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.