Some of us joined up with Mendip Hunt Sabs and Somerset Sabs on Saturday to sab a Mendip Farmers Hunt meet hosted by Jacob Rees-Mogg MP at his private mansion, Gournay Court at West Harptree.
One of Rees-Mogg’s sprogs was riding with the hunt and would have witnessed all the criminality that took place throughout the day. For a serving MP to host a hunt whose members are convicted violent criminals and whose Master George Pullen was filmed just last week viciously beating a hound (now the subject of an RSPCA investigation) is quite something. Add to that the fact that this hunt are now joined by ex-Avon Vale Hunt riders and terriermen. In a nutshell, that tells you everything you need to know about why foxhunting carries on.
The hunt set off from the meet to draw the reed beds at the Herriott’s Mill Pool nature reserve, where they have no permission to hunt. A fox was flushed from here and went to ground at a badger sett which the Mendip sabs were aware of from previous occasions. This sett and others in the area had many holes that had been freshly blocked. The hunt moved on from the sett but within an hour hounds had returned after hunting a fox from White Hill and marked the same sett again. Some sabs watched over the sett for the rest of the day to prevent a digout.
The next hour was spent back on top of White Hill, with hounds causing havoc amongst a flock of sheep and a herd of bulls, much to the frustration of the farmer who had to interrupt his work to try and get the pack under control. From there they moved to Coley Hill and Peak’s Girt Wood and a fox was briefly seen running from hounds at Shortwood Common. This is where foot sabs were approached by a group of particularly inebriated hunt supporters who had clearly been drinking (and driving!) all day and could barely string a sentence together. When they weren’t leaning on their walking sticks to try and remain upright, they were using them to hit sabs while telling us we’re all “filthy commoners”. You honestly couldn’t make it up.
On their way to Chewton Wood, where they would spend the rest of the afternoon, the hunt drew a small patch of scrub next to a road. While terriermen were busy trying (failing) to escort a lone female sab off the land, another foot team spotted a fox escape from the scrub and manage to evade the hounds. At Chewton Wood hounds were entered into a large patch of dense brambles where they occasionally picked up on scent. Clearly this is another hunt that doesn’t even bother with the trail-hunting smokescreen, so we weren’t just going to leave them to it. After a few notes on the hunting horn we had gathered the hounds at our feet, much to the huntsman’s frustration. He responded by moving them on to another patch of brambles. And so it carried on for the next hour until eventually they gave up and packed up nearby.
As we keep saying, the hunts we see not just in Devon but up and down the country are all the same. In our experience, they are mostly made up of bored, entitled drunks who see the countryside as their own private playground and get their kicks from violence towards those whom they perceive to be beneath them, whether that be wildlife, sabs, or even ordinary members of the local community who have to continue to put up with their constant harassment.
Hunts are supported and protected by wealthy MPs and – as the situation in Wiltshire most starkly demonstrates – their local police force. The only people actively standing up to them are hunt sabs.
Gallery
