No kills for smug little huntsman Jason Marles as we ruined his cubbing meet at Serstone farm, just north of Bow, on Monday. Eggesford killed a young vixen in this area last New Years, and we were determined to not let that happen again.

The hunt were just about to set off as we arrived. Jason took the hounds and his field of just 2 riders into the valley to the south, where he first cast hounds out. A few hounds were picking up on scent in the scrub and beginning to speak, and a fox was seen by runners bolting from the dense bramble patch. Sabs intervened by masking the area with citronella and rating hounds, distracting them from picking up on the scent.

As the day went on they attempted to hunt the hedge lines and copses around Zeal Monachorum, all the way north to the Old Mill and North Yeo farm, and across to the Devonshire Heartland Way. Several foxes were seen by us throughout the day and we did our best to deter hounds from hunting, ensuring that our foot teams were always well-positioned and using horn and imitating voice calls to command hounds.

The hunts think violence deters us. One would have thought they’d have learnt by now that so long as they keep violently persecuting wildlife, we’ll continue heading into the fields to stop them.

So while one of our sabs was recovering from his injuries after the attack at yesterday’s meet of the Devon & Somerset Staghounds, some of us went out to see what the Eggesford were up to at their evening cubbing meet between Iddesleigh and Monkokehampton.

We know the area well, having sabbed here a number of times. Some of the regular blood junkies left the scene the moment we arrived. The look of disappointment on their faces when they spotted our Land Rover driving down the road was quite the picture! Hounds and huntsman were already in the field and hounds were beginning to pick up on scent when sabs caught up with them. They chased a fox south towards Mill Farm and across the road, but this one got away. From there they drew the copse at Mill Farm in both directions, stopping halfway to cause absolute chaos amongst a herd of cows and calves.

Third day in a row of sabbing for us! We packed up another Eggesford cubbing meet this evening at Edgemoor Farm near Riddlecombe.

As soon as he saw us, Jason took the hounds back to the van and drove home.

Lots of children at this meet, including infants. Pretty sickening bringing kids along to watch young foxes be torn apart.

Jason and his new minion (aka whipper-in) Josh snuck out for an evening cubbing meet today at Southcott near Winkleigh.

Hounds were cast into the woods at Little Vellow Moor but we deployed sabs to send them straight back to their vehicles for an early finish. This seemed to cause Martin Tucker to lose the plot a bit, as he drove his quad at our sabs on the main road. Bloodjunkies snap when they don’t get their fix.

The cubbing setup is the most blatant form of illegal hunting you will witness: hounds are cast into a covert where the hunt know foxes reside (e.g. a small woodland, a maize field or other dense crop) and hunt staff and supporters surround the covert on all sides. You’ll see this in the video we’ll share tomorrow. They do this to prevent foxes from escaping so the pack can be trained to find and kill. It’s grim, it’s illegal and sabs are the only people doing anything to stop it. You can support our work via the link in the comments.

Please also follow our neighbouring sab group Plymouth & West Devon Hunt Sabs who joined us this evening.