SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018

Today was an unusual day that right from the start perfectly highlighted the East Kent with West Street’s desire to avoid us and kill our wildlife. Two of our sabs were out together running a Saturday morning errand near Canterbury and to their surprise as they were heading home they drove past the East Kent hunt’s hound van leaving Elham at 8:15am! Obviously they weren’t going to leave them and not see what they were up to so early in the morning! They dutifully followed and sure enough it led them to their meet at 9am near Preston! We thought cubbing season had ended!?

Of course this early start caught us slightly unprepared with many of our sabs still in bed we quickly rallied around as many as we could to join them. The hunt left the meet at around 9:15 and they quickly surrounded a nearby woodland and sent the hounds in…. this was starting to look more and more like a cubbing meet! Our two sabs monitored them from the road until half an hour later reinforcements arrived and we were able to get the drone over them!

The hunt didn’t like this at all and spent the next 20 minutes tottering around in a circle with huntsmen Steve regularly looking up at the drone. He then had a conversation with the terrier men and we suspect it went a little bit like this..’Terrier boys get rid of that drone in any way you can’…..’Yes master your wish is our command!’. Sure enough the terrier men, 2 quads loaded with 3 terrier men on each made a beeline for our sabs which currently were only 4 in the field. They then surrounded us and began harassing our drone operator as much as they could in a desperate attempt to distract him from monitoring the hounds. This failed and it was an absolute pleasure to see Terrance the portly terrier man so agitated.

It appears he’s taken a course in aviation law as he began repeatedly reading out the drone code of conduct in his usual strained tone like he’s sitting on the toilet pushing one out. By this point the drone was running low on battery so we had to get it in and giving the threats that were already made against the drone we weren’t going to just land it in front of them! Some quick thinking from one of our sabs saw them pluck the drone out of the sky and catch it much to the annoyance of Terrance the portly terrier man. We then had a visit from the landowner who asked us to move our vehicle despite the fact he was blocking us in. He did eventually move and we moved off to the usual jeers from the terrier men.

As soon as we found a place to park we did and got the drone straight back up and on the hunt with a fresh battery. As if by magic 2 minutes later, following their masters orders the terrier men appeared hurtling around the corner and the ‘lets harass the drone operator’ game started again! Of course we can play this game all day and we prompted to do circles together of our vehicle like some weird game of kiss chase. After a while we had to get the drone back to go and pick up some more sabs who had just arrived to support us. Again the terrier boy who likes to be known as ‘Milsy’ tried to distract us from landing and again we are able to catch it before they got to it – we’re getting pretty good at this new manoeuvre! We then jumped in the car and headed off to meet our sabs who had just arrived in our trusty Landy.

We quickly went to meet them and directed them back on to the hunt and sent in foot sabs after them who were still close to the woodland they’d been interested in all morning…. we wonder why? As foot sabs went in we deployed the drone again and got straight on the hunt. This stopped huntsmen Steve in his tracks and after some milling around they gave up and headed back to the meet and packed up after just 2 hours hunting!

The terrier men went to great lengths today to insist the reason they were changing their hunting days and starting later/earlier was because of the weather or landowners but we know this is simply not the case! We know it’s because they want to avoid us so they have a free pass to kill as they please. Our message is simple – try what you like. We’ll be there!

While all of this was was going on another one of our Sabs was monitoring the Bolebroke Beagles in Cliffe who tried to leave to go hunting but as soon as they realised they were being followed ran with their tail between their legs back to the kennels! What do they have to hide we wonder!?

 

SATURDAY 1 DECEMBER 2018

Once again we found ourselves doing a bit of sab admin this Saturday morning as the Ashford Valley & Tickham hunt were out on Friday and the East Kent with West Street were out later on their Saturday meet!

Whilst on our travels near Doddington we decided to take a walk up a footpath which was unfortunate for the local shoot who had to stop while we were present! If they insist on shooting within 50 yards of a public highway, they leave themselves open to this inadvertent disruption. The shooters dutifully broke their guns in our presence and despite the friendly banter aborted that particular drive.

We then headed off for the main course, the East Kent with West Street who were meeting at Lenhall Farm, Bishopsbourne. The hunt had already set off and we caught up with them on the top of the hill at Redhill Wood. We strayed from the path a bit which sent “Teflon Tel” (Terry the portly terrier man) into one of his strained fits of rage….he even dropped the C bomb! Despite his hypocritical protestations about keeping within the law, the most hypocritical of all was when he past judgement on one of our sabs weight…. take a good look in the mirror, Shrek!!!!

Fortunately the host of the hunt, although pissed off with our presence, took the pragmatic approach on our presence and tolerated us being there. By now we were deep in Gorsley Wood and the huntsman and whip were enjoying their hound exercise, knowing full well that during the week they can do as they please!

The huntsman Steve even whispered some sweet nothings in the ear of one of his favourite sabs…. something about ‘meddling’ and being ‘the biggest liar he’d ever met!’

The host was charming and very polite to us and to her credit she offered us help when one of us had an asthma attack, this was very kind and we appreciate her genuine concern. We carried on in the rain until we lost them at about 2pm, we tried to find them but to no avail. At 2.30pm horse boxes were leaving the meet, so took the opinion that they had given up.

FRIDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2018

Today we paid a visit to the Ashford Valley & Tickham hunt who were meeting at one of their favourite haunts, Torry Hill, near Doddington. This hunt are also so desperate to hunt illegally and avoid us that they have moved their hunting days to during the week! From the beginning it was obvious the effect only hunting during the week was having to them – we counted only eight riders! An embarrassingly low number of riders for a hunt even in this day and age! Surely it’s not sustainable for them to continue hunting during the week like this turning away their weekend supporters!?

The hunt moved off at 11.30 and from the beginning it was clear how frustrated the hunt were with our presence! What ensued was essentially a Mexican stand off where the hunt refused to move until we did. Obviously much to the annoyance of huntsmen Neil Staines we were quite happy playing this game for as long as they wanted as it meant they weren’t hunting! Neil then accused us of being terrorists and actually in our opinion looked a little bit drunk – watch the video and make your own mind up!

Once the hunt did move off we were easily able to get behind them despite their supporters best efforts to block the road and we followed them to the outskirts of Milstead where they entered into an Orchard. We got the drone up to monitor them and they must have stayed there moving slowly to ‘Bottom Pond’ wood for the best part of half an hour! We then moved to the other side of the wood and it became clear they were up to something!

Two quads with terrier men were darting around the outskirts of the wood and we could hear the huntsmen’s cries encouraging the hounds. We went in on foot but couldn’t quite get a pin on their location so we moved back around to Torry Hill and that’s when a beautiful fox was seen running at full pelt into Hogshaw Wood. We quickly jumped out of our vehicle to cover it’s tracks with citronella to mask the scent and waited for the hounds to inevitably appear on it’s trail.

Then what happened was rather bizarre! The terrier men appeared on two quads also driving at full speed from the direction of Frinsted and drove straight to Hogshaw Woods where the fox had only just ran! We jumped back in to the vehicle and followed on! We found the terrier men stood close to the outskirts of the wood where the fox had ran just waiting and watching. As soon as they were aware we were there they moved off deeper into the wood and we followed them until they left the wood with their tail between their legs! While all of this was happening there was no sign of the hunt. So it begs the question why were the terrier men chasing that fox!? Either it was a bagged fox they had released that had went wrong and ran the wrong direction, a fox they had dug out that had darted away or a fox they had seen that they were going to direct the hunt to…. whatever they were hoping for didn’t go to plan with us there!

We then tried to locate the hunt but given how large the area was and with only one of our vehicles out it was proving difficult. With light disappearing we had to call it a day. The hunt certainly felt our presence today and we hoped we saved that fox!

TUESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2018

Of late our posts have been somewhat positive. Late starts and early finishes for the hunt. Trails being layed and hound exercise instead of ghoulish images of wild animals being pulled apart. This can’t be further from truth in the week when the sabs are at work the hunts thin veneer slips.

The local foxhunts, historically hunt Wednesdays and Saturdays but recently we have seen them break with tradition and move their hunting days in the vain attempt to lose us. It is hard to muster sabs for a week day sab, harder still when the hunt has moved its hunting days. The satisfaction for us knowing they have done this to avoid us is tempered by the knowledge that they will have a free hand to do as they please – illegally terrorise and kill our wildlife.

This Tuesday we did a bit of poking about only to find the East Kent with West Street hunt, hunting at Honey Child Manor at St Mary’s in the Marsh. The hunt had gained an extra quad bike since the weekend with 3 all together and of course terrier men were seen in all the obvious locations!

The most concerning sight of the day was at the back of the hunt meet, by a drainage ditch. Once they were done the only sign of what had happened was the freshly backfilled hole in a field, adjacent to the badger sett that potholes the ditch.

Our findings and footage have been passed on to the police who are investigating hence the vague hit report

SATURDAY 24TH NOVEMBER 2018

After the mornings sab admin, East and West Kent Sabs headed over to Westmarsh to reports that a hunt were congregating in that area. Sure enough we bumped into the East Kent with West Street hunt at Sheerwater as it headed out towards Hoaden. It was good to see some old faces in the hunt entourage, even some young “Tarquins” who were following in “Daddies” classic Land rover!

This meet has never been too good for us in the past with orchard and Marsh land. Both allow the hunt to move fast as the Marsh is just a maze of ditches to navigate and the miles of orchard blocks your view so you can never quite get a fix on the hunt.

However the drone has given things a new perspective! The hunt now sticks out like a skinny dogs bollocks on both types of landscape!!

As soon as we had a fix on the hunt, foot Sabs were deployed, trudging on after them. When the footsabs were not with the hunt or in transit to them, the drone kept an eye on them.

The result was an early pack up at 2pm meaning not even 2 hours hunting!

We have no doubt that this would have been a different story had we not been with them as they had two quad bikes with terrier men and the usual paraphernalia to hunt foxes bellow ground.

SATURDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2018

Today the East Kent with West Street hunt were meeting at Kylemore Farm, Barham. It was a strange day from the start as they didn’t leave the meet until 12.30 meaning they lost at least an hour off their usual hunting time.

When they left they headed straight into Covert Wood and despite huntsmen Steve’s attempt to out-run the drone, like Neil from the Ashford Valley he also failed! Unfortunately we lost them when we needed to change the drone battery and we spent the next hour trying to find them again on the road. It’s such a huge wood with very few roads it’s very easy for them to hide!

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST ASHFORD VALLEY WITH TICKHAM HUNT ON BOXING DAY

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST ILLEGAL HUNTING
BOXING DAY 2018

At the ASHFORD VALLEY WITH TICKHAM FOXHOUNDS meet Tenterden High Street at The Vine Pub, TN30 6AU

“Members of the public are invited to attend a peaceful demonstration to show the hunts that killing wildlife for fun is abhorrent to the majority, and that nobody is fooled by their claims of chasing an artificial scent, and that they call on Kent police to properly enforce the Hunting Act 2004”
Demonstration from 10.00 am-hounds meet at 11.00 am, Tenterden High Street, outside The Vine pub.

NOTE-WE WILL ALSO BE ASKING DEMONSTRATORS TO ATTEND IF THEY CAN ANOTHER DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE BLEAN BEAGLES HARE HUNT JUST AFTER-DETAILS WILL BE GIVEN ON THE DAY

SO, WHY DEMONSTRATE IF THE HUNTS ARE “TRAIL HUNTING?”?
Nationally, the hunts still claim to be “Trail Hunting”. This is nothing more than a smokescreen to cover up the illegal hunting and killing of foxes, hares, deer and mink….we do not believe that anyone is fooled by this anymore. We also believe that given the present Conservative governments last two attempts to repeal (or water down) the ban, that the hunts are hunting live quarry far more openly now, and becoming more violent over our attempts to monitor their illegal activities

Seeing illegal hunting and kills have become the norm now for hunt saboteurs, and there is a growing sense of frustration that the hunts are allowed to ride roughshod over the law (not to mention other peoples land!). We have worked long and hard with Kent police to bring these people to justice, yet we are always frustrated to find that not only is the Hunting Act 2004 law in many ways flawed (i.e it allows these people to kill and claim it was an “accident”), but also that Kent police still insist on putting all hunting related incidents under the collective title of “OPERATION YORK”, which is still basically a public order operation (and oh…did they used to pull out all the stops to enforce the law against sabs prior to the Hunting Act! Any attempts we made to stop hunting were met with extremely pro hunt policing, money no object!)

So, make no mistake -THIS IS ALSO A DEMONSTRATION ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE POLICE FORCES/CPS OF THE UK SEEMINGLY STILL BEING GLOVE PUPPETS OF THE HUNTS!!

A spokesperson from East Kent Hunt Saboteurs said-
”If all of those people who stand in the square this Boxing Day “traditionally” cheering on the red coats were to see the cruelty that’s hidden from view, I believe they would hang their heads in shame. It’s high time that the public were made aware that these people are routinely breaking the law, and still using wild animals as toys to chase, torture and kill for “sport”. The police must take a pro active stance against this barbaric practice to finally consign fox hunting to history”

ASHFORD VALLEY WITH TICKHAM HUNT-RELATED VIDEOS:
Ashford Valley with Tickham Hunt kill a fox whilst “trail-hunting”

Ashford Valley with Tickham hunt supporters obstruct the highway

Ashford Valley with Tickham Hunt – evidence of not trailhunting  

Please visit our Youtube channel (with East Kent sabs) for further fox-hunting evidence, digging out, terriermen intimidation etc) – https://www.youtube.com/chann…/UCSzbiK99zugXAgiv2ZIB38A/feed

Kent’s two beagle packs (hare hunt) the Blean Beagles and the Bolebroke Beagles are somewhat camera shy-indeed, if we ever find one of their secretive meets, they scurry wordlessly back to their meet and pack up-just what is it they are trying to hide if they are acting within the law?

The Ashford Valley with Tickham Hunt states on its website – “Hounds continue to hunt a trail and will continue to hunt within the law until the hunting act is repealed.”

These so called “trail” hunts are always followed by quad bikes of masked up “terrier men”, with spades, terriers and digging equipment, and make no effort to even pretend to lay a trail since the ban came into force….it makes a mockery of the law.

We say the law must be strengthened-loopholes such as “accidentally” killing foxes/hares must be removed from the act, and the hideous cruelty of terrier work has to be made illegal.

So-we ask YOU-the public who find bloodsports abhorrent to come and demonstrate again this Boxing Day (the most important day in the fox hunters season), and to-

DEMAND that Kent police ENFORCE the Hunting Act
DEMAND that the hunts are held to account for their law breaking
DEMAND that the police ask questions as to WHY the hunt allow balaclava wearing thugs with connections to other bloodsports to ride alongside them on quad bikes, carrying spades, nets & terriers, going so obviously equipped to commit illegal wildlife crimes???

SHOW YOUR DISGUST at the Boxing Day Christmas card debacle, where hundreds of people celebrate a “tradition” of bloodshed, then leave the square whilst the hunt move on to the killing fields

THIS IS A PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION-hunt supporters will try to goad you into doing/saying things you may later regret. Bear in mind that most of these bloated red faced half pissed idiots show up once a year only (yet claim to be massive hunt supporters-tell that to the hunt when on on a Saturday they can barely raise ten riders/support!!), and are really very tragic. Ignore them. They are utterly irrelevant.

PLEASE BRING A BANNER! Make sure the hunt know YOU ARE ON OUR SIDE!
LIFTS-in previous years, people have been very generous in helping people get to the demo from far flung/local places-please, if you NEED A LIFT, or can OFFER A LIFT, private message us!!!!

PARKING-anyone who has been before will know that parking is very hard on the day-PLEASE, LEAVE AN HOUR EARLY AT LEAST! You may have a long walk back to the demo from your car.

Bless you all good people, and seasons greetings
WEST KENT SABS xxxx

FRIDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2018

Last week we were told that the Ashford Valley & Tickham hunt were changing their main meet of the week from Saturday’s to Friday’s in the vain hope they would be able to avoid us! This week we were given information that they would be meeting today at Moat Farm, Chainhurst. We thought it would be rude not to see if the rumours were true so one of our sabs went to pay them a visit armed with our eye in the sky drone!

Sure enough as we arrived horse boxes were arriving! We can’t believe this hunt are so desperate to avoid us that they would sacrifice their main hunting day of the week and move to Friday’s! Not only does this show how desperate they are to kill but it also shows how much of an effect we’re having on them! If the Ashford Valley stay hunting Friday’s they will limit the number of people who can come to support them (we counted only 10 riders today!) which will mean that their subscriber numbers will dwindle and it will eventually signal the end for the hunt! Long may this continue!

The hunt moved off as usual at 11.30 and made a few desperate attempts to out run the drone. It has a top speed of 40mph – it’s not going to happen! Hunt supporters leaving the meet also made a few pathetic attempts to distract our sab from managing the drone….all to no avail! Eventually they gave up and all the hunt staff gathered together clearly to formulate a plan how to shake off the drone. This appeared to consist of just going into the nearest woodland. Given the time of the year with the leaves nearly off the trees this plan also failed!

We monitored the hunt until mid-afternoon when the weather took a turn for the worse meaning we couldn’t use the drone anymore.

Our message to the Ashford Valley & Tickham hunt is simple; we know you’re illegally hunting and by moving your hunting day’s to day’s you mistakenly think will be less likely to be attended by Sabs you are only reinforcing this. Whatever day you choose to terrorise our wildlife it makes no difference – we will be there. You can run but you can’t hide!

SATURDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2018

Today we decided to pay a long overdue visit to the Bolebroke Beagles, kennelled in Cliffe near Rochester… we didn’t want them to think we’d forgotten about them!

This lot are a particularly nasty bunch who hunt hares which as is wildly reported, are fast becoming endangered in the UK. The huntsmen left the kennels at roughly 11.30am being closely followed by a support vehicle in the form of a red Freelander, we can only assume to block any attempt at being followed by sabs. Unfortunately for them their plan failed and our sab was quickly and easily able to get behind the hound vehicle. Almost instantly the huntsmen gave up his attempt to go hunting and returned to their kennels with his tail between his legs! This lot don’t even have the balls to pretend to legally hunt and the second we turn up they give up! A victory to start the day.

We stayed in Cliffe a while to see if they attempted to go hunting again before heading to meet the rest of West Kent Sabs and East Kent Sabs who were at the Compasses pub in Crundale (https://www.facebook.com/compassescrundale) as the East Kent with West Street hunt were seen meeting there. When we arrived it was obvious where the hunt would be and sure enough the parking area at Denge Wood was full of horse boxes.

We went in and the hunt were hunting a sweet chestnut thicket and as soon as we were spotted the whipper in Sally darted off and the huntsman Steve called his hounds in.

They headed off deep into the wood and the terrier men followed behind, when we caught up we were given a display of pure theatre!
After a quick get together with the hunt and terrier men, Teflon Tel drove his quad in full view of us and started to rummage around in his box. To our surprise he dropped a trail on the back of the quad and drove past us, the smell can only be described as rotten fish but it was genuine.
The hounds followed on in full cry, a sight we have not seen for over 10 years since the hunting act first came into force! It seems as if they kept this up until 2.30 before they packed up.

For us this is great news, no hunting of an animal and an early finish!
It’s also worth mentioning that they had more hunt support than usual, so it begs the question, why not do this and hunt within the law every time they go out hunting?

If this hunt can keep this up, it’s yet to be seen but one thing is for sure is it is down to us to keep them in check!

WEDNESDAY 7TH NOVEMBER 2018

Following on from events last Saturday where we caught the Ashford Valley & Tickham Hunt clearly illegally hunting, almost exactly a year after we filmed them kill a fox, we decided to pay them another visit on their mid-week meet at Chapel Bank Farm, just outside Tenterden.

Upon arriving and getting out of our vehicle we knew it was going to be a difficult day. The weather was appalling… gale force winds meant we certainly wouldn’t be able to use the drone and any attempt to try to hear huntsmen Neil’s horn to locate them would be fruitless!

The hunt moved off as usual at 11.30am and headed over Chapel Bank, a small hill which looks over the area. We followed on but were left slightly distracted by hunt staff returning almost instantly with one hound to be taken back to the hound van. We’re not sure why the hound was returned but hope the hound was ok!

The hunt moved through Luckhurst farm and that’s where the hunt pulled another disappearing act. We followed the terrier men around for a while who I think were similarly lost then decided to widen our search but unfortunately to no avail. We did notice that a number of the hunts usual supporters had returned to the meet so we’re not sure if they had lost them too? As we continued our search we kept bumping into loyal hunt supporter Peter Deacon on his travels. He set off from the meet before the hunt did and on his quest to see a kill was trampling through the countryside for hours looking for the hunt on foot. At this point it was driving rain and visibility was poor. We noticed that poor old Pete didn’t even have a coat! We applaud his commitment to finding the hunt…. if you ever want to join us sabbing Pete just let us know….

It was then that we were reminded of a short film the Ashford Valley made in 1996 before the hunting ban. Here you can see Peter and many of the other hunt supporters we see today talk about their love for hunting foxes. It’s amazing to see how little has changed with this hunt – they’re still out there to hunt and kill foxes which we prove week in, week out and most of their support are still the same people albeit slowly disappearing…. we counted less than 10 riders today and only a few foot supporters.

Whilst we can’t be sure they didn’t kill today we are sure that they can’t have had a good time in those weather conditions.

Here is a link to the short film mentioned and we would urge anyone to watch it. Ask yourself – do you really think Neil and the rest of his cronies would stop hunting foxes and hunt within the law?