Today was a great day for the local foxes, and a royally shit day for budget huntswoman Jessica Half-Pack Harrison and the Stevenstone hunt, as we shut down their midday meet at West Putford.

You’d think she’d be used to being sabbed by now but today Half-Arsed Harrison took one look at us and decided she’d had enough. Hounds had barely had an hour of hunting between Putford Bridge and Kismeldon and hounds had ended up scattered all over the place. Sour-faced Harrison rode past sabs on the road, muttered some childish insults and announced she was headed back to the meet.

With her grand entourage of 3 riders and a handful of bored hunt supporters she boxed up at Rock Cottage and then spent the next hour zooming around the area in her Land Rover looking for lost hounds.

We had some lunch and planned our next move. As soon as we were certain the Stevenstone were headed home, we drove south to check up on the South Tetcott Hunt who had been spotted hunting around the Chapman’s Well area. After a few loops of the area we found them tucked up back at their kennels too.

After an exhausting Dartmoor sab on Wednesday, we’re secretly quite grateful for a quieter day. And when the hunt pack up at the mere sight of us, we count that as a pretty successful day. Thanks to our friends from Plymouth & West Devon Hunt Sabs for joining us!

Continue reading “Stevenstone Hunt, West Putford, 24.02.24” →

This Saturday we made another trip to see vegan-shake-scammer and fox-murdering-psycho Jessica Harrison hunting the Stevenstone hounds. Sabs saw 3 foxes to safety over the course of a relatively short day.

The hunt met at Devon’s most depressing B&B, Higher Soldon, near Sutcombe and started off by heading directly to a fox earth with Harrison drawing the hedges and her posse of bloodsport enthusiasts providing cover by blocking sabs. Hounds quickly got onto the scent of a fox and chased them west across the road and back. Sabs saw the fox running safely south while Harrison attempted to gather her totally split pack and draw the area again.

Sabs looping around caught up with a Land Rover reeking of fox and unsurprisingly soon after another fox was seen running in the same area. This one ran right past in full view of huntswoman and support but thankfully Harrison had still failed to gather her pack so this one got to safety. Supporters whipped hounds and eventually gathered them just south of the meet before heading off quite a distance to the east.

Continue reading “Stevenstone Hunt, Higher Soldon, 17.02.24” →

On Saturday we weren’t invited to the Stevenstone Hunt’s meet at Great Gorwood Farm in Buckland Brewer, but of course we invited ourselves!

They started hunting in the valley between the meet and the neighbouring Cleave Farm. Sabs stayed with hounds and disrupted the huntswoman’s attempts to draw. Tempers were already flaring. Jessica Half-pack Harrison threw her pyramid schemes out of the pram and threatened to call the police. Whipper-in Sean Watts has now traded the horse he likely shot for a quadbike with a landowner attached to it. The landowner assaulted one of our sabs and tried to grab his camera, but was quickly put in his place. Failing to hunt foxes here huntswoman took the hounds east.

The hunt went through Buckland Wood and east into East Hele Wood, near Frithelstockstone. Runners kept up with them and our other foot teams were positioned to intercept. Hounds went into cry in this area but between our teams we managed to stop them. They hunted this valley south to Craneham wood, hunting through a pheasant pen and into Tythecott.

Continue reading “Stevenstone Hunt, Buckland Brewer, 10.02.24” →

We went out this Saturday to upset huntswoman Jessica “Half-pack” Harrison’s day, as she and the Stevenstone reprobates tried and failed to kill foxes around Great Torrington.

The hunt met at their kennels on the western edge of Great Torrington town, where this decrepit bunch of lifeless antisocial corpses are rightfully hated by the locals. Huntswoman Half-pack Harrison took her handful of haggard horse riders west from the meet towards Frithelstock. Here she cast hounds into the valley at Culleighford, just north of the hamlet. Sab teams were positioned in various places along this valley to keep the hunt on the move and keep the hounds heads up, preventing them from scenting.

After an hour of sabs ruining her draws, Half-pack took the hounds way back towards Great Torrington and headed south, where she began hunting parallel to the popular public walking/cycling spot, the Tarka Trail. The Stevenstone hunt are banned from the Tarka Trail by Torridge council, and rightfully so. As sabs continued close behind, several hounds were heard going into full cry just off the eastern side of the trail, in the woods. We encountered a group of young people walking their dogs that were terrified by the harrowing noise they could hear. Sabs quickly made their way up into the woods to intervene.

Continue reading “Stevenstone Hunt, Great Torrington, 03.02.24” →

On Saturday we headed to the coast on the very edge of Westward Ho! where the Stevenstone Hunt were meeting on David Lomas’s estate at Cornborough. According to Lomas himself, he wasn’t hosting an illegal foxhunt but rather a “Drag Race” (RuPaul wasn’t invited…). He did clarify that he actually meant a “drag hunt” but didn’t seem to know what one of those is either. Whatever it was he was hosting, it definitely wasn’t a trail hunt (and a trail hunt is quite different to a drag hunt). We did quiz one of the regular riders on where the trail-layer was and what he looked like. His response was “like the fox”. Indeed.

Half-pack Harrison and her hounds gathered in the grounds of Lomas’s manor and the hunt vehicles were parked on the edge of his helipad… The hunt set off to the north and began drawing every dense bush and hedge on Lomas’s land. The gorse-lined slopes which drop right down over the South West Coast Path and then plummet into the sea are so steep, thick and prickly, the hounds needed a lot of encouragement from huntswoman Jessica Harrison and her whip Sean Watts to go in and try and find a fox.

Continue reading “Stevenstone Hunt, Cornborough, 13.01.24” →

This Saturday we once again visited the dying Stevenstone Hunt at Milton Damerel to watch huntswoman Jessica Harrison lose her hounds. Make no mistake, despite being a terrible huntswoman, Jessica and her hounds still pose a huge danger to wildlife. With hounds scattered widely across the countryside we spent all day watching deer, hare and foxes get flushed and run for their lives.

She started the day in the valley north of Down Farm, immediately splitting her pack and then struggling to regather them, before moving on to Berry Wood where she would spend a significant time. Hounds were seen on the line multiple times, as small groups ran round the woods causing chaos and chasing multiple foxes. Fortunately, sabs were located strategically around the wood and were able to intervene to stop any kills.

Hounds then became stuck on the north bank of the fast-flowing River Waldon and Jessica had to leave the area and go round on the road back through Milton Damerel to try to gather them, before going back in from the east to try to put them back on the lines they had hunted earlier.

Continue reading “Stevenstone Hunt, Milton Damerel, 06.01.24” →

Between the big events of Boxing Day and New Year’s the hunt is still out on their regular schedule of wildlife crime, and we are still there to stop them. On Saturday we went to visit huntswoman Jessica Harrison and the Stevenstone Hunt at Hoarestone near Stibb Cross.

The day started with a pretty pathethic attempt to lay a trail around Veilstone woods. Not that laying a trail is even possible. Not that a single rag on the end of a stick would actually work if it was. The trail was laid around Veilstone Wood, one of the few woods in the area the hunt stayed away from all day.

They spent most of the day in Thorne Wood, between Holwell Farm and Hembury Castle, staying in the valleys to avoid the absolutely howling wind. Even a competent hunt master would have struggled to control hounds today and of course Jessica immediately had her pack split. Even so, sabs saw hounds get onto at least 3 foxes in the wood, but with timely intervention, rating and covering their scent, we are sure all 3 got away.

Continue reading “Stevenstone Hunt, Stibb Cross, 30.12.23” →

Yesterday we spent another chaotic day with ‘half-pack Harrison’, Stevenstone Hunt’s new huntswoman. The hunt met at Bulkworthy.

We were running a few minutes late due to vehicle issues but we found the hunt at Eastacott just in time to help a fox escape from the pack. This fox broke from a dense bramble patch right in front of sabs and hunt supporters. When something like this happens, we put ourselves between fox and hounds, cover the fox’s scent with citronella and rate the pack away from the fox’s line. This prevents the hounds from being able to chase the fox and ensures the fox can get away. It was an extremely close call for this fox and the outcome would likely have been different if sabs hadn’t arrived at that precise moment.

The hunt left this area to the north, drawing hedges and stream valleys along the way, as well as a set of dilapidated farm buildings surrounded by dense brambles, exactly the kind of place a fox would be lying up. Foot sabs were on hand to move the pack on when they found scent. Hounds did get onto another fox heading north-west towards Stowford. Hunt supporters watched from the road and one of the riders behind our vehicle shouted “you f***ers ain’t going to stop them”. Fortunately, we did.

Frustrated to have lost yet another fox, huntswoman Harrison rode along the road from Stowford Cross, blowing her horn to gather the pack. We never call hounds from, towards or across a road, but hunt staff seemingly always do, and Harrison is no exception. Despite only having half a pack to look after, she carried on hunting towards the disused quarry and left several hounds behind on the road. Sabs had to witness a purple Nissan hunt support vehicle hit a stray hound. The hound went all the way under the car but fortunately appeared to have missed the wheels. Sabs shouted for the car to stop as the hound darted into the neighbouring hedge. We searched for the hound to check for injuries but the hound had got away and we can only assume that they were okay. We also tried to alert several hunt members, including Harrison herself, but they either wouldn’t listen or just shrugged their shoulders. A reminder, as if one was needed, that the hounds are ultimately just tools to them.

Continue reading “Stevenstone Hunt, Eastacott, 20.12.23” →