A NEW POST FROM LEGAL JUSTICE BUT NOT A NEW CONVERSATION

Good morning!   Today we are asking you, please, to respond to a consultation by the Health and Safety Executive on the use of lead ammunition. This is an issue on which Wild Justice has been very active. We believe that restrictions on the use of lead shot and lead bullets for shooting live quarry are long overdue. Lead is a poison and shooting it into the environment or into creatures that may enter the human food chain or be eaten by other wild animals is senseless. This consultation is important and it feels like getting change is possible. Honestly, it won't take you very long to make your views known and the more people who respond, the better.     Many of the respondents will be shooters who have been briefed by the shooting industry. This is an industry which has been dragging its feet on this matter for years and years and years.  Some shooters will respond in wildlife-friendly ways but this is your opportunity to speak up for wildlife (and for human health). The consultation applies to Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) but if you live in Northern Ireland or elsewhere there is no bar to you responding and there may well be implications of the decisions that apply to you.    The consultation has two attached papers - we've read them. They are both very long (100+ pages each), quite technical and would take you hours and hours to read properly. But filling in a public consultation is not an exam test and you'll be able to answer the few questions without wading through all of the two papers although you may find them interesting and informative.    However, if you want more information then here are some comprehensible sources of information on the topic, we include them to show that we know our stuff on this subject and we regard it as important:   webpage of the Lead Ammunition Group - click here - which contains much information including their 2015 report (after five years of expert work), correspondence, updates and various other information recent blog by John Swift, chair of LAG, calling for restrictions on use of lead shot and lead bullets for shooting live animals - click here - these are exactly the same measures that Wild Justice supports. It is striking that John is a former Chief Exec of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and has been an active shooter. Oxford Lead Symposium - a 2015 compendium of accessible research papers on the impacts of lead ammunition on people, wildlife and the environment generally - click here. Wild Justice website has a variety of blog posts on tests of lead levels in supermarket game meat - click here for information on lead in dog food, lead in supermarket game meat and more. an RSPB blog post by one of us 13 years ago which describes the RSPB trialing copper bullets for deer control and deciding to make that change permanent - click here a letter from RSPB and Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (2022) calling for an all-out removal of lead for shotgun pellets (but we don't think they are mobilising their supporters on this issue like we most definitely are!) - click here. a blog post by the RSPB which calls for the end to the use of lead ammunition (shot and bullets) from 2022 - click here. the Food Standards Agency advice on not eating game meat shot with lead - click here NHS advice on not eating game meat if pregnant, trying to get pregnant or for young children - click here     The consultation closes at midnight on Sunday 10 December so you have 11 days including today, and including two weekends, to respond. Here is the link to the consultation: https://consultations.hse.gov.uk/crd-reach/lead-in-ammunition/.   We think that this is a very poorly worded and dense consultation. This is 'the' public consultation by a government agency on a matter of considerable public interest and yet the questions are off-putting and assume quite a lot of technical knowledge. It does look quite scary but please don't be put off.  There aren't many questions, you can skip lots of them and so with some explanation from us we think you can make a difference by expressing your views within a few minutes. Note that you don't have to finish the answers all in one go, you can do a bit and then click the option for 'save and come back later' at any time and do just that.     The good thing is that the draft Agency Opinion (ie what they propose to do) is heading in absolutely the right direction on lead shot but needs a bit of a kick up the backside as far as lead bullets are concerned.   Below, we refer to the 7 pages of the consultation (which contain 20 questions), although the pages aren't numbered, because we think it will help you navigate the document.   OK, let's get started. Page 1: there are 12 questions about you (eg what's your name?) so they are relatively easy and because you are responding as an individual, not an organisation, you can skip a few of the questions anyway. That's the first page done and only eight questions left.    Page 2 has one question about transition periods - otherwise known as delays. Should the shooting industry be given three years or five before the use of lead shot for shooting live animals is banned? We say, three years, and you may feel the same. Our reasons are that lead ammunition is already banned for use over wetlands and/or for shooting a list of waterbirds (details differ across the UK nations) and therefore many shooters have already had many years to transition. Despite being illegal for over 20 years, compliance with the lead shot ban in this form of shooting has been very poor, and so bringing in a short transition for the new measures will not only bring in new protection it will help to enforce the existing laws which have been flouted by shooters for decades.   OK, so you have now answered 13 out of 21 questions. The next page, Page 3, is about 'Humane Dispatch' where we guess you won't have any special knowledge so that you can almost certainly tick 'no' (14th question) and move on to Page 4 and a question (the 15th question) about monetising raptor deaths.   Page 4's question is a stinker: 'Monetised benefits associated with restricting lead bullets for live quarry shooting: Do you have information regarding the monetary benefits associated with reducing the risk of secondary poisoning of raptors from the use of lead bullets e.g., from WTP-based evaluations or similar?'. Your reaction may be 'Wtf is WTP?' but this extremely poorly posed question is about how much you care that birds of prey may ingest lead from the carcasses of injured animals that they kill or dead animals that they scavenge. You can answer that, so tick 'Yes' and then say why you care about birds of prey such as Golden Eagles, Red Kites and Buzzards that may be poisoned by ingestion of lead ammunition (and that you care about other carrion-eating birds and mammals). You might want to say that nobody has ever asked you about your willingness to pay (WTP) to see poisoning of birds of prey from lead ammunition addressed but that if they had you would be willing to pay and you are sure that large numbers of wildlife lovers would do so too. However, you might want to point out that protecting threatened birds of prey is a responsibility of government and that you are already paying your taxes so that government, and bodies such as the HSE, do that job properly. You might want to point out that taking the time to answer this badly-phrased question on this consultation is a proxy for willingness to pay. You could also say that since non-toxic alternatives to lead ammunition are readily available then this is very simply a question of sensible regulation where a less harmful ammunition is readily available. You might want to say that you care very much about rare birds of prey such as Golden Eagles and you don't want them to suffer or be harmed by unnecessary contamination of their food by a poison. You may want to end by saying that there are so many reasons why removing lead bullets from use on live 'quarry' is a good idea that your view is that they overwhelmingly outscore a small inconvenience to shooters and that you want restrictions on using lead bullets to be as strong as those in the draft Agency Opinion for lead shot.   Let's move on to Page 5 where there are two questions (questions 16 and 17) about 'Use of different bullet types for live quarry shooting and target shooting'. If you know anything about these issues then do answer the questions but we are confident that the vast majority of you can tick 'no' to both and move on. That just leaves three questions and the good news is, on Page 6...   ... we doubt whether many of you can or want to answer the two questions on 'Rifles and Zeroing' so that's 19 of the 20 questions done. Which takes us very quickly on to Page 7.   Page 7 is General Comments and we would encourage you to go to town here.    You may want to start your general comments with these three points: I support the draft Agency Opinion that restrictions on sale and use of lead shot for shooting live animals should be brought in as a matter of urgency I support those restrictions being brought in after a transition period which is less than five years; I would favour three years rather than five (see my response to that question above) but I would urge an even quicker transition because this simple and necessary measure has been delayed overlong for the sake of clarity, since this question has not specifically been asked in this consultation, I support similar urgent restrictions being brought in for the use of lead bullets for shooting live animals   Then make some or all of these comments in your own words:   this is your first opportunity as a member of the public to comment and so there are issues not addressed by the consultation questions that you want to make lead is a poison and it is crazy to shoot a poison into wild animals destined for the human food chain. There is no mandatory labelling of game meat as containing lead (if it does) which is a poison so the only safe way for game consumers to avoid eating lead is if lead ammunition is removed from use. the FSA and NHS both draw attention to the human health aspects of lead ingestion. These concerns apply to game shot with shotgun pellets (eg Red Grouse, Pheasants, Partridges and duck) but also to many species of deer shot with bullets and sold as venison. environmental contamination and secondary poisoning of scavenging and predatory birds and mammals is an issue that needs addressing so restrictions should apply to lead bullets as well as lead shot. strong, quick regulation is needed because existing regulations on shooting of waterfowl are flouted by shooters. the 2015 report of the Lead Ammunition Group recommended that such restrictions should be brought in and it is outrageous that UK governments are still consulting and delaying on this very simple issue. other jurisdictions in Europe and North America have brought in similar restrictions - the UK would not be going out on a limb but would simply be following what is clearly going to become the norm. removal of lead from petrol, water pipes, paints has been achieved years ago and removing lead ammunition from use is simply one more step based on lead's known harmful impact on people and wildlife   It is up to you how you respond but please do respond. We're sorry that the consultation is so badly worded and framed but this is an important opportunity, your only opportunity, to make your views known. Please do have a go - thank you!   Here is the link to the consultation: https://consultations.hse.gov.uk/crd-reach/lead-in-ammunition/     Wild Justice will respond as an organisation but we are asking you to accept the invitation from the HSE to respond to this consultation as an individual. Perhaps you know others who also might want to respond to it - feel free to forward this email to them.   In this case, we would like to hear from you if you respond to this consultation. Please drop us an email and tell us if you responded and any comments you have on the consultation and/or on the advice contained in this newsletter.   Thank you!         Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).     This is the 170th Wild Justice newsletter.   This email was sent to you because you subscribed to it through the Wild Justice website or through an e-action where you ticked a box.  Thank you. We will only use your personal details to send you the Wild Justice newsletter. We will not give or sell your details to anyone else.  You can unsubscribe at any time: there is an unsubscribe button at the foot of this email or you can reply to this email and ask us to remove you from the list (the former will happen immediately, the latter might take a few days).

 

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SOUTH SHROPSHIRE HUNT TERIERMAN ON QUAD BIKE VERSUS HUNT SAB ON FOOT

SHOCKING FOOTAGE - MAN MOWED DOWN BY SOUTH SHROPSHIRE HUNT 

                              TERRIER-MAN ON QUAD BIKE

The following post is from Hunt SABS

The incident took place on the Real Milk Company’s private land on 25 November. The company tweeted a video of the incident, and said:

“First you goad them…..then you evidence them. SSH trespassing yet again on Wild Milk premises didn’t like being filmed so they tried to take out the goader.”

As the man monitored the hunt from a verge, the driver of the quad bike deliberately plowed into him, and the man fell to the ground. Moments before that, the driver was captured on footage saying he’d “f*cking have that c*nt”. According to the Real Milk Company, the man was taken to hospital with a broken leg.

The company reported that the West Mercia Police were called, but in further tweets below the video stated that police didn’t bother to attend the scene and three days later still hadn’t spoken with them.

Hunt illegality

The SSH doesn’t just hunt on land that it has no permission to be on. It also continues to hunt foxes, blatantly ignoring the fact that it is illegal to do so. In November 2022, SSH hunt master Daniel Cherriman pleaded guilty after he was caught by the public making ‘tongue rolling’ noises to disturb foxes. His hounds chased a fox, which, fortunately was able to get away. Cherriman was fined a paltry £607 for trying to murder the fox.

The incident happened on National Trust land, which has banned trail hunting on its land since November 2021. The charity had previously banned the SSH in 2018 after allegations of illegal hunting and having terrier men on Trust land, in breach of an existing ‘trail hunting’ agreement.

After Cherriman’s guilty verdict, foxes scored another victory when local pub The Raven Inn pulled out of hosting the SSH’s Boxing Day meet. Pubs play a significant role in the hunting industry’s public relations. The decision would have significantly damaged the SSH’s attempts to portray itself as a harmless hunt taking part in a ‘rural tradition’.

The poster boy of tearing up foxes

The SSH’s most famous staff member has been Otis Ferry, son of musician Bryan Ferry. Known as the poster boy for the pro-hunting campaign in the lead-up to the Hunting Act coming into force in 2004/2005, Ferry then became the SSH’s huntsman and joint master in 2007. In November 2007 he was charged with common assault and robbery after he targeted two hunt saboteurs, alongside one other man named John Deutsch, when riding with the Heythrop Hunt. Between them, the men were involved in smashing the monitors’ car window as the women sat in the vehicle, and trying to wrestle their car keys from them. Ferry stole and rode off with one of the monitor’s video cameras, deleting footage. He then spent four months on remand in prison, before being convicted in 2009 of “causing fear and stress”.

At the time, Ferry was only ordered to pay a fine of £350, so the hunt monitors took a civil case against the men. In 2014, a court ordered both Ferry and Deutsch to pay out £17,000 in damages to one monitor, and £14,000 to the other, with a contribution of £16,000 to come from Ferry. The men were also ordered to pay legal costs of the thousands. But a year later, the women still hadn’t received a penny.

Violence is the norm

Unfortunately, although this latest footage is horrific, it is unsurprising. We are seeing numerous attacks by hunters and their supporters on those who monitor their illegal activities. Week in, week out, Protect the Wild reports on similar acts of violence.

This is why we need to change the Hunting Act and ban hunting for good. Most anti-hunting campaigners are calling for the current Act to be strengthened. But Protect the Wild argues that doing this will only invite more loopholes for hunters to get away with. Therefore, we are campaigning to replace the law with our proposed Hunting of Mammals Bill, which has been prepared by lawyers at Advocates for Animals. If the government passes this law, all loopholes will be shut down, and hunts will no longer be able to exist.

• Join us to campaign for a proper ban on hunting. Read the Hunting of Mammals Bill here and sign the petition to get this horrific blood sport shut down for good.
• Header image from video footage by Real Milk Co

A POEM FOR THE HARE

LEPORIDAE

enigmatic graceful

the puncher in the grassland

a symbol of peace

rebirth and resurrection

sensual and to be 

revered

seen to be Humankinds

response to God’s

ordering of the universe

beauty to be left 

untouched

STAG HUNTING AND THE CRUELTY INFLICTED ON WILD ANIMALS

 This post is from the Hunt Saboteurs Association

North Dorset Hunt Sabs were attacked by a drunken hunt master and his accomplices at a meet of the Somerset-based Quantock Staghounds yesterday.

North Dorset and Mendip Hunt Sabs were in attendance to try to stop the hunt from chasing and killing female deer, known as hinds. The day began with hounds and riders separating a terrified hind from the herd and then relentlessly pursuing her.

North Dorset sabs bravely stepped in and called the hounds off, allowing the hind to escape. The drunken hunters, furious at being deprived of a kill, then launched a sustained attack on sabs, hitting them over the head with a riding crop and smashing a video camera in an attempt to destroy evidence. One sab went to hospital with a cut hand from a whip handle and Avon & Somerset Police attended the incident.

Sabs were hit with riding crops. Image via North Dorset Hunt Sabs

Sabs will not be deterred and will continue to visit the Quantocks to disrupt the vile practices of stag and hind hunting.

An HSA spokesperson commented,

“Yesterday’s serious assault follows an attack back in August when another stag hunt - the neighbouring Devon & Somerset - also tried to deter sabs through the use of extreme violence. Such attacks have never deterred hunt sabs and serve only to strengthen our resolve - as the Quantocks Staghounds will quickly find out.”

If you would like to support North Dorset Hunt Sabs you can do so here.

ANOTHER POST FROM PROTECT THE WILD

DEVON RIGHT TO ROAM SHOWS HOW PHEASANT SHOOTS ABUSE THE ENVIRONMENT 

 LANDOWNERS  and gamekeepers like to boast that they are instrumental in conserving England's wildlife; that they are the true custodians of the land. But shocking photos, taken by a local Right to Roam group, show the havoc wreaked on land by pheasant shoots.

South Devon Right to Roam took a walk on the Duke of Somerset's private Berry Pomeroy estate on 26 November. The hike was part of a national campaign for greater access to England's land (more on that later). This particular area of the Duke's land is used as a pheasant shoot, and right now it is shooting season. The group found numerous dead pheasants strewn on the ground, picked clean by foxes and corvids, as well as masses of plastic litter, some of which had been burnt. The campaigners also found empty bags of genetically-modified pheasant feed.

The area is, supposedly, a 'wildlife conservation area', according to signs the estate has put up. Yet the Right to Roam group also found this mess of burnt plastic and other rubbish scarring the forest:

Guy Shrubsole, author of Who Owns England?, is part of South Devon Right to Roam. He posted the photos on X (Twitter), and wrote:

"Today South Devon @Right_2Roam group returned to the Duke of Somerset's Berry Pomeroy estate, scene of a previous mass trespass. The pheasant shoot was in much evidence, with many carcasses (boosting carrion) & plastic shooting litter everywhere. Custodians of the countryside!"

Indeed, I joined the previous mass trespass onto the Duke of Somerset's land in May 2022. Back then I photographed a large pit. Inside was a number of blood-stained pheasant carcasses, tangled up with old wire fencing and other rubbish:

Gamekeepers like to brag that they are key to the conservation of our country. They state that through 'managing' the land by trapping, killing and poisoning native predators such as foxes, they are preserving the lives of endangered birds. But they fail to point out the obvious: that releasing millions of non-native Eurasian pheasants into the countryside wrecks the ecosystem.

Increasing the number of predators

Gamekeepers also fail to mention that through their murderous pheasant-shooting industry, they keep the predator population high by giving it an abundance of carrion to help them survive through the winter. Shrubsole confirmed that the pheasants on the ground were "boosting numbers of mesopredators" – that is, mammals such as foxes.

I asked Protect the Wild's bird expert, Charlie Moores, why gamekeepers didn't collect the dead pheasants found caught in fencing and strewn on the ground. He told me:

"Shoots say they do pick up dead birds, but most so-called 'game' dealers don't want the meat as there is tons and tons of it and they can't sell it. Shooters will aim to kill at least 100 pheasants a day, and no-one has a freezer that big. Guy's photo shows a pheasant that's flown into an enclosure fence. Fences are all around estates like that - birds get killed flying into them. Do they employ enough staff to check on or free trapped birds - probably not. Do they leave them to attract foxes so they can snare or shoot them? Possibly. Birds that go down in woodland may well be just left there - when you think about the scale of industrialised shooting now there are hundreds and hundreds of bodies after a big shoot, why would they worry about hunting around to find a few 'lost' ones?"

The need for a right to roam

South Devon Right to Roam's most recent findings highlight the urgent need for a change of law in England. The national Right to Roam campaign is calling for the public to be given access to land, much like in Scotland. Disgracefully, we currently only have a partial right to roam on 8% of all of England's land. The rest is closed to us, cordoned off with barbed wire fences and hostile 'KEEP OUT' signs. A new Right to Roam law would permit us all to walk and camp in the countryside, no matter if the land is private or public.

And importantly, it would allow us to monitor what actually happens on the land of the very people who claim to be conserving it. The Duke of Somerset, for example, owns 2,800 acres of land in Devon, most of which is out of bounds to the public. It is, instead, a playground for the wealthy, hidden from our view. In 2020, the Duke received roughly £30,000 in public subsidies for “forest, environmental and climate services and forest conservation" on his south Devon estate. Despite this, the public is greeted by signs to stay away and 'private property' notices.

Bold trespass acts, like those carried out by the Right to Roam campaign, are needed to unveil the truth: that land owners such as the Duke of Somerset are incapable of being custodians of the countryside. Access to land will also prove that the bird-shooting industry spouts propaganda and lies. While it tries to convince the public that it is a capable steward of the land, eyewitness accounts debunk this false narrative.

• While we support the Right to Roam campaign's efforts to change access laws, Protect the Wild argues that shooting needs to be banned for good. We are dedicated to campaigning to end shooting in the UK once and for all, whether it be pheasant, partridge or grouse shooting. Click here to read more and support us in our mission.

Images South Devon Right to Roam group

FROM PROTECT THE WILD

 PUTTING AN EYE IN THE SKY

The Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund was set up in Summer 2023 to help put ‘eyes in the field‘ (and ‘eyes in the sky’!), supporting and empowering people to protect British wildlife. We use the fund to provide equipment like body cams, trail cams, night vision kit, and video cameras to monitors and activists working on the front line.

While we do approach groups ourselves, we were delighted to be contacted by an independent group of activists who have been doing great work across Cheshire since 2017. Cheshire’s Independent Hunt Monitors (or ‘Cheshire Indies’ as they’re widely known) focus on the Cheshire Hunt, Cheshire Forest Hunt, and the notorious Wynnstay Hunt (a Hunt that has featured on Protect the Wild numerous times eg see here). They work alongside other sab and monitor groups from across the northwest of England, and have also been involved in fighting the badger cull in their area.

The group requested a drone – a serious purchase for us to make bearing in mind the cost and the fact that Protect the Wild has a responsibility to our supporters and their donations. However, a few phone calls later and assurances that the group would receive drone training, and we were delighted to help out!

THIS IS A CLASH BETWEEN CULTURE & TRADITION WITH DESTROYING WHAT WE HAVE TO PROTECT

Hares are so beautiful. Why hunt them, why chase them to exhaustion and cruelly destroy them?

The following is from The Hunt Sabs

Hare Hunters Tied Up In Notts!

Nottingham Hunt Sabs successfully disrupted a rare meet of the East Lincolnshire Bassets near Revesby on Saturday.

Sabs catch up with the hunt…

When sabs arrived on the scene they could hear the characteristic deep cry of basset hounds in cry - chasing a hare - to the north.

As sabs raced inland to catch up, panicked hunt supporters got on the phone to the huntsman who then took the hounds to the nearest road.

This ‘walk of shame’ is standard procedure for hare hunters who have been advised by their governing body to pack up soon as sabs turn up. This advice follows several disastrous occasions where basset and beagle hunts have pretended to ‘trail hunt’ in front of sabs, only for their hounds to ignore the fake trail and tear after hares! 

While the basset’s short legs mean they are slower than beagles in their pursuit of hares, their killing ability should not be underestimated. Their unrivalled sense of smell means they rarely lose the scent and so can wear the hunted hare down over time. 

As with other forms of hunting, the basset packs have gone into steep decline in recent years. Twenty years ago, there were around a dozen of these hunts across the country; today that number has halved. 

Only a few months ago, the Leadon Vale Bassets folded after sustained sab pressure, while lack of support has recently finished off other packs including the Albany & West Lodge and the Barony Bassets. 

The East Lincs Bassets were one of two hunts sabbed on Saturday by Nottingham Hunt Saboteurs. You can donate to this hard-working group here. 

FROM THE SECRET MONITOR

THE SECRET MONITOR is saying this about the

CURRE & LANGIBBY HUNT

Damaging stories from inside hunting, shooting, and the badger cull have been circulating for years. Everything from breaking the law to assaults or harassment of monitors and the public and a police force seemingly happy to ‘look the other way’.

But there is always someone watching, always someone listening. The Secret Monitor.

In this post the Secret Monitor is reporting from South Wales where the focus of attention is the Curre and Llangibby Hunt.

Many of us will have seen videos and HIT reports online showing foxes being chased and hunt riders behaving aggressively. What many of us probably don’t hear as much about is the continual lawbreaking by hunt supporters and the relentless harassment and verbal aggression that monitors and sabs face from those supporters every day that they are out trying to stop hunts killing wildlife.

We’ve slightly moderated the captions below the included video stills we’ve posted, but of course we all know what was being said. And we all know how intimidating it is when someone bumps us in the street and swears at us – now imagine that taking place in a remote woodland or a one-track road where there is a very real danger of a serious assault. Not just once, but every single week of the so-called ‘hunting season’…and knowing full well that the possible response from the police will be, “If you weren’t there, it wouldn’t have happened”.

About Us

We are a very small group of independent non-affiliated people, and we monitor the Curre and Llangibby Hunt as it is not very often that they are sabbed. Their hunting grounds are usually East Monmouthshire and their kennels are in the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in a village called Itton. They hunt all around Chepstow, Devauden, Shirenewton, Usk, Llansoy, Penhow, Magor, Rogiet etc. As their name implies, they used to be two separate hunts which merged in 2001 (there have been many mergers or hunts folding since then which shows that hunting is a dying “sport”). The Curre and Llangibby hunt mainly foxes but there are small deer around the area too.

Luckily, they are a comparatively small hunt – but make up for lack of size with their aggression.

We have two informants who will let us know if they hear anything useful about the Hunt – mainly where they plan to go hunting – which saves us a lot of time thankfully.

Last season the main monitors were myself and Monitor X, with occasional help from Monitor 3 and Monitor 4. Unfortunately, just after Christmas 2022, Monitor X decided that she couldn’t continue any longer as it was affecting her health both physically and mentally. We’re very determined people but burnout is a real problem for monitors and sabs. We are up early, travel large distances, and see some truly awful things. I tried going out on my own but it’s a fruitless exercise as the Hunt just stop me in my tracks by throwing a coat over my windscreen (see Incident 199 below).

This season I have been fortunate enough to be joined by Monitor 2, who is willing to do all the driving. A wonderful bonus as I hate driving along those one-track country lanes and am not very skilled at reversing!

Monitor 3 has promised to come out occasionally when family commitments allow, and Monitor 4 has said he will come when he is not working. We do not usually encourage men to accompany us as the Hunt think it is fair game to attack men and Monitor 4 has been thumped on occasion and so has another man who came out once and went home with a bloody nose!

As I said, Monitor 4 is still working but I am a retired member of the Medicines Management Team of a large Bristol Hospital. I had 64 patients under my care every day – so quite a responsibility! Before my children were born I worked at Barclays Bank. Monitor 2 is a retired teacher and Monitor 3 has recently retired from a high position within the Government. We really do not fit the profile of the “Great Unwashed” as the Hunt are so fond of calling us.

Early starts

During the cubbing ‘season’ (September and October) the hunt goes out very early in the morning to avoid being seen by Joe Public as cubbing is definitely illegal. This means that we have to be out of bed in the dark at 4.30am to be at the kennels in time to follow them wherever they might go. Our very presence annoys the Hunt, and we can limit their illegal activities to some extent when our cameras are on them.

In particular, we can check that they do not trespass into woods owned by Natural Resources Wales (NRW). Our job of monitoring the Hunt has been made significantly easier since NRW banned all so-called ‘trail hunting’ on the land they manage. This, of course, was in response to the words of the then-Director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, Mark Hankinson, who said that trail hunting was just a smokescreen for foxhunting. Even though he won his appeal against conviction for encouraging illegal fox hunting, there’s no getting away from the fact that he actually said those words. Since then, many landowners have banned them from their land – including the National Trust, the Lake District National Park Authority, and – great news for us – Natural Resources Wales.