TRAIL HUNT LIES AND CORRUPT POLICE
On Saturday we decided to pay a visit to the Cotley Hunt who met at Higher Lodge Farm near Axminster. This is the same area where we know they killed a fox a few seasons ago.
The hunt started the day in the valley between Old Lodge and Cuthays. Cotley are one of the few hunts we know who bother to try and create a trail hunting smokescreen by employing a ‘trail layer’. Sabs spoke to him at the meet and he told us that he had no specific route, and that the huntsman didn’t know where he planned to go.
Just pretend for a moment that we believe trail hunting exists. The trail layer would head off from the meet and the huntsman should put hounds on his line. The hunts would have us believe that trail fluid and fox scent is indistinguishable to hounds (which is why sometimes they “accidentally” kill foxes), so if the intention is to hunt the trail (and not one of the many live foxes in the area), the huntsman would surely need to know the initial direction of the trail. Needless to say, the hunt did not set off in the same direction as the trail layer.