FROM THE HUNT SABATEURS.

          HUNT SABOTEURS ASSOCIATION

                 www.huntsabs.org.uk

(I HAVE LIFTED THIS FROM THEIR SITE)

Cumbria’s Melbreak Foxhounds chased a fox onto a householders roof last Wednesday 9th November. The hunt had already been reported to the National Trust for trespassing on their land at Whiteside near Lorton, before pursuing the terrified animal on to private property.

Hunt personnel then trampled all over the private residential property in an attempt to retrieve their hounds. During the incident, hounds actually entered a resident’s house, greatly traumatising both the residents and the family dog.

The Melbreak Foxhounds are one of six fell packs who hunt on foot across Cumbria’s wild and remote Lake District. Following the infamous Hunting Office Webinars – in which trail hunting was shown to be a smokescreen for traditional hunting – these hunts were banned from both National Trust and Lake District National Park Authority land. However, all the fell packs regularly trespass in these areas, seemingly without consequence from the National Trust or LDNPA.

(A HSA SPOKESPERSON COMMENTED THUS0

This appalling incident provides yet more evidence of two things we already knew. Firstly, trail hunting is a sham, designed to disguise the illegal hunting of foxes. Secondly, the Cumbrian fell packs are a law unto themselves, repeatedly trespassing on property and intimidating anyone who gets in their way. Fortunately, there are two HSA-affiliated hunt sab groups in the area who are incredibly effective at stopping the fell fox hunters. 

NB I HAVE NOT INCLUDED THE PHOTOGRAPHS. SO PLEASE 

GO TO THEIR WEBSITE AND SEE FOR YOURSELF.

LEGAL JUSTICE AND PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT

 WILD JUSTICE NEWSLETTER. I LOVE THEIR LOGO.

THIS MORNING I HAVE SIGNED THREE PETITIONS TO KEEP THE PRESSURE UP

THIS IS THEIR LETTER

Good morning, here we have an important update to the details for the Walk for Wildlife 2 (the date has changed!), feedback on what you told us about game meat on sale in supermarkets, an important day for us next week and some petitions that you might like to support.

 

People’s Walk for Wildlife 2: the walk will now take place on Sunday 27 November, after rail strikes were announced on the original date of the 26th. This will be a joyful, family-friendly and celebratory walk in support of our wildlife, and to resist the ongoing Attack on Nature. Find out more information at peopleswalkforwildlife.org. We look forward to seeing lots of you there.

 

Game meat availability: we asked you to let us know if you spotted any game meat on sale in Waitrose and Sainsbury's stores and over 200 responses were received. Thank you for the useful information.  According to what you told us, only 8% of Waitrose stores have Pheasants on sale, whereas around 25% of Sainsbury's have Pheasant and/or 'mixed game casserole' on sale. That's a very interesting difference and may reflect the fact that Waitrose have, in past years, said that they aim to go lead-free and we know that this has not been achieved (see here).

 

You also sent us useful information on availability of game meat in other outlets. We'll be collecting game meat for lead analysis and your feedback has been very useful. Thank you.

 

Northern Ireland Badgers: our legal challenge to a Northern Ireland Badger cull will be heard in the High Court of Northern Ireland next Monday, 21 November. We and our friends and colleagues in the Northern Ireland Badger Group are hoping for a favourable result (see here for more details).

 

Petitions: 

• Our own petition on limiting Woodcock shooting - please sign here
• Make swift bricks compulsory in new housing to help red-listed birds - please sign here
• Save the bees: cut hazardous pesticides and support nature-friendly farming - please sign here 

 

If you like what we do and would like to make a general donation which will be used across our range of work, then please consider donating through PayPal, bank transfer or a cheque in the post - see details here.

WRITING READING MORE WRITING AND READING AND BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS

It’s  all about a desire or a need to read and to write too. I do not understand or even want to contemplate what people can do with their thinking time when they don’t read other than creating tangible items. For me the intangible creates more of an interest although I love the feel of polished wood.

Recently I have read The Ink Black Heart and although over one thousand pages long I did not want it to end. Solely, because I had not idea what could replace this immense read. That’s rubbish, of course, because there are many excellent storytellers and stories as close as the tips of my fingers. Vaseem Khan with his Malabar House stories filled the void. All reviewed and commented upon.

I may be considered weird while I read the above named books but I have had Black and British by David Olusoga on the go for a little while. I dip in and out of it and it is full of facts. Absolutely absorbing and a history that should be known and not forgotten. I love history and with his book little and often suits me well. It’s a thick paperback that has to be held open and the print could be larger. 

Lucy Worsley’s Agatha Christie has absorbed me too. An historian writing about the ‘Queen of Crime’ makes an excellent read. It is another book high on content and detail. I am halfway through it and like ‘Black and British’ I will put it down for a while I examine the small pile of books that Michelle brought back from England. (We know how to avoid postal charges!). There is some serious stuff there with ‘The Folklore of Herefordshire’ by Helen Mary Leather and Alfred Watkin’s Herefordshire - in his own words. This is for research before I next visit my native county where we will explore and I hope to come up with something poetical.

If there was not enough fiction in our folklore then there will be fiction aplenty with these four books. Michael Connelly had to be included because Michelle is a fan and she has read them all. It’s a hardback copy with a signature to go with the others. For me, I have not read one although I have met him at Harrogate. It is simple, I have the screen image of Harry Bosch, (and other characters too) from the series that have been produced and that is all I need. They have created some great drama.

We are both a fan of The Skelfs by Doug Johnstone and now the fourth, ‘Black Hearts’ is here to be read. Ian Rankin has published ‘A Heart Full of Headstones’ and the enticing cover has to be removed to see the image on the hard cover. It’s impressive and melds into the title! I will be reading it but only after the next Tuva Moodyson, ‘Wolf Pack’, by Will Dean. As the cover says ‘if you haven’t met Tuva Moodyson yet, you really should’ proclaims The Times. It is the fifth in the series and although Mr Dean goes ‘off piste a lot’ they are all great reads. I can assure you there will be extraordinary characters in those Swedish swampy forests.

Poetically I have not been as prolific as I would want to be but I have produced three in the past few weeks. Autumnal was inspired by Autumn Voices and my love of the environment. Tree Lined by a news item and the illegal war in the Ukraine. I am on the reserve list for Contextual 13 and may have the opportunity to read one or even both. I will rehearse just in case!

Now that I have put my thoughts into an order I must studiously go  through a wildlife collection of poetry I have been compiling. That is essential now. Also something for San Miguel Writers & The Rump of Stanza Mar Menor at the end of the month and what about a story?

 

FOX HUNTING AND CRUELTY IN OUR COUNTRYSIDE AND THE PEOPLE THAT SUPPORT IT

 This is lifted from The Hunt Sabs latest publication. I would ask hat you go onto their website and view this article together with the photographs they have included. 

It’s just one week into the 2022-23 season and fox hunts are already dangerously out of control.

At the opening meet of Leicestershire’s Cottesmore Hunt, Northants hunt saboteur Lisa Jaffray was nearly killed after being mown down by a hunt supporter’s car. The video of this attack – which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times – is a powerful reminder of the danger brave hunt sabs place themselves in every week. Thankfully, Lisa survived the attack and has vowed to continue sabotaging the Cottesmore Hunt.

Less than a week after this outrage, multiple hounds from Norfolk’s Dunston Harriers were killed on the London to Norwich trainline near Diss. While the hunter’s claimed that six hounds were killed, eyewitnesses state it was up to twenty, with many of the poor animals being literally cut in half. Whether they were illegally hunting or ‘on exercise’ hardly matters – the hounds were quite obviously completely out of control.

Then, yesterday, David Thomas, Master of the Dwyryd Foxhounds in North Wales, was convicted of animal cruelty charges and sentenced to 24 weeks in prison. Thomas – who vowed from the outset to ignore the Hunting Act – has already served time in prison for running a badger baiting ring, which the RSPCA described as “coordinated and carefully planned cruelty, involving dogs, badgers and foxes.”

Yesterday’s conviction comes as a result of covert footage obtained by the League Against Cruel Sports, showing Thomas and his son kicking and abusing terrified foxhounds. The cruelty and neglect were so serious that the entire pack has been confiscated and Thomas has been banned from keeping any animal for ten years.

A HSA spokesperson commented, “This catalogue of appalling incidents comes in the same week that Viscount Astor III – Chair of the discredited Hunting Office – has claimed in an interview that hunting is ‘legitimate and legal and properly conducted.’ In a week that has seen foxes killed, hounds killed, and a hunt saboteur very nearly killed, we know the British public will treat Astor’s comments with the contempt they deserve.”

WALK FOR WILDLIFE 2 - ANOTHER GRESAT INVITE FROM LEGAL JUSTICE

Good morning,   Welcome to our latest newsletter – and welcome to all of our new subscribers.   This week we’re providing details about the upcoming People’s Walk for Wildlife 2, taking place in London on 26 November. Read on for a bit of background about the walk, and please make sure to let the organisers know (link below) if you’re planning on coming along.   Who are the organisers? Well lots of people are involved and the walk is supported by many wildlife conservation organisations – including the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, Badger Conservation and Butterfly Conservation, but our own Chris Packham is the main organiser, and of course Wild Justice supports the walk.   Walk Details: Date: Saturday 26 November, 12pm – 4pm, London.    Timings: Gather from 12pm. Walk from 1pm. Speeches, music and infotainment from 2pm. 4pm finish and home.    Route: We’ll muster from 12pm at Portland Place, and walk down to Parliament Square.   Bring with you:  The style: Your wildest look – the walk will be fancy dress, so don your best wildlife outfit, be it a hen harrier, a hedgehog or a humble slug. Feel free to make wild signs and placards too – family-friendly of course.   The sound: Rather than chants and shouting, we’ll be letting birdsong do the talking. No instruments or drums please. Download the RSPB’s free Birdsong Radio App (Android or Apple) onto your phone, and fill the streets with birdsong on the day.    Important info: If you’re planning on coming along, please let us know so we can estimate numbers. Pledge to walk at peopleswalkforwildlife.org.Please also consider donating to the walk costs if you can.    Why walk? You might have attended the first Walk for Wildlife in 2018. It was led by Chris Packham, and attended by 10,000 soggy wildlife lovers, conservationists and environmentalists, ecologists, students, families, scientists, ecologists, land managers and members of the public – all concerned about the state of nature.    So far, 2022 has been politically extraordinary (to say the least). In the midst of multiple waves of turmoil, several worrying threats have emerged – ones that could be disastrous for wildlife and the environment in the UK. Chaos in implementing the Environmental Land Management Scheme, threats to environmental laws under the Retained EU Law Bill, and the unknown impact of Investment Zones and development have all amounted to what many see as an Attack on Nature.    Nature’s already severely depleted, battered and bruised. This is death by 1000 cuts. Death by countless slashes, burns, persecutions, fells, chops and spillages. We’re asking you as Wild Justice supporters to join us in this walk in solidarity with wildlife and fellow nature lovers. We need politicians to do more for nature, not to mount attacks on it.   This is a peaceful, joyful and family friendly walk. There will be an atmosphere of urgency, and of joy. Wildlife will be celebrated, and our concern for its fate will be stressed.    We hope to see you there. Pledge to walk at peopleswalkforwildlife.org.  Stewards, infrastructure, acquiring licences to shut roads and public areas for the duration of the walk – all of this costs money to do safely. These walks can only go ahead with your support – if you feel able to, you can donate at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/walkforwildlife2