs and monitors were assaulted and threatened by thugs who clearly didn’t enjoy having their actions contested. The commotion on the road frightened the stag and he doubled back into Sale Wood. With his energy fast depleting he laid up to rest and hounds were heard baying, marking his position. Sabs quickly followed the huntsman as he entered the woods, knowing that stationary baying meant the stag could soon be shot. Yet somehow, he mustered his remaining strength to flee west back up the hill towards Musicpark Farm. Unfortunately, the stag must have laid down exhausted again shortly after, as a few minutes later a shot was heard. This signalled the death of the stag and proclaimed the end of the hunt. The beautiful animal had been chased for hours over hills in hot sun by hundreds of people and had nothing left to give. Somehow this delighted the hunt support and field riders, who cheered, celebrated and gloated at sabs on their way back to the meet. This past month has been a real eye-opener for us as we witnessed for the first time the deplorable cruelty of stag hunting. We would like to thank all our followers for your words of support and kind donations, as well as the HSA for contributing towards our fuel bill. We vow to be back at the Stag Hunts again next season. This is just the beginning.”
At least 12 different anti-hunt groups attended this hunt.
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Hunting of a wild mammal for sport is illegal, and it is just a matter of time before AAS exposes the stag hunts excuses as excuses, and nothing more. Their excuses do not make this activity legal, or moral, or worthy, or supported by the public. We all know that the hunts are doing this for the fun of it and that very few members of the public condone animal cruelty of any sort – let alone for sport.
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Sabs and monitors will be out dealing with the mink and otter hunts soon.
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Prosecutions and Police
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On Friday 05/05/23 at Norwich Magistrates’ Court, Jack Taylor of the West Norfolk Fox Hounds pleaded guilty to criminal damage committed in November 2022. He had jumped off his quad, slashed the tyres of a family car, in full view of saboteurs, hunt staff and field riders. When the police attended, the hunters denied any knowledge of any wrongdoing and carried on hunting. Police identified Taylor by the video provided by saboteurs. Sentence is yet to be determined. In their report the Norfolk/Suffolk HS go out of their way to thank officers of the Norfolk Rule Crime Team.
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Chris Woodward from the Wynnstay Hunt pled guilty to a section 4 Public Order Offence. He rode his horse at a sab while uttering (well, more like screeching) ‘I’ll kill you’. Sentencing should occur in June.
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British Transport Police closed two incidents involving hounds killed by trains – without further action. Several BSV (Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt) hounds were killed by a train in January 2022, and in October 22, the same happened to hounds from the Dunston Harriers. Did BTP turn a blind eye because they are frightened of taking on the hunts? Or worse – did they turn a blind eye because they support the hunts?
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Hunt behaviour
On 04/05/23, the BBC reported that the Cotswold Hunt was fined £5000 by the BHSA (British Hound Sports Association, previously the Hunting Office, now disgraced), for the buried alive fox incident. The BHSA also say that no one involved in the management of the Hunt had prior knowledge of the fox being placed in an artificial earth. We wonder why they fined them then, if they were completely innocent. Gloucestershire police are continuing to investigate the incident. No arrests so far.
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North London Hunt Sabs report that Gary Thorpe of the East Essex Hunt has moved to drag hunting and has a new role as the huntsman of the Staff College Drag Hunt. So far it is thought that the East Essex Hunt have not found a replacement huntsman. Mr Thorpe was ground down by the constant attention of sabs, at both hunts and fund raisers. Essex Police and AAF were all in on it. The result is most satisfying.
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Unpopularity of hunts
The North Cotswold Hunt are holding a fund-raising event on 28th May, involving stalls. A local noticed that an animal charity was listed as one of the stall holders. She contacted the charity, who immediately cancelled their booking. While this is a good outcome – what was the animal charity thinking by making the booking in the first place? AAF knows that so-called animal lovers can in fact support hunts. We have seen this when we have had stalls at animal charity open days – some members of the public go to the event and take issue with our stance on foxhunting.
Thank you for reading.
