Twenty years on from the birth of the Hunting Act, sabs are still defending wildlife.
Yesterday we sabbed the Two Bridges Hunt Club meet on Dartmoor. This is the annual gathering of the four Dartmoor hunts (the Mid Devon, South Devon, Dartmoor, and Spooners & West Dartmoor hunts) to mark the anniversary of the Hunting Act. Essentially, it’s the hunts sticking two fingers up at the law and proclaiming that Dartmoor is their private playground. Many walkers and visitors to the moors were less than pleased to see them and to find the Postbridge road blocked with hunt traffic. It was nice to receive thanks from members of the public for standing up to these wildlife criminals. Predictably, no police were present and it was left to sabs to stop foxes from being killed, as has always been the case.
The hunts met at the East Dart Inn at Postbridge. We attended alongside Plymouth & West Devon Hunt Sabs, Mendip Hunt Sabs and South Devon Hunt Sabs. This year it was the Mid Devon Hunt’s turn to bring their hounds. In dense fog the hunts set off to the north, taking the bridlepath next to the Dartmoor visitor centre in direction of Broadun Round. They drew the gorse-covered slopes on both sides of the East Dart River, under the watchful eyes of our sabs who intervened to rate the hounds when they picked up on scent.
Everything eventually headed west and into the Hollowcombe Bottom valley below Higher White Tor. Seeing hounds heading for dense covert, some of our foot sabs saw an opportunity to call the hounds out of the valley, buying any resident foxes a bit of extra time to get away ahead of the hunt. Riders and hunt followers soon gathered on the edges of a very large gorse patch between Powdermills and Higher White Tor before the hounds were sent in to find a fox. Fortunately, they drew a blank on this loop.
The hunts carried on east towards Arch Tor, where a foot follower was seen pointing in direction of Archerton, having probably seen a fox running that way. Hounds were sent in that direction and were soon running in full cry towards the disused quarry south of Archerton. They eventually lost the scent and headed back north and west for a second loop of the whole area. This time a fox was flushed from the large gorse patch at Higher White Tor. Some of the Mendip sabs spotted the fox running at speed very close to hounds. Radios come in handy here, as the message was passed to some of the Plymouth & West Devon foot sabs, who were perfectly positioned to cover the fox’s scent line.
Another fox was hunted across Arch Tor and into the valley near the road. The chase came to an end at a fox den, which we witnessed hounds furiously marking. Our foot sabs were nearby and headed straight to the site to rate the hounds out of the hole, forcing the hunt to move on. It was only the presence of sabs that prevented the den from being dug out, no doubt to the disappointment of the car followers who were watching from the road!
The last part of the day was in the Cherry Brook valley south of Bellever Forest. Huntsman and another red coat chose to jump a wall from the road onto the stretch of moorland west of the brook, destroying the wall in the process. Some of the hunt riders were left trying to reassemble the wall. While foot teams were busy coming off the moor north of the road and repositioning all along the valley, one of our runners followed huntsman and hounds from one gorse bush to another. The hunts drew blank after blank and eventually headed back to the road to finish for the day.
Twenty years ago this week the Hunting Act came into effect, banning the hunting of wild mammals with hounds. As followers of our hit reports will be fully aware, hunts are still hunting foxes, deer, hares, mink and other wild mammals with hounds and wreaking havoc to our precious ecosystems.
The current law is under-enforced and full of loopholes. It also has no preventative effect, meaning that even hunts with numerous convictions are still able to carry on. This urgently needs to change, and we encourage you to write to your MP to urge them to ensure that Labour uphold their manifesto promise to finally put an end to this barbaric ‘sport’.
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