Dart Vale South Pool and Modbury Harriers, Coleridge Cross, Stokenham, 19.08.2020

On Saturday morning a small group of us went to find the Dart Vale South Pool and Modbury Harriers who were meeting to cub hunt at Coleridge Cross north of Stokenham. Clearly surprised to see sabs, huntsman Ruben Kench, who has only just recently become huntsman for the DVSPMH, was heard discussing with support how they would lose us in the valley.

The landowner Mr Dark, while struggling with his horse who clearly did not want him on his back, tried to remove sabs from where hunting was taking place however we persisted and despite the steep hills we kept watch on them the whole morning.

After setting off around 8am the hunt concentrated their time in the valley between Harleston and Darnacombe Farm. Several foxes were spotted fleeing from the hunt and the landowner even admitted to sabs that hounds were on a fox! The hunt support were also overheard talking about the hounds being on a “Charlie” – a well known hunt code word for a fox. Blatant illegal fox hunting even for them.

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Eggesford Hunt, Pudson Farm, Okehampton, 18.08.2020

On Tuesday we were up early together with members of South Devon Animal Rights to find the Eggesford Hunt cub hunting at Pudson Farm just outside Okehampton.

Cub hunting, also known as cubbing, is an especially vile form of hunting where new hounds are trained for the coming fox hunting season. During cubbing, the hunt support surround small woodlands and valleys to turn back any foxes that try to leave while the hounds are sent in to kill every fox they find. They can kill many baby foxes, and sometimes entire families of foxes in one morning. With cubbing, the hunt isn’t after a chase, they simply want as many kills as possible.

As soon as sabs entered fields hunt support acted aggressively by surrounding sabs, pushing them and shouting in their faces. Hunt chairman Hugh Trerise kept physically shoving sabs while Duncan Tucker and other thugs circled on their quad bikes driving dangerously close to sabs.

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Dartmoor Hunt, Wrangaton Farm, 11.08.2020

This Tuesday saw us out with the Dartmoor hunt for their first cubbing meet of the season.
They were less than impressed to see us and to be filmed immediately as they left the kennels.

As they headed up onto the moor near Wrangaton golf club the riders and support surrounded a patch of gorse whilst huntsman Harry Gosling encouraged hounds to pick up the scent of a fox. Mark Warnett who is usually their terrierman was filmed slapping his thigh along with other foot followers who were making noise to scare any fox back towards the hounds.

This is textbook cub hunting tactics and ensures the fox cannot escape meaning a quick kill for the pack, thus giving the young hounds experience and a taste for blood. More foxes are killed at this time of the year than during the whole of the main season which starts in November.

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Eggesford Hunt, Chawleigh, 09.03.2020

We witnessed the Eggesford hunt mark a fox to ground in a badger sett near Chawleigh. Now that our investigations have concluded, we can release more information about the incident.

As you can see in our video, huntsman Jason Marles encouraged hounds to mark the sett, causing damage to the sett entrances, and blew the horn call “gone to ground”. He smugly told sabs “you can’t take hounds to court” and insisted that his pre-laid “trail” just happened to end at the sett….

Terrierman Victor Gibbings was also present at the sett and the incident was witnessed by many other members of the hunt. After the hunt moved on, the sett was guarded all day from a safe distance, in case the terriermen came back.

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Eggesford Hunt, Burridge Moor Cross, 07.03.2020

Last Saturday we were with the Eggesford hunt who met at Burridge Moor Cross, blocking the road completely in the process. Huntsman Jason Marles started the day by heading west, where hounds immediately caught the scent of a fox, chasing it to ground in a badger sett north of Duckham Farm.

Sabs rated hounds out of the holes, but Jason and terrier man Victor Gibbings (who ran over the paw of a hound with his quad while aggressively driving at sabs) arrived, brought hounds back to the sett and encouraged them back into the holes.

A stand-off between huntsman and sabs followed with Jason taunting sabs with his conviction that police were never going to take action against his crimes (video to follow). Eventually sabs got into the holes to prevent further damage by hounds. Jason, as is typical for this man-child, hit one of the sabs with his whip before leaving and finally taking the hounds away. This sett was kept under surveillance all day to ensure no one came back to dig out.

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Silverton Hunt, Upton Pyne Equestrian Centre, 14.03.2020

SILVERTON TERRIERMEN ATTACK SABS, STEAL POSSESSIONS AND SMASH LANDROVER WINDOW

Yesterday the Silverton Hunt met at the Upton Pyne Equestrian Centre and spent the morning hunting the Upton Pyne shooting estate on the edge of Exeter. Sabs witnessed some very blatant illegal hunting from huntsman Chris Matterface, but the fox got away thanks to sabs. By 1.30pm the hunt had had enough. They left the shooting estate and headed north towards Raddon Hills with sabs in tow.

Our Land Rover crew were parked on the road near Starved Oak Cross, waiting to see what the hunt’s next move would be, when terriermen attacked the vehicle and one of them (Matt Welham) broke the passenger side window of our Land Rover with such force he ended up with cuts all over his hands.

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Spooners and West Dartmoor Hunt, Long Plantation, Princetown. Dartmoor Hunt, Dunnabridge Farm. 03.03.2020

This Tuesday a small team of us with the help of a friend from South Devon Animal Rights decided to visit Dartmoor to see what the hunts were up to.

We chose to keep eyes on the Spooners and West Dartmoor hunt first. Their meet was at Long Plantation near Princetown, the host being their own field master Martin Allison. A relatively small affair with a lack of support and riders.

Long term follower Mary Alford, who’s son Daniel is incidentally a director of the badger cull in this area, was busy scowling at us: http://innocentbadger.com/cull-zones/badger-cull-company-directors-revealed/

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Stevenstone Hunt, Yeory Farm, Merton. Torrington Farmers, Weare Giffard. 29.02.2020

On Saturday the bad weather kept many hunts away from our wildlife. We went to see what the Stevenstone were up to, but although they were at their meet at Yeory Farm in Merton, they weren’t hunting due to the weather and so, with no hounds in sight, we left them to their pasties.

We asked the few riders present what they were planning to do with no hunting on and they told us they were going for a countryside ride before going home. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could just do that every week and leave the foxes alone?

We decided to then catch up with the Torrington Farmers at their closing meet and keep them company for the day.

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Eggesford Hunt, Park Farm, Winkleigh, 20.02.2020

DCHS teamed up with Storm Dennis to give the Eggesford a hard time at one of their busier meets, Park Farm on the edge of Winkleigh. Several kills were prevented by sabs despite persistent aggression from hunt staff, riders, and followers.

After drawing blank in the first covert of the day, Rack Brake, huntsman Jason Marles took hounds west in direction of Collacott Barton where he cast the pack into a large patch of gorse. They have previously bolted foxes from this location, so we positioned teams strategically so that they’d be able to intervene if this happened again. After drawing blank in the gorse, the assembled hunt headed in direction of Bullow Brook, south of the meet.

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Four Dartmoor Hunts, Two Bridges Hotel, 19.02.2020

On Wednesday we teamed up with sabs from SDAR, Guildford and Norfolk to sab the traditional ‘commiseration of the hunting ban’ meet of the four Dartmoor hunts: Dartmoor, Mid Devon, South Devon and Spooners. We couldn’t however see any sign of the Spooners on the day. We’d heard that they’d been hunting and digging out the day before in the Princetown area, so perhaps there has been a falling out between them and the other hunts?

Mid Devon huntsman Duncan Hume was hunting his hounds, Robert Medcalf huntsman from South Devon was out as were the two Harrys from the Dartmoor hunt, Gosling the huntsman and Cook his whip.

The hunt met at the Two Bridge’s hotel and were met by a great group of protesters from Devon Against Hunting, and Action Against Foxhunting. News reporters from ITV were also present and interviewed the hunt who gave their usual trail hunt lies nonsense.

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