The Silverton Hunt killed a fox today, in full view of sabs. They met at Gingerland Livery near Cullompton and spent the first few hours hunting in valleys around Colebrook before heading to Highdown Farm, where they drew several small coverts close to the M5. Hounds were heard speaking in a covert west of Cranishaies Lane and sabs got into position on two nearby footpaths in time to witness hounds kill a fox. Hounds had grabbed the fox at both ends and disembowelled him. The fox, a young male, sustained bite wounds all over his face and abdomen. Huntsman Chris Matterface had been encouraging hounds on and made no attempts to call them off. Sabs retrieved the body while Matterface took the hounds and legged it.
Police were called and two officers arrived, the only two in the whole of Mid Devon, we were told. They took pictures of the body and witness statements. A quick drive past the meet confirmed the hunt were still out, but we got assurances from the police that they would be advising them to pack up. Two hours later the hunt were still out and several more calls to the police resulted in no response.
It doesn’t end there. Emboldened by police inaction, the hunt continued south towards Rode Moors, where our vehicle was blocked by terrier men and hunt support vehicles. The terrier men and another member of the hunt then assaulted several of ours sabs on the road and broke one of our cameras. One sab was held in a headlock, another was grabbed by the throat and sustained injuries to his neck and several others were punched in the face and kicked. A further 999 call was made to the police.
Shortly after, four police cars and a police van arrived in the area, responding to allegations of assault made by the hunt! Our vehicle and sabs were stopped and searched on suspicion of carrying weapons, the usual nonsense rolled out by the hunt every single week.
The hunt were still out…. Police insisted the hunt were heading back to the meet, the same thing we’d been told over an hour earlier, even when hounds were being hunted across fields within plain sight of the police. Asked whether they had bothered to tell the hunt to go home, or even spoken to the huntsman who was responsible for the kill, they responded that they didn’t have the power to stop them from hunting and that, in any case, “the Hunting Act is pretty unenforceable”.
It’s only unenforceable if you refuse to enforce it.
Shame on you, Devon & Cornwall Police. It’s not enough that we have to do your job for you and sustain violence on a weekly basis as a result. Even when you are shown clear evidence of an illegal activity, you turn a blind eye.
We have been compiling a dossier of police bias and inaction from the last several seasons and will be taking it up with our MPs, as was suggested to us by the police today. Today was just the tip of the iceberg.
We call on all our supporters to share this report and contact Devon & Cornwall Police to ask why an organised criminal gang was allowed to continue committing crime immediately after being caught red-handed, and why police have already been telling the press that they are unlikely to make an arrest even before viewing our footage of the kill! Promising to investigate the incident in slow time is not good enough when the criminals and evidence of what they have done are all still at the scene and the crime is ongoing. Police could have asked for evidence of trails that had been laid. They could have documented blood on the hounds’ faces and questioned those involved with the hunt, but none of this happened.
Devon & Cornwall Police
- Email: 101@devonandcornwall.pnn.police.uk or 101@dc.police.uk
- Facebook: facebook.com/DevonAndCornwallPolice
- Twitter: @dc_police
But most of all, if you are enraged by the lawless behaviour and violence of hunts then join or support your local sab group and do something about it. No amount of signing petitions will stop hunts from killing week after week. In the current climate direct action is the only thing that saves lives.
Silverton Hunt, your card is marked. You can expect to see a lot more of us.
Update, 2 January
To those who have accused us of producing a roadkill fox yesterday, the Silverton Hunt have now admitted to police that they killed the fox.
As always when hunts are caught red-handed, the hunt aided by the Countryside Alliance PR team have made the ludicrous accusation that sabs are somehow responsible.
Emboldened by police inaction at the time, the hunt became violent and several of our sabs were assaulted and a camera broken. As you will notice from our hit reports, we sustain these attacks from hunts on a regular basis.
We are glad to read the police are finally saying they will take the matter seriously. Thank you to everyone who contacted them, but judging by past experience we will not be holding our breath.
Gallery
Elsewhere…
While we were with the Silverton, a protest was held at the East Devon Hunt’s meet at Woodbury Castle. Well done to all who took part.
You can contact the Tiverton rural police team here: https://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/your-area/teams/Tiverton-Rural/Contact . Please, politely make it clear to them that violence, intimidation and the killing of animals with dogs, all by the Silverton hunt, needs to be a policing priority.