In August, one of our sabs and a sab from Mendip Hunt Sabs were viciously attacked at a meet of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. On Saturday, we returned to that hunt alongside sabs from Mendip Hunt Sabs, Plymouth & West Devon Hunt Sabs, Bristol Hunt Saboteurs, North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs, Staffordshire Hunt Sabs, Brighton Hunt Saboteurs, Reading Hunt Saboteurs and Somerset Sabs. An attack on one is an attack on us all and as all the hunts we sab should know by now: violence only buys them plenty more visits from sabs.
The meet was at Melcombe House at Exford. The hunt set off towards Road Castle and Lyncombe Wood, flushing a stag who evidently wasn’t the one they had their sights on, so they left that one and carried on in a generally easterly direction. They moved slowly though, losing their hounds for quite a while in the dense bracken. Sab teams were positioned all along the valley on both sides, ready to intervene where necessary.
Having drawn a blank the hunt moved towards Winsford where they picked up another stag at Vicarage Bridge and hunted him north and then east towards Ison Cleeve. A gunshot was heard by our foot team and at the time we believed they may have killed that stag, but subsequent enquiries have confirmed that this one got away and there were no kills that day. The hunt had a thoroughly miserable day. In fact, after the recent Channel 4 exposé showing them for exactly who they are, it’s fair to say they had a thoroughly miserable week!
We’ll be back.
Thanks to all the groups that came. The solidarity in this movement is amazing.
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