Lamerton Hunt, Upcott Barton, 22.11.25

Lamerton huntsman David Lewis looked less than impressed when we showed up at this meet at Upcott Barton near Broadwoodwidger, just a week after Plymouth & West Devon Sabs put a stop to his plans for the day.

For whatever reason, the two sets of terriermen were kept hidden at the start. However, that didn’t last long – nor did the rest of their day!

After riding around some boggy fields between Willtown and Grinacombe Moor, and then between Broadwood Down and Rexton, sour-faced David and his daughter Maria led the hounds back to the meet.

Terriermen on their quadbikes, equipped with spades and terriers for digging-out foxes, reluctantly retreated back to the meet as well.

Our vehicle made sure they packed up and went home, while foot sabs were getting help for a poorly sheep in a field on the edge of the village.

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Lamerton Hunt, near Lydford, 02.12.23

David Lewis and the Lamerton Hunt had the company of two sab groups on Saturday, DCHS plus Plymouth & West Devon Hunt Sabs. The meet was at Burnville House, not far from Lydford Gorge and Brentor Church. As usual, we were greeted with looks of disappointment from hunt followers and the words “don’t you lot have anything better to do?”. (The irony…) It was pretty frosty and conditions were good for scent, so we were braced for a difficult morning as we knew the hunt were likely to head to the gorse-covered slopes of Gibbet Hill and Smallacombe Bottom, which have been quite challenging to sab in the past.

The hunt with its two field riders set off from the meet and tried to give our foot sabs the slip by riding straight onto Black Down and then towards Gibbet Hill. What they hadn’t anticipated was the tenacity of our runner sab plus the other foot team they ran straight into on the hill. The hunt stopped for a brief conflab and then announced that they were just going to go for a ride. No hunting, ‘just a hack’. As we all know, hunters are perpetual liars. Sure enough, a few minutes later hounds were cast into the gorse at Smallacombe Bottom and were encouraged to find a fox.

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Lamerton Hunt. Spooners & West Dartmoor Hunt. 22.10.22

On Saturday we visited two hunts, both finishing up their fox cub hunting season. Neither put up much of a fight. First we found the Lamerton hunting at Kelly. Upon seeing sabs, huntsman Lewis quickly gathered hounds and packed up.

Our tip line is always busy (keep it up!) so we headed to the next nearest meet of the Spooners near their kennels at Sampford Spiney. We found them on Vixen Tor and kept an eye on them as they rode around in some pretty miserable weather, and they also packed up soon after we arrived.

With opening meets coming up to start the main hunting season, hunts will be more determined to chase and kill wildlife and won’t pack up so quickly. We are always looking for new sabs – whatever your age or fitness level – message us about getting involved to help put a stop to these craven animal abusers.

Please keep your tip-offs coming in.

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Lamerton, Eggesford, South Devon and Dart Vale, Modbury and South Pool Harriers. 01.10.22

Saturday was a long day! We sabbed four hunts. We started off at the Lamerton Hunt’s morning cubbing meet at Brinsabach Lane near Brentor. Scent conditions were ideal for hunting, but our presence caused the hunt to pack up straight away. We later heard they were headed back to that meet in the afternoon, but we were with another hunt by that point. Fortunately, it was a very warm afternoon so conditions would have been less ideal for hunting.

While we were with the Lamerton, we received a tipoff that Eggesford Hunt were once again causing chaos near North Tawton, hunting on and around Crooke Burnell. We later heard from locals that hunt vehicles had been dangerously blocking traffic on the busy A3072 all morning, and police had to be called. When we arrived we found hounds drawing a small copse between Crooke Burnell and Halse Farm. We encountered landowner Duncan Tucker and his father Martin, who rode their horse and quadbike at our foot sabs. Duncan threatened to knock one of our female sabs out and insisted he could “do what he likes” on his land. He obviously meant assaulting sabs and hunting foxes, but we’re pretty certain he lives by that rule more generally. Duncan called police, falsely claiming that we were threatening his son and damaging his crops. Police arrived to establish that we were doing no such thing and the hunt soon packed up.

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Lamerton Hunt, Trewarlett Cross, Launceston, 14.09.22

A determined group of sabs turned up at the Lamerton Hunt meet this afternoon at Trewarlett Cross near Launceston. Huntmaster David Lewis, 2 equipped quads and a number of support, all on foot, with a small pack of young hounds were found drawing a small copse just southwest of the meet. Hounds were heard to be briefly in cry and horn calls heard encouraging them to ‘hunt on’.

On approaching we saw a wizened old lady and her lurcher, standing on point at the north end of the copse and on spotting us she slunk away timidly. When asked what she was doing she said what she’d traditionally done her whole life, watching the hounds work. She then remembered to add ‘trail’ to what she was ‘watching’ but admitted to not having seen the trail being laid-funny that, we’re sure no-one else saw that smokescreen either. We then spotted a further member of the hunt, in all her finery, with a whip casually draped over her shoulder and a massive plaster on her head – wonder if she was trying to hide a horn growing there? On spotting us she quickly got on her phone and all of a sudden there was silence.

We waited a little while but on hearing no more hounds or horns we returned to the meet and found the hounds boxed up at the meet lounging around eating sandwiches and drinking. Our lovely polite old lady transformed into her true rude self, sensing she had strength in numbers, but we won’t be intimidated by that kind of attitude. We then had a stand off, them waiting for us to leave and vice versa. Eventually they drove away and on checking out other local haunts there was no obvious evidence that they had moved elsewhere so we’re hopeful that we’d packed them up for the evening.

Please keep those tipoffs coming in!

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Torrington/Stevenstone/Lamerton, 05.02.22

We had a busy day last Saturday, sabbing 3 hunts.

We started with the joint meet of the Torrington Farmers and the Stevenstone at Huntshaw neat Little Torrington. For a joint meet the turn-out was poor, with around 10 riders and a similar number of followers. They started out drawing the woods to the west of Huntshaw at Broadridge, with huntsman quickly losing hounds who were then gathered by sabs. After that, the hunt kept the hounds close as they rode through Kennick’s wood. There they lost about half the riders who were unable to cross a fallen tree blocking the path.

Ten minutes later, as the rest of them crossed a low fence, one of the horses got their foot stuck and threw a shoe. The horse seemed to be uninjured but that kind of accident could be fatal, and the hunt knew it, with two of the riders wailing and crying while sabs and other hunt members scrambled to free the horse. We hate to see any animal in distress, so to those crying members of the hunt here’s a tip – if you care about your horse, don’t go out fox hunting! And while you’re at it, try to have some of the same compassion for the wildlife you’re there to kill.

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Torrington/Lamerton/Eggesford Joint Meet, South Brentor Farm, Tavistock, 26.01.22

COMEDY GOLD AT THE TORRINGTON/LAMERTON/EGGESFORD JOINT MEET

On Wednesday we were (un)fortunate to witness the triple act that literally no one should ever have to see: a three-hunt joint meet between the Torrington, Lamerton and Eggesford.

The day started as bizarrely as it would go on, with an extremely normal looking woman who had DIY’d some eyeholes in an orange camo balaclava sitting with us in creepy silence at the meet. We can’t really blame her, we’d much rather hang out with sabs than a bunch of psychopaths too. This same woman (who we were later told is unstable and on drugs, and the wife of terrierman Steve Mitchell) continued to behave like the hunt-supporting weirdo that she is, by demanding sabs’ names at random intervals, attacking sabs and stealing their property, and then less than an hour later asking to go on a date with us. We couldn’t make this shit up if we tried.

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Lamerton Hunt, Boasley Cross, Bratton Clovelly, 19.01.22

LAMERTON HUNT KILL FOX

On Wednesday we paid a visit to the Lamerton Hunt who met at Boasley Cross near Bratton Clovelly, right outside a primary school.

You might remember the Lamerton as the hunt that is hosted by disgraced ex Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox, and who have been in court on a number of occasions for illegal hunting.

After the usual food and speeches, this gormless band of criminals headed east to draw the valley near Luddon. Sabs kept up with the huntsman and hounds as they started drawing the valley, and almost immediately a fox broke in front of huntsman David Lewis, who encouraged the hounds on using horn calls. Sabs ran in to cover the line of the fox with citronella and rate the hounds out of the valley. David pulled his hounds out, only to put them back in ahead of where the fox had been seen running, despite being told repeatedly that he was on film. You would think he’d have learned something from his numerous court appearances.

Watch the video:

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Lamerton Hunt, Nethercott, Broadwoodwidger, 29.12.2020

We paid a return visit to the Lamerton Hunt, who met at Nethercott, north of Broadwoodwidger. This is a farm owned by a man who tried to steal the keys from one of our vehicles a little while ago and assaulted several of our sabs in the process.

The weather was pretty horrendous and the hunt were only able to muster a field of about 5 riders, who spent the entire day on the road, as the surrounding fields were so waterlogged. The day began in the valley east of the meet. Hounds were heard in cry and sabs found them beside a large badger sett by Shallaford. Terriermen Steve and Wayne arrived and made idiots of themselves trying to escort sabs from the land.

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Lamerton Hunt, Hedge Cross, Lydford, 12.12.2020

On Saturday we paid a visit to the Lamerton Hunt, who met at Hedge Cross, near Lydford. They started the day in Eastcottdown Plantation and then hunted through Forestry Commission woodland towards Burley Down.

Forestry England recently banned trail-hunts, after the Hunt Saboteurs Association’s leaked footage of Hunting Office webinars exposed trail-hunting as a smokescreen for the continued illegal hunting of foxes. However, just like the Hunting Act hasn’t stopped them hunting foxes, bans from landowners won’t stop them either if there’s no enforcement from those landowners.

We strategically positioned foot teams around Burley Wood and deployed the drone to keep an eye on the pack. It wasn’t long before they came north out of the valley in full cry towards some of our sabs.

Sabs rated hounds off the fox’s line and sent them back down into the valley. When another foot team asked huntsman David Lewis about the whereabouts of his trail-laying rag, he lost his temper. Riders tried to rein him in but he continued shouting and swearing at sabs and then threatened that he might as well go home.

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