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Two hunters have been arrested and charged under the Hunting Act. Essex and Suffolk Hunt’s whipper-in, Jamie Price, along with huntsman Jack Henty, have been accused of illegal hunting on two separate occasions.
Protect the Wild spoke to Suffolk Action for Wildlife (SAF), a group which consistently monitors the hunt. SAF said:
“There were two different incidents, one on 16 December and one on the 23 December. On 16 December a fox was chased across the road in front of our monitors into private property. That was witnessed by a member of the public as well. And then the incident on 23 December was actually a kill, unfortunately. The fox didn’t make it. Again, that was in front of monitors. That was when the whipper-in actually got off his horse, picked up the fox and ran up the road with her. We have video footage.”
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A familiar hunt in court
SAF told us that their “reason to live is chasing down the Essex and Suffolk Hunt.” The group has been so successful at monitoring the hunt that there are now a myriad of other charges against the hunters.
The group stated:
“We have monitored the Essex and Suffolk Hunt pretty much every week for the last three seasons. We haven’t missed a beat with them. We’ve been working really closely with Suffolk Wildlife Crime [team] to try and get these cases through. Terrierman Robert Cundy is accused of two charges of assault on two monitors and is in court on 14 February. It’s a two day trial at Ipswich Magistrates Court.
There have also been two other arrests of the same terrierman Robert Cundy, along with Scott Baker, a local gamekeeper, with charges pending for assault and robbery of a handheld camera. Baker took the camera, and Cundy threw it back minus the SD Card.
We’ve also had a Community Protection Notice (CPN) on one of the other terriermen for continuous bad behaviour with his use of a quad bike. He was finally arersted and will go to court for breaching the CPN. So it’s pretty extensive.”
On top of all this, Sam Staniland, ex-huntsman for the Essex and Suffolk Hunt, was in court on Monday 18 December 2023, accused of a massive six charges under the Animal Welfare Act. The hunter pleaded not guilty to all six charges. The charges relate to terrier work carried out by Staniland while at the hunt. His phone was seized in January 2023 when his house was raided by police accompanied by the RSPCA. The raid on Staniland took place along with a number of other hunters across the south-east. Later on in the year, his work premises were searched, too.
A violent hunt
As you can see from the above arrests, SAF is faced with violence from the hunt’s terriermen, riders and supporters week in, week out. The group told us:
“We see them chasing foxes twice a week every week. They are blatant. The violence has dropped off since the terriermen can’t come out. They are on bail so are not out with the hunt. The other hunt members use their horses as weapons if they want to stop us videoing.”
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Support the monitors
It is only through the dedicated work of monitors on the ground that the Essex and Suffolk Hunt are finding themselves in court. And it is a massive feat to achieve these two latest Hunting Act charges. After all, the Act has so many deliberate loopholes – such as having to prove that the hunt was intending to chase a fox – that the Crown Prosecution Service doesn’t prosecute if it doesn’t feel that there is a certainty of conviction (see our post on the work of Cheshire Borderland Monitors “What did it take to convict huntsman Chris Woodward?“)
The tide is turning on hunting. As more and more hunters face charges across the country it is only a matter of time before the blood sport loses its last supporters, and will no longer be able to survive.
Monitors and saboteurs on the ground are vital, not only as the foxes’ first line of defence, but to ensure that these criminal acts make it to court.
Suffolk Action for Wildlife can only exist through donations. Consider donating to the monitors here. Any amount will be gratefully appreciated.
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