Home News Press Release Hunt Saboteurs Association Press Release December 26th 2011
Hunt Saboteurs Association Press Release December 26th 2011 PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 26 December 2011 20:12

Normal Boxing Day activity

 

Surrey Union press release

 

Another day of hunting on Boxing Day, no doubt the Countryside Alliance will paint a picture of thousands of people enjoying a picturesque day in the beautiful English countryside, hoping to ignore the hidden truth. The hunting community is in its death throes, it wants to be allowed to kill animals with impunity once more, and as this possibility becomes more and more distant the hunters get more desperate.

 

The Surrey Union no doubt sees itself as one of the more prestigious hunts located as its territory is, in the home counties. This boxing day it met at the Punch Bowl, Oakwood Hill, Surrey. As usual the local hunt sabs were in attendance keeping an eye on any illegal hunting. Towards the end of the day a 4WD vehicle rammed the saboteurs Land Rover from behind and proceeded to shunt it about ten yards down the road, while another hunt vehicle tried to block them in from the front. Managing to extract themselves from this incident the police were called, but the attacking vehicle was kept under observation to assist the police, the driver then pulled out a catapult and fired at the vehicle hitting close to the drivers door. The police duly arrived and a man has been arrested and charges are expected shortly.

 

The Surrey Union fox hunt and the Countryside Alliance will distant themselves from such activity, but this is the second occasion a catapult has been used to fire at sabs this hunting season, the last time causing an injury. Sabs will be blamed for just attending hunts, but the reality is that the presence of sabs stops them killing, and hunts are getting increasingly desperate. Why this level of violence against people just observing their activity? What do they have to hide?

 

 

Crawley & Horsham press release

 

As usual as large crowd gathered outside the George & Dragon in Dragons Green, West Sussex for the Boxing Day meet of the Crawley & Horsham Hunt.  Many riders and followers only appear for the 3 main hunts of the season - the Opening Meet at the beginning of November, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. 

 

Hunt monitors managed to keep check on where the hunt was with no incidents until close to the end of the day when the hounds crossed Dragons Green Road and went into cry as they entered a field, closely followed by the riders.  Anti-hunt monitors were right on the scene and one rider was heard to ask another if we'd seen anything!!! 

 

At that point, in their haste to follow the hounds, one of the riders rode down a monitor who was standing on the verge and he was closely followed by a speeding quad bike.  Luckily the man was not injured and the incident was caught on video by both the victim and a fellow monitor.  A report has been made to the police.  The hunt gathered the hounds in the nearby field and packed up straight away shortly before 3.45pm. Another fox's life saved just by our presence.

 

 

 

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From the archives...

Chucking taxpayers' money down the pan...

HSA news release 19th January 2003

Chucking taxpayers' money down the pan...

We are continuing to highlight the extraordinary relationships between the police and foxhunts in Surrey, as new information comes to light...

On 3 separate occasions in January (2003), police officers from Surrey have offered financial inducements to animal rights campaigners in return for information on the identities, intentions and movements of Hunt Saboteurs in the county.

Offers of money come at a time when Surrey police are practically throwing money down the toilet pan in their efforts to curtail opposition to the 2 beleaguered hunts in the county, whilst at the same time explaining that they are unable to attend 'low priority' incidents and crimes due to lack of resources!! It coincides with a new chief constable, and a force attitude that seems to shout 'Too biased to change, Too arrogant to care' although they know that wouldn't look too clever inscribed on the side of a police car!

The laughable fact is that the police could find almost all this out for free if they stopped treating sabs like dirt and abandon the aggravated trespass laws they started using at the behest of the hunts this year (after 10 years of relatively trouble free policing!).

In previous times, it was expedient for local sabs to let hunt liaison officers know numbers that would be out at hunts in Surrey - if something had happened to warrant a larger attendance (i.e. a sab being beaten up) they were told so they could stop things escalating. In return, the police response was generally proportionate and pragmatic involving hunt sabs' activities. Now however, relations are at an all time low. Police don't know whether there will be 2 or 20 sabs out, or what will happen if the hunt attack sabs as they did before Christmas at Newdigate. They are having to field at least 20 officers each time a hunt is out, and the hunt liaison officer positions are a joke, a more apt title would be hunt support officers.

Some previous Surrey officers given the hot potato of policing foxhunts have used their skills at calming situations at hunts, standing up to hunt pressure and funny handshakes and thereby reducing police costs as stepping stones to higher office (are you reading this at the Chief Supt's Assn?!). In the current situation, throwing taxpayers' money on a bonfire would be as useful!

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