The Eggesford Hunt are trying a new tactic this season of hunting during the week instead of weekends to try and get rid of us. Sadly for them, it isn’t working. On Monday they only managed a measly handful of riders and the usual gormless band of terriermen and support.
The hunt met at Birch Farm in East Leigh. Two sabs were dropped in south of the meet to keep an eye on which direction huntsman and hounds would move off. They had a good view onto the meet, however before long were spotted by the small crowd gathered there. Our vehicle parked close to the meet watched as several terriermen put on their masks, removed numberplates from their quads and tore up to where sabs were watching.
Landowner John Quick, accompanied by his stepson Callum Drayton, as well as Martin Tucker, Stuart Parish and other masked terriermen surrounded the two female sabs, driving at them with their quads and grabbing and shoving at them. One sab was hit in the back of her head by John Quick and had her hand injured during the assault.
Eventually sabs made it to safety and were collected by a vehicle and Devon and Cornwall Police were called to report the assault. We had kept an eye on where the hunt had gone and were dropped in just in time to catch up with hounds in cry in a kale field just north of the meet. Sabs witnessed the fox break north where they were driven back to hounds by supporters shouting and clapping. Sadly we believe that the fox was killed and the body quickly disposed of before we could get close enough.
As sabs approached, the hunt quickly moved off but several terriermen were seen loitering in the corner of the field. Sabs got closer to try and see what the terriermen were up to, and as they did so were ridden at by John Quick (who had evidently had a costume change) and were assaulted by him for the second time in less than an hour. Duncan Tucker stood by on his horse and filmed John Quick repeatedly riding his horse at the two female sabs. Someone clearly didn’t attend the webinar training where hunts were told to “Make sure that we only record all the legal things that we do because of course we only do legal things. So that’s all we can really record so yes the answer is to be very careful everybody” (if you haven’t seen the webinars leaked by the Hunt Saboteurs Association you can watch them here: https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/mass-criminality-in-hunting-community-revealed-through-leaked-webinars/).
Sabs kept a close eye on the loitering terriermen in case they were attempting to dig out a second fox but soon realised that this was no more than a distraction to allow the hunt to get away. As soon as we were able to get close enough we discovered a big, active badger sett which showed clear signs of having been blocked earlier in the day. This is a tactic the hunts use to prevent foxes from being able to escape to ground in the areas that they plan to hunt. In this instance we saw no evidence that a second fox had been hunted to ground but we have documented the blocked sett on John Quick’s land and reported it to the police.
Meanwhile sabs caught up to the hunt around Baron’s Wood just south of East Leigh. Hounds were in and out of cry as they headed north to Little Cutland Farm. We kept a close eye on them and as far as we know they were unable to satisfy their bloodlust again despite their best efforts to lose us.
Eventually the hunt returned to the road and hacked back to the meet, closely followed by foot sabs who were surrounded by a convoy of quads.
We made several calls throughout the day to Devon and Cornwall Police to report the assault, illegal hunting and illegal interference with an active badger sett. We were told that the incidents had been logged as a “prompt response” however police officers failed to attend on the day, despite sabs and wildlife being in immediate danger. The matters are now being investigated.
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