The hunt met at Middleton’s Westacott Barton in Riddlecombe for a Monday of terrorising wildlife and local people around Riddlecombe and Ashreigney. A small team of us kept eyes on them the entire day. Several foxes were seen by our drone, their escape aided by the intervention of foot sabs on the ground.

Jason spent the day drawing one field of beets/brassicas after another, as well as the woods at Dolton Beacon and Shear’s Wood and the valleys between Northcott, Furze and Bolts. At one point the pack went off on a strong line from the edge of Shear’s Wood all the way to Dolton Beacon Cottages and into one of the solar farm fields at Riddlecombe Moor, where they obviously have no permission to be. Instead of stopping them, Jason hunted hounds on all along this route. The busy stretch of the A3124 at Dolton Beacon was forced to a standstill when Jason eventually gathered the pack on the main road. Fortunately the fox got away.

The last hour was spent back in the valley south of the meet and then east to Moorwater and Churchwater with a final (apparently unplanned) stint around South Farm and Densham on the edge of Ashreigney. Two separate landowners complained that hounds and riders had entered their land without permission. One landowner on the edge of Ashreigney was running around trying to find out whether the hunt were intending to go near her ewes. After hounds chased a sheep to death in this exact area just a few weeks ago, we’re not surprised she was concerned! Several hounds ended up scattered as far south as Horridge while Jason and the bulk of the pack carried on drawing northwards before finishing at Goodcott and hacking back to the meet.

For the second time in a week, Eggesford Hunt returned to Hatherleigh to terrorise wildlife on the County Wildlife Site at Hatherleigh Moor and the surrounding area. This is usually their annual Hatherleigh Carnival meet, and although the carnival committee have finally decided that inviting wildlife criminals to their event isn’t a good look, the hunt still meet in the town square outside the George Inn on carnival day. Based on the conversations we had with locals all around Hatherleigh Moor, most Hatherleigh residents are utterly fed up of the hunt’s presence.

The first hour was spent on the moor, with huntsman Jason Marles casting hounds into very dense covert, exactly the kinds of places where foxes would lie up. You can see several examples of this in our drone shots. Fortunately hounds mostly kept drawing a blank until they got to the edge of the moor at Deckport Farm, where they chased a fox south to Merryland Stream and Becka Moor.

With hounds running ahead in cry, Jason galloped past one of our foot teams on the moor and shouted “that rabbit’s a runner”. Remember this is a hunt that don’t bother with the pretense of trail-hunting. They blatantly hunt foxes and have several criminal convictions and cautions for digging foxes out of badger setts. ‘Rabbit-hunting’ is about as plausible a ruse as trail-hunting is (i.e. completely implausible) and still illegal if done on land without the landowner’s permission. The speed at which Jason and his lackeys were trying to gather hounds back to them north of Becka Moor leads us to suspect they probably didn’t have permission to be on that land!

Eggesford’s opening meet was another roadside meet at Chulmleigh Beacon. Riding helmet tucked under his arm, Jason showed everyone his freshly-polished head while giving his annual speech to mark the start of the main hunting season.

As the hunt set off, terrierboy Tom Bounsall reversed his quad at speed straight at one of our sabs on the road, pinning her against a parked car and narrowly avoiding seriously injuring her.

Just as he did during the cubbing season in this area, Jason started the day by entering hounds into a field of beets just off Parsonage Cross. Unsurprisingly, a fox was flushed within minutes. The fox ran out across the road and back again, followed closely by the pack who by now were in full cry and being hunted-on by Jason. Sabs stopped some of the hounds on the road but the bulk of the pack were running at speed towards Parsonage Copse, where the fox eventually went to ground at a badger sett. Our presence ensured this fox was not dug out. As sabs were rating hounds off the badger sett, a frustrated Jason jumped off his horse and began filming sabs on his phone, accusing them of interfering with his hounds… while he was continuing to allow the hounds to interfere with the badger sett!

We sabbed Eggesford Hunt twice in the last week. On Saturday they met at South Farm on the edge of Ashreigney, where they sadly killed a sheep.

The hunt started in the valley west of the village. Hounds usually get onto foxes pretty easily in this valley and unsurprisingly they spent a lot of time in cry here. Foot teams kept tabs on the hounds while a beautiful bushy-tailed fox ran out of the valley and right past our vehicle. We covered the fox’s scent and prevented hounds from following. Sometimes it feels as though the foxes know who their allies are!

The hunt then crossed the road back onto the side of the meet and into the valley between Densham Plantation and the edge of the village. Hounds started chasing a sheep who had become separated from the rest of the flock. The hunt did nothing to intervene and when foot sabs caught up to the flock about 10 minutes later they sadly found this sheep dead in the field, still warm and eyes wide open. There were no signs of bite marks but she did have an injured foot and we suspect she had probably died of shock. The intense fear from being chased by 30-odd dogs likely triggered a fight or flight response, flooding her body with adrenaline and other stress hormones, raising her heart rate and blood pressure and eventually leading to circulatory collapse.