The Eggesford hunt killed a fox in front of sabs at their Opening Meet. Sadly we believe the hunt may have killed on more than one occasion that day, and hounds were found marking other foxes to ground twice. Devon & Cornwall’s finest arrived on scene right at the end, as usual many hours too late.
After Jason’s boring half-hour long speech, he left the meet at Sydney House on the edge of Chulmleigh and took his field of 15 riders north-east through the village and on via a kale field towards Horridge Moor. Hounds quickly picked up on the scent of a fox here and were seen running on a line across the valley. Sabs tried their best to intervene, although the hunt covered a lot go ground very quickly. They were found marking the fox to ground eventually at Cadbury Barton. Sabs kept an eye on the location to prevent a digout.
The hunt spent the rest of the afternoon mostly in the area between Horridge Moor and East Garland Farm, putting up several hares and pursuing a number of foxes. Sabs intervened whenever possible to split up the pack and take hounds off the various foxes and hares they were chasing. As they made their way back south, hounds picked up a scent near Challacombe Cross and chased this fox into a patch of gorse in the valley. Jason encouraged hounds on with horn and voice and unfortunately they bolted this fox from the gorse and killed in front of sabs. Sabs retrieved the fox’s body while Jason congratulated the hounds. See the video below:
WARNING: Distressing Footage
We moved the body of the fox into our Land Rover and were then set upon by about a dozen thugs who were instructed by hunt chairman Hugh Trerise to block us in on the road. The thugs were mostly masked teenagers who defecated on the road next to our vehicle (you couldn’t make it up, but we’ll spare you the footage!), broke off the door handle trying to break in and joked that the freshly killed fox “looked like he needed a vet”.
Our foot teams meanwhile kept up with huntsman and hounds who hunted another fox to ground at Parsonage Wood. Sabs stayed behind to guard the sett while others followed the hunt as they slowly headed back in direction of the meet, drawing the valleys near the meet before they packed up. As we had called police several hours earlier, a police car eventually arrived in the area near the meet, followed by a brief appearance from the police helicopter. For a force that repeatedly claims to be too under-resourced to deal with hunting crime, to send out a helicopter to film the last five minutes of the hunt just before they pack up is surely not an efficient use of resources.
It’s rather reminiscent of the police’s appearance this time last year, when the hunt continued to chase a fox directly beneath the helicopter, as documented here: https://www.facebook.com/devoncountyhuntsaboteurs/videos/859325615432461
We are sharing our footage with police, but as usual expect nothing to be done about it. As many years of experience has taught us, when it comes to Devon & Cornwall Police it’s all just about being seen to be doing something, whilst repeatedly refusing to actually do anything meaningful. That’s ultimately why sabs exist: If you want to stop hunts, become a sab or support your local sab group. Don’t expect those who are paid to enforce the law to do their jobs.
Gallery
