We’re into that time of year again when the hunts once more ride out to do their cruel deeds. My Facebook feed was full of reports from the various sab groups throughout the country as they took on the hunts in their various areas on what was opening day for many. I was pleased to see that there were no kills, this was probably due to a combination of poor scenting conditions (the day was very mild and bright) and the proactive actions of sabs. My group joined up with our good friends at Berkshire Hunts Sabs and we irritated the hell out of the Old Berkshire Beagles (full report here).
Hound exercise. Yeah, OK.
As is the norm we faced the usual hostility from all those on the other side but it’s water off a ducks back to us and it’s always a good indication of your success. Whilst trying to locate the pack we happened upon a group of support, all eager of course to watch something get killed. Their reaction to us was instant and aggressive, the land owner attempted to run me over with his pickup and then tried to assault one of our female sabs, all the time hurling a torrent of four letter abuse. This was matched but another female supporter who clearly had confused moral standings and somewhat lacking in compassion (plus a few other things as well no doubt), calling me sad for not being able to read a map. Of course I knew exactly where we were and pointed out to her that the definition of sad was gaining pleasure from watching a sentient mammal being hunted to exhaustion and killed. Their reaction was exactly what we wanted, it proved we were on the right tracks and they were desperate to stop us. And sure enough we located the hunt moments later and they were forced to move off.
Careful deary you’ll blow a blood vessel.
Unlike fox hunting, beagling is very difficult to cover up. Beagles aren’t really scent followers to the extent that fox hounds are and due to the smaller areas and the way the quarry (the Brown Hare) responds it’s blatantly obvious that they’re breaking the law. To counter this they are very secretive and try to hunt on private land with very little public access however we’ve never regarded such restrictions as a big issue to circumnavigate. Trespass is a civil offence and you can gain access to private property to stop a criminal offence taking place. In this instance the hunts claims of “hound exercise” were completely laughable. Why dress up in your best hunting regalia (green jackets, white plus fours and green socks) and have a number of foot supporters watching if you’re only taking the hounds for a walk? Another point to briefly note is the general age of the followers. If this is a reflection of the activity as a whole then it should die out fairly shortly.
Look at that face, years of pent up anger have left it’s mark.
In due course the police arrived and questioned us on our activities. For once they were even handed and when they realised we weren’t terrorists and were only armed with various vegan cakes and savouries they were happy to keep an eye on things and one officer, a dog handler (3124 from Thames Valley) seemed quite keen to find the hunt and equire as to what they were up to. Here was a guy who’d worked with dogs for all of his working life and knew exactly how the breeds behaved and saw through the lies the hunt were spreading. It was just a shame he didn’t arrive earlier as by this time the hunt had pretty much called it a day and packed up. It really does make a change to be able to be reporting on decent policing, let’s hope in the coming season I can report on it more often. For our own side we’ve been making efforts to educate the police and indeed work with them so they understand who we are and what we do. I’ve had a meeting with our local Police and Crime Commissioner and a senior inspector and will next week be meeting with a wildlife crime officer from an adjoining force.
As an organisation we’re fighting a PR war as well as the direct action in the fields and part of that is dispelling the myths perpetrated by the hunts which clearly affect the judgment of the police. Now I’m fully aware that some senior officers and judicial personnel are pro-hunt and probably even ride out so I’m not expecting miracles however we’ve made a start and hopefully that will reflect on the action the police take in regards to our operations.
So from now on it’ll be a busy old time. If you feel like standing up for our wildlife now’s the time to get involved.
http://www.huntsabs.org.uk/index.php/get-involved
bedsandbuckhuntsabs@riseup.net
Criminality on the Curriculum
Posted: March 5, 2018 in CommentTags: Ampleforth Beagles, Ampleforth College, Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles, Beagling, Ben Saunders, Berkshire Hunt Sabs, Blood Sports, Hare Hunt, Hunt Saboteurs, Trail of Lies, Wulstan Paterburs
We have an anonymous guest blog entry this week originally published by my old friends at Berkshire Hunt Sabs on their Facebook page which highlights the issue of the promotion of illegal blood sports within the higher cost echelons of the education system. This issue clearly needed some more exposure and answers some of the questions as to why certain sectors of society and blood sports go hand in hand. There’s also link for you to get involved at the end of the piece so please take a little time to voice your concerns.
AMPLE EVIDENCE OF ILLEGAL HUNTING AT AMPLEFORTH COLLEGE.
As Hunt Saboteurs we are prepared to go to great lengths to stop the cruel and illegal practice of hunting with hounds. Occasionally, though, we don’t even have to venture into the fields to expose what the hunters do. North Yorkshire’s Ampleforth Beagles made our job a lot easier when they published their Spring 2017 newsletter on the official website of the Ampleforth Society…
“MORAL CONFUSION” AT AMPLEFORTH COLLEGE.
The £34,392 a year Ampleforth College is one of Britain’s most traditional public schools, offering the benefit of an education overseen by Benedictine monks. In his welcome message on the school website, the Headmaster, Father Wulstan Peterburs, states that, “The moral principles that the boys and girls develop here act as spiritual bearings to guide them through adult life in an increasingly secular world filled with moral confusion.” However, Father Peterburs’ extravagant claims of morality are seriously undermined by his school’s active involvement in the cruel and illegal “sport” of beagling.
THE AMPLEFORTH BEAGLES.
The Ampleforth College Beagles were formed in 1915. While the pack have now dropped the “College” from their name this is a cosmetic change only. The school maintains a “Captain of Beagling” and their official Ampleforth Society website states that “Beagling is still very much part of school life today”. Students are actively encouraged to join the hunts and, according to an article on the pack in Horse and Hound (30th March 2017), there is an ambition to “strengthen ties with the school, allowing students greater access to the hounds and the wonderful hunting that they produce.”
THE AMHB.
In their Spring 2017 newsletter the Ampleforth Beagles boast of their membership of the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles. This organisation hit the headlines in 2013 when the Hunt Saboteurs Association revealed that they intended to hold a “Young Hare Hunters Day” at Eton College (another public school with its own pack of beagles). The event was eventually cancelled but questions were asked about why the AMHB was offering training in the hunting of hares – an activity that is illegal – to vulnerable young people. Four years on, the Ampleforth Beagles inform us that the AMHB are still offering events that are “especially designed for young hare hunters”. Why does the college deem this material acceptable on its website?
ILLEGAL HARE HUNT BY THE AMPLEFORTH BEAGLES AT COTE HILL, FARNDALE, FEBRUARY 2017.
Elsewhere in the Spring 2017 newsletter the huntsman, Toby Pedley (an ex-whip of the Claro Beagles) gives a detailed description of a February meet from Cote Hill, Farndale that can only be an illegal hare hunt.
Before looking at Pedley’s account, it is important to understand what hare hunting looked like before the 2004 Hunting Act. Beagles are bred to hunt hares using stamina, not speed. They kill the hare by gradually wearing it down over an extended period of time. When a hare is found it will initially be much faster than the hounds; however, as the hunt progresses the beagles’ stamina will begin to give them an advantage as the hare tires. The hare will generally run in large circles (as it is reluctant to leave its home range) and the huntsman will get involved if hounds lose the scent or start to chase another hare. Eventually, the exhausted animal will be overwhelmed by the hounds and torn to pieces. Pre-ban beagling is therefore a dynamic, fast moving activity characterised by broadly circular chases that can last anything between 30 minutes and three hours.
Pedley’s account has all of the characteristics of pre-ban beagling outlined above. It is, in fact, a textbook account of a traditional (i.e. illegal) hunt and ends, we believe, in the death of a hare in front of college students and the “captain of Beagling Ben Saunders.”
A TRAIL OF LIES.
We know that, in an effort to protect its reputation, the college will claim that the event Pedley describes was a “trail hunt” (where hounds supposedly follow a pre-laid trail) and that these are the “lines” he refers to throughout. In anticipation of this claim, we ask the following questions:
(1) What substance was used to lay the trail ? It is clearly a remarkable one: it produced a “red hot” scent strong enough to sustain the keen interest of twenty-seven hounds for an hour across the very challenging terrain of the North Yorks Moors. Such a substance has never been seen in use at any other fox or hare hunt. Very, very occasionally, when hunt saboteurs are in attendance, hunts will lay a drag for a few hundred metres which is either ignored by the hounds or followed very briefly and with minimal interest. This hound activity bears no similarity whatsoever to the extensive and fast-paced hunt described by Pedley.
(2) Who laid the trail and when did they do it? Pedley’s description suggests that the hunt was approximately seven miles in length across steep, demanding terrain. Given that a pack of beagles completed this distance in about an hour, any human trail-layer must have been toiling for several hours on the moors before the meet. Additionally, this busy person must have laid other trails, as Pedley records that there were “fresh lines emerging” throughout the hunt.
(3) With countless miles of moorland at their disposal, why did the trail-layer repeatedly lay the line across the Blakey road, such that whipper-in Russell Yardley had to “stay on the road stopping traffic numerous times”? At the very least this put hounds, hunt followers (including Ampleforth students) and passing motorists in danger.
(4) Why does Pedley state that he was “delighted” to see an experienced hound stick to “the original line” when there were “fresh lines emerging”? In trail hunting the idea of an “original line” is a nonsense: one laid trail is the same as any other. Conversely, in the long-illegal activity of beagling, a hound that was able to persist in hunting the original hare when fresh hares got up in its path would be highly valued by the huntsman. “Changing hares” in pre-ban beagling was something to be avoided at all costs as it significantly reduced the chances of a kill.
(5) How did Pedley know when the “hunt had concluded”? Countryside Alliance guidance on trail hunting (published 12th December 2017) very clearly states that the huntsman “does not know exactly where the trails have been laid” so how did Pedley know it had finished? And what does “finished” even mean in the context of a trail hunt?
PROVE US WRONG.
We believe we have shown that the Ampleforth Beagles have, by their own admission, committed illegal activities and that Ampleforth College is openly associating itself with this criminality.
However, the college and their hunt can immediately prove us wrong. All they have to do is take a genuinely independent observer onto the moors and demonstrate the process – from start to finish – of organising a “trail hunt” that exactly replicates pre-ban beagling, as Pedley’s hunt supposedly did. We set this challenge because we know it is impossible: there is no such thing as trail hunting; it is a crude and obvious deceit designed to disguise illegal hunting.
WHAT YOU CAN DO.
We need your help to raise these matters with Ampleforth College. Please make polite enquiries about the events at Cote Hill and the college’s active involvement with the Ampleforth Beagles. If they claim to have been trail hunting please also insist on answers to the specific questions we have asked.
01439 766000
reception@ampleforth.org.uk.
@AmpleforthSoc
@AmpleforthColl