On Monday Eggesford Hunt killed a beautiful young vixen at their New Year’s meet hosted by the Waie Inn, Zeal Monachorum.
Please let the pub know how you feel about their support for illegal bloodsports. Don’t let them tell you they don’t know about the illegal hunting. The hunt were openly boasting about it over drinks at the pub at the end of the day.
As you’ll see from the video below, police were in attendance at this meet, although they didn’t stick around to watch any of the actual hunting. They continue to turn a blind eye to wildlife crime in our countryside and this is the direct result of that.
The day was spent doing numerous loops between Zeal Monachorum and Down St Mary. Foxes were hunted right from the off. Hounds were cast into thick hedges, dense bramble patches and coverts where foxes typically lie up. Our three foot teams gave their all to defend every fox they saw, across boggy fields and difficult terrain, and contending with the usual threats from the quadbike riders.
At Merrifield a fox took shelter in a huge bramble patch. Fearing a kill, a sab waded deep into the dense brambles to find hounds scratching at a small fox earth. Fortunately huntsman Jason Marles couldn’t see this from his vantage point. All he could see was hounds frantically marking a spot, but wanting to show off to his support he blew the kill and congratulated his hounds. Unbeknownst to him, that fox was safely underground.
Unfortunately the hunt then headed back to Lammacott Farm and flushed another fox out of a disused quarry, hunting her at speed across several fields to the north towards Barn Shelley. When sabs first saw her, hounds were already just a field behind and were effectively coursing her. Knowing that the ground was wet and that there were no setts for the fox to take refuge in, Marles kept encouraging the hounds on until they had chased the fox to exhaustion. Hunt riders and foot support stood in neighbouring fields, watching and pointing whenever they caught sight of the terrified fox running for her life. Sabs did everything they could to get in between fox and hounds but on her final loop of a thin strip of woods the hounds caught up to her and killed her in full view of sabs and riders. Sabs retrieved the vixen’s body while Marles gathered and congratulated his hounds.
One of the hardest things about witnessing a kill is having to get straight back into sabbing, as the hunt will carry on and kill again if they’re not stopped. We made sure this didn’t happen but it was another hour before the hunt finally returned to the Waie Inn for drinks to celebrate their kill.
The depraved “sport” of foxhunting takes place all over the country, most days of the week, and although we were able to retrieve this vixen’s body and tell her story, the vast majority of animals terrorised by hunts die unwitnessed, their bodies ripped to shreds by hounds and discarded in a hedge. Although this video is upsetting to watch, please help us draw attention to the reality of hunting by sharing it.