TRAIL HUNT LIES AND CORRUPT POLICE
On Saturday we decided to pay a visit to the Cotley Hunt who met at Higher Lodge Farm near Axminster. This is the same area where we know they killed a fox a few seasons ago.
The hunt started the day in the valley between Old Lodge and Cuthays. Cotley are one of the few hunts we know who bother to try and create a trail hunting smokescreen by employing a ‘trail layer’. Sabs spoke to him at the meet and he told us that he had no specific route, and that the huntsman didn’t know where he planned to go.
Just pretend for a moment that we believe trail hunting exists. The trail layer would head off from the meet and the huntsman should put hounds on his line. The hunts would have us believe that trail fluid and fox scent is indistinguishable to hounds (which is why sometimes they “accidentally” kill foxes), so if the intention is to hunt the trail (and not one of the many live foxes in the area), the huntsman would surely need to know the initial direction of the trail. Needless to say, the hunt did not set off in the same direction as the trail layer.
At this point the hunt would have us believe that they genuinely intend to hunt the trail, despite setting off in the wrong direction. Let’s say we believe them. Later in the day one of our vehicles was positioned at a vantage point watching over the same fields for over an hour. At no point did sabs see the trail layer come through, so when hounds came streaming along the hedgeline in full cry, they ran in rate the hounds off the line, which could only have been a live fox. The huntsman yelled at them “they’re on a trail you idiot”. So now apparently the huntsman knows exactly where the trail is…
Trail hunting is a farce which we have exposed again and again. The huntsman doesn’t know where the trail is, which is part of the “sport” and means it’s an accident when the hounds kill a fox, but simultaneously he knows exactly where the trail is and that hounds are definitely not on the line of a fox. Trail hunting does not exist, it has never existed, and reference to it is nothing more than a smokescreen to allow the hunts to continue to hunt foxes.
Back to the day. Sabs were positioned at Payne’s Place Farm where they witnessed some of the most blatant illegal hunting they have ever seen. They saw a fox break and nearby supporters hollering (whooping) to indicate to the huntsman and hounds that a fox had just broken covert. Why would they do that if the intention is to hunt a trail? Sabs were well positioned and were able to act quickly to rate hounds and call them off the fox. The pack scattered and the fox got away. Meanwhile the trail layer was nowhere to be seen. The hunt upped their aggressive behaviour after being thwarted and spend a lot of the day harassing our foot teams.
The hunt then went back into the same valley towards New Park Coppice where the pack scattered again to the north and south. Hounds rioted on deer before eventually getting on a line at Old Barn Farm heading west towards the Old Lodge. Sabs positioned on the road nearby watched as hounds streamed through the valley in full cry and dodged several supporters on quads to get into the field and rate hounds back. The team of three female sabs was then repeatedly assaulted by a large group of supporters as they tried to reach the hounds. The huntsman quickly gathered the pack and moved on and we believe that fox got away.
The hunt then went out the back of the meet into Pennsylvania Coppices where the Cotley Harriers maintain an artificial fox earth – is that where the “trail equipment” lives? Hounds got on another line heading east to Tilworth House where quick intervention from sabs scattered the pack once again. Shortly afterwards, and unable to satisfy their bloodlust due to the presence of sabs, the huntsman headed west through Langmoor Coppice and back to the meet.
As the hunt were packing up one of our vehicles was pulled over by a police officer said that he had been called out to check out some “suspicious people in a Landrover”. Apparently that warrants police response. Watch the conversation in full in the video above.