Before the Hunting Act was passed around 50,000 members and supporters of hunting signed the Hunting Declaration, in which they pledged to break the law if hunting was banned. Every week for the past twenty years since the Hunting Act was passed that’s exactly what hunts up and down the country have been doing. Despite a law that bans it, our wildlife continues to be illegally hunted and killed, largely because landowners like Dartmoor National Park, the Duchy of Cornwall, the MOD, Forestry England and other major private landowners continue to turn a blind eye to the blatant illegal hunting happening on their (our!) land.

The Two Bridges Hunt Club, formed of the four Dartmoor hunts (the South Devon, Mid Devon, Dartmoor, and Spooner’s & West Dartmoor) meet around this time every year to mark the anniversary of the ban coming into effect and stick two fingers up at the Hunting Act. This week was no exception.

After backlash from previous years, the Two Bridges Hotel stated that they were not hosting the joint meet of the four Devon hunts this year. However, they were happy to host the fox killers at a pre-hunt dinner the night before.

Instead the hunts met at the East Dart Hotel at Postbridge, Dartmoor, with horse trailers even unboxing in the Dartmoor National Park tourist information car park. It seems this four hunt joint meet could only muster around thirty riders between them.

We were joined by sabs from other south-west groups: Plymouth and West Devon Sabs, North Dorset Sabs, Somerset Sabs, Wiltshire Sabs, Mendip Sabs, South Devon Hunt Sabs and South Devon Animal Rights.

Continue reading “Two Bridges Hunt Club, Dartmoor, 21.02.24” →