On Saturday we took a trip up to Somerset and met with our friends Somerset Sabs to sab day six of the hare noncing festival that southwest sabs have been hitting all week. We got to the meet at Aller Court early but didn’t see any sign of them – sabs have got these wildlife abusers running scared!
Once we’d confirmed they weren’t at the meet, we moved off to disrupt the illegal hunting of the Taunton Vale Harriers, at Rull House, Ashill.
The hunt were less than happy to see us. Countless support vehicles and quadbikes blocked roads and footpaths in an attempt to prevent us from keeping eyes on the hunt. We made sure to continue on and remind them that it is a criminal offence to obstruct a public right of way. In situations like these we pose the same question as always: if you were laying trails and you had nothing to hide, why would you be so against our presence?
We arrived to find huntsman on foot in the fields west of Ashill. As soon as he caught a glimpse of sabs he ran back towards Lower End, where we were met with the rest of his field. Waiting there for us was the newly appointed “trail layer”. A man who nervously fumbled a few words about how he was about to lay a trail, in front of sabs and making direct eye contact of course. Obviously if trails were laid at the start of the day this spiel wouldn’t have been necessary. The “trail layer” then took his place behind huntsman and hounds as they continued north.
They hunted west to the village of Uffculme, as far north as the Black Down hills and all around the Culm Valley, casting the Harriers into various hedgelines and scrub patches in an attempt to pick up on a scent. Due to the saboteurs’ presence and poor conditions, the hunt and the hounds were unsuccessful.
It was lovely to encounter so many locals who were anti hunt.
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