Eggesford Hunt, Oaklands, Okehampton, 27.12.21

ILLEGAL HUNTING, VIOLENCE AND VANDALISM AT EGGESFORD ‘BOXING DAY’ MEET

The Eggesford met at their traditional meet at Oaklands on the edge of Okehampton, bolstered by riders and support from a few neighbouring packs which have come down with kennel cough.

Sabs kept eyes on the hunt all day as they rushed through their usual Boxing Day draws in the pouring rain, starting with the valley south of Broadmoor Lane and then crossing the road in direction of Place Plantations. Here a fox was hunted to ground in a hole under a hedge. With terriermen including convicted badger sett digger and Puddington parish councillor Seward Folland eagerly circling the area looking for an opportunity to dig out, we stayed behind and made sure the fox was able to get away safely.

Watch the video:

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Eggesford Hunt, Duke of York Inn, Iddesleigh, 24.12.2021

On Christmas Eve the Eggesford Hunt met at the Duke of York Inn, Iddesleigh. Huntsman Jason Marles gave what we’re sure he felt was a rousing speech, thanking the Duke of York Inn for hosting their illegal activity again as is apparently tradition, and claiming “this is what it’s about chaps, this is country life” to the gathered hunt support. Jason, there are plenty of people in the countryside who would strongly disagree with you there, how do you think sabs up and down the country get our hunt intel?

After his little speech, Jason and the hunt followers moved off and headed south to draw the woodlands around Bullhead Farm. Almost immediately sabs came across a young girl alone crying for her mother who had ridden off with the hunt leaving her behind. Sabs notified hunt staff so they could reunite the distressed child with her mother. Moving on swiftly each time sabs caught up Jason headed further south to the woodlands North of Bude Farm, and then West towards Mills farm.

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Eggesford Hunt, 15.12.2021

SABS RESCUE HUNTED FOX

As many of you know, two Eggesford Hunt terriermen were convicted over the summer for interfering with a badger sett by trying to digout a fox that had been hunted to ground by the Eggesford hounds. We regularly encounter digout scenarios with the Eggesford Hunt and they make no secret of their intentions, transporting terriers and spades around on their quadbikes all day in the hope that an opportunity arises to digout and kill their defenceless quarry.

We have also learnt the hard way that the hunt will often come back to digout after sabs have left. For more on this, see here:
https://www.facebook.com/devoncountyhuntsaboteurs/videos/465270390831813
And here:
https://www.facebook.com/devoncountyhuntsaboteurs/videos/612076669374753

We sabbed the Eggesford Hunt again on Wednesday and after sadly killing a fox earlier in the day (video to follow), towards the end of the day they also hunted a fox to ground in a hole under a very dense patch of brambles. The hounds were all over it, frantically trying to get into the hole to kill the fox, and huntsman Jason Marles only made some lacklustre attempts to call them out when he noticed sabs were approaching with cameras on.

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Eggesford Hunt, The Barton, North Tawton, 15.12.21

ONE FOX KILLED, ANOTHER RESCUED AND RELEASED.
LANDOWNER ADMITS TO ILLEGAL HUNTING.

Last week we paid a visit to the Eggesford Hunt who were meeting at Helen Dunn’s property, The Barton in North Tawton. In 2019 Helen won the BBC Countryfile “Farming Hero” award for fostering young people at her farm. We are gravely concerned that any authority would place vulnerable children with a bloodthirsty criminal. What’s more, the behaviour of her daughter, Sophie Dunn, speaks volumes to her parenting abilities. Any normal parent would be ashamed to have raised this snotty brat. See the video below for more.

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Torrington Farmers, Deptford, High Bickington, 11.12.21

On Saturday we spent the day sabbing the Torrington Farmers Hunt meet at Deptford, High Bickington. Over four hours they did several laps of the Deptford to Vauterhill valley with a brief stint around Glenmore and Shuteley Farms. Unsurprisingly, there was no sign of trails being laid at any point and when this was pointed out to huntsman Steve Craddock he gestured to the nearest person, who just so happened to be one of the most unfit-looking hunt followers, and said “there, that’s my trail-layer”.

It was tough-going for our foot sabs at times, as the fields were very water-logged. Hounds took off in cry on a couple of occasions. Our three foot teams did their best to keep tabs on the hunt throughout and covered the scent of a fox running from hounds.

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Eggesford Hunt, Afferton Moor Cross, Witheridge, 08.12.2021

On Wednesday we surprised the Eggesford Hunt who were having an extravagant meet, consisting of pasties on the side of the road at Afferton Moor Cross near Witheridge.

With a pathetic field of just three riders and a few quads, sabs outnumbered the hunt. After stuffing their faces (it’s a well-known fact that it takes a full stomach to lay a plausible smokescreen), the hunt headed off from the meet, drawing the woods on the western edge of Cuddenhay Moor down towards The Gables before moving west to Homer Plantation and Afferton Moor.

Sabs were close behind and witnessed the hounds rioting on deer on Afferton Moor. Shortly afterwards, a huge, beautiful stag was seen running from the hounds too. You may remember from a few weeks ago that this twisted hunt has taken to using a fox hide instead of a rag to lay their smokescreens. Towards the end of the day, we saw them dragging a mangled deer hide around (only after the hounds had failed to chase and kill a living animal), so it’s hardly surprising that the hounds will happily riot on deer as well as hunting foxes.

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Spooners & West Dartmoor Hunt, New Venn Farm, Lamerton, 27.11.21

On Saturday 27th November in the wake of Storm Arwen we visited the Spooners meet at New Venn Farm on the edge of Lamerton.

Although we were delayed getting to the meet, with two vehicles and five foot teams we easily outnumbered the hunt on this occasion.

They spent a couple of hours in the valley between the meet and Lower Chaddlehanger with just a couple of support cars watching from the road.

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Eggesford Hunt, Burrington, 26.11.21

On Friday 26th November a small team of DCHS sabs went to check up on the Eggesford Hunt at their Burrington meet.

We filmed some interesting behaviour at Bridge Wood and in the valley towards Higher Twitchen. Some of the hunt support didn’t realise they were speaking to sabs when they queried if we’d seen that fox running…

They spent the rest of the afternoon drawing various fields of tall elephant grass around Golland and towards Hansford Cross. Our followers may be intrigued how anyone other than a small furry animal could have laid a trail in there. And indeed one such furry trail-layer was flushed from cover in our direction, enabling us to cover their scent and help them evade the pack which was hot on their heels.

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Silverton Hunt, Creedy Barton, Newton St Cyres, 20.11.21

Silverton Hunt met at Creedy Barton near Newton St Cyres on Saturday, owned by Hunt Master and mortgage adviser Angie Prouse, who once again treated us to her best banshee impression.

The hunt left the meet in direction of Wyke Cross, drawing a couple of kale fields between the roads and the railway line on the way. They then spent an hour mostly riding around fields between Higher Rewe and Furze, doing very little active hunting.

The whole thing was very lacklustre and hunt support who had come along for the day looked decidedly bored, resorting to abusive language, childish hand-signals and kicking mud at sabs to vent their frustration. Most of this lot are grown adults but you wouldn’t know if all you had to go on was their behaviour around sabs!

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Eggesford Hunt, Hatherleigh Carnival, 13.11.2021

Eggesford Hunt 13.11.2021 The recently-convicted wildlife criminals from the Eggesford Hunt were back at their ‘traditional’ Hatherleigh Carnival meet yesterday.

After standing around in the town centre for a while, shaking their money bags and encouraging kids to stroke the hounds, the hunt and their entourage headed off to Hatherleigh Moor to look for some wildlife to kill.

The next couple of hours were spent drawing every stream and hedgeline on the moor, disturbing pregnant-looking ewes and ground-nesting birds. Hounds put up multiple foxes. Two bolted from the same covert and ran towards our foot teams who sprayed to cover their scent and stopped hounds when they arrived.

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