Hunt meets congregate in villages despite nationwide ban on fox-hunting with dogs

~ Scott Harris ~

Hunt saboteurs gathered across England and Wales yesterday (26 December) to protest Christmas meets by hunting groups and document their lawbreaking. While fox hunting, deer-hunting and hare-coursing with dogs has been outlawed for almost 20 years, hunting groups have taken to conducting horseback parades with packs of dogs in traditional hunting locations, most prominently on Boxing Day, and illegal hunts continue to be documented.

Demonstrations were called in at least thirteen locations, from Yorkshire to Kent and from Somerset to Suffolk. Ahead of the day, activists were called upon to gather evidence of hunt meets breaking the law and taking risks with public safety, including horses and riders blocking the road or using pavements, hunt personnel directing the traffic without authority, and unleashed hounds running about in the road or among children.

“Boxing Day is an important part of every hunt’s calendar”, said the Mendip Hunt Sabs in Somerset, “an opportunity to inflate their egos as they pompously prance around with ponies and puppies, hiding the barbarity of their illegal activity behind silly clothes and daft spectacle”.

Leominster saw its first anti-hunt demo (top photo), opposing the Herefordshire and Clifton Hunt. The Three Counties hunt sabs reported that the North Cotswold hunt meet took over the road with horses and hounds, while two hunt supporters assaulted a protester. In Ealham, the Kent hunt has been banned from the land both sides of the village, but a parade still took place.

Opposition to hunt parades is motivated by a combination of care for wildlife and class antagonism towards the aristocracy and large land-owners. Protesters have also been opposing hunts that use artificial scent trails or drags, arguing that they often end up sending the dogs after live foxes.

According to the East Kent Sabs, “this so called ‘trail’ hunt is still always followed by quad bikes of masked up ‘terrier men’, with spades, terriers and digging equipment, and it is no surprise that some of these same Kent Hounds members were involved and convicted in the ongoing ‘biggest ever’ investigation into illegal fox hunting”.

Actions against hunt parades are also expected to take place on New Years Day.