Yesterday we were proud to join lots of other amazing groups from across the south of England and beyond (some even came from Ireland!) for a mass sab of the South Dorset Hunt, in solidarity with Weymouth Animal Rights who have had to put up with a lot of horrendous behaviour from this hunt recently.
Added to the usual intimidation, property damage and of course illegal hunting, some hunt members recently launched a vicious attack on a veteran hunt monitor, leaving him with bad head injuries. They shot another in the back with a ball bearing, broke into a sab’s garage and slashed the tyres of their vehicle and several other sab vehicles, and threw dead foxes into a sab’s garden.
These are the actions of a desperate hunt whose attempts at killing wildlife are constantly thwarted by a team of amazing sabs. As some of us who last sabbed the South Dorset just a few years ago were quick to realise, this hunt are a shadow of their former self. The meet turned out to be a joint with the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray Hunt from West Sussex. For the two hunts to jointly muster just a dozen or so riders and a similar number of car support says quite a lot.
They met at South House in Piddletrenthide, north of Dorchester and not far from the Cerne Abbas Giant (see drone photo!). The hunts headed east towards Dole’s Hill Plantation, where a group of quadbikes had been lurking for a while, probably blocking setts or releasing bagged foxes. Hounds drew hedges, copses and valleys towards Dole’s Ash Farm, Whitcombe Hill and Kingcombe, always under the watchful eyes of sabs.
Our foot sabs kept a close eye on them as they drew some dense scrub west of Redlands Coppice and a fox was marked to ground at a sett. Some sabs stayed behind to guard the sett while the hunts moved on to the west in direction of Kiddle’s Bottom and Higher Southcombe Farm. Several foxes were seen, including a large bushy fox who ran at considerable speed straight past a bunch of hunt supporters. Sabs intervened to ensure this one got away safely.
Hunt supporters meanwhile were growing increasingly frustrated and some decided to stand in front of our Land Rover in an attempt to block us. It didn’t matter to them that they were holding up all the traffic in the area until someone pointed out that they were also holding up their own support vehicles and they were asked to move. Elsewhere, a monitor was hit by a quadbike.
The hunts headed south and spent the rest of the afternoon around Kingrove Wood, Incombe Wood and all the small coverts between there and the meet. Multiple foxes were seen, as well as deer, and sabs were on hand to cover their scent and rate hounds whenever they got on a line. Tempers flared and towards the end of the day some hunt riders were overheard arguing with one another.
We’re back in Devon now and ready to spend the rest of the season continuing to hit our local hunts, but it’s always good to join forces with other groups when a particular hunt needs to be reminded that an attack on one of us is an attack on us all.
Lots of love to all the other groups who joined forces for this mass hit: Weymouth Animal Rights, East Herts Sabs, Herts Wildlife Monitors, West Sussex Hunt Sabs, South Hampshire Hunt Saboteurs, South Coast Hunt Sabs, Brighton Hunt Saboteurs, Leinster Hunt Saboteurs, Connaught Sabs, Staffordship, Surrey Hunt Sabs, East Surrey Hunt Saboteurs, Mendip Hunt Sabs, Somerset Sabs, Bristol Hunt Saboteurs, Bath Hunt Saboteurs, North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs, Wildlife Crime Action
Please continue to send us your tipoffs.
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