This Saturday we visited our friends Somerset Sabs to sab the Weston & Banwell at Appleacre, north of Wedmore. This hunt have recently been attacking sabs with shovels and are a nasty bunch of wildlife abusers.
The hunt started by heading west via Peartree Farm into the network of fields and rhynes around Burmead and Binham Moor north of Perry Farm. Hounds were heard in cry with huntsman encouraging them close behind. They ended up at Perry Farm in the yard, with sabs not too far behind, but sadly we believe they may have killed a fox in the farmyard. For the people who will always demand 4K video evidence of everything from 3 different camera angles, a chase between a fox and hounds is very fast and the animals can cover tremendous distances across rough country in a short time. Preventing, never mind, getting every incident on film is simply not possible. Instead we piece together what we find: The sound of hounds in cry came to an abrupt end at Perry Farm. Sabs arrived to find a strong foxy smell, a rider off his horse acting shifty and two terrier men skulking around in the farmyard.
Police arrived in the area. Because trespass is obviously a bigger issue than being in a wildlife crime gang and beating people with shovels, two police cars showed up to be absolutely no use at all, and left after about half an hour.
The huntsman then headed north drawing hedges and any covert he could find north of Perry farm, either side of the Drove Way track. However teams in the field and our drone were able to watch him closely for the rest of the day and we don’t believe he killed again. The hunt pretty much finished at around 2.15 and the remaining riders took about an hour and a half to drag themselves back to the meet.
Thanks Somerset Sabs for having us!
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