The Tedworth Hunt intend to stage a meeting in Pewsey this Boxing Day, despite not making an application to the Parish Council…..
Their usual meeting place is moved to Fairground Field, behind the petrol station, as the Pewsey Parish Council have not received an application for them to congress at their usual spot, the parish council owned Bouverie Hall car park.
Wiltshire Hunt Sabs will be elsewhere today, but assure any protesters some Action Against Foxhunting members will be present to advise. It seems, provided they do not trespass, they’re legally above board to continue the meet, but to parade certain rules must be adhered to.
Protesters should record and report any illegal activities to police, such as blocking roads or parking spaces, obstructing pedestrians or traffic, using unlicensed vehicles such as quad bikes on roads. AAF provides a comprehensive checklist HERE.
Trial by social media, it seems keyboard warriors aim to point the finger at the Parish Council for disallowing the meet at the hall, but that’s not the case. Pewsey Parish Council Clerk Ali Kent told Devizine, “I never received any request from the Tedworth Hunt to meet in the North Street car park today. We will never know which way any vote would have gone. Accusations that information has been hidden are extremely offensive to those of us who work hard for all of the community.”
I have to sing some praises for Pewsey Parish Council recently, the construction of the skatepark is a really positive move in creating a space for local youth. On this issue it cannot be judged on speculation. As hunting goes underground it will raise whole new circumstances, but Boxing Day parades are a promotional tool to normalise this barbaric tradition and are being stamped out by local councils. It rests on police to uphold the Hunting Act and prosecute accordingly; a Pandora’s box we’re not opening today!
It is a crying shame the season of goodwill doesn’t extend to our wildlife for these barbaric arseholes, as compelling evidence mounts trial hunting is a smokescreen it is time, in our opinion, to stop this now, by law.
If Bob Marley used a Jamaican proverb for a line in I Shot the Sheriff , “Every day the bucket a-go a well, One day the bottom a-go drop out,” it really has for the notorious Avon Vale Hunt, who’ve been suspended from the British Hounds Sports Association, following some sickening video footage…...
I guess congratulations goes to Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs, for want of a better word. The breaking news certainly produced an awkward chuckle from me. Their hard work has paid off with this indisputable evidence of the hunt, digging out two foxes and throwing one to the hounds, while the second attempts an escape. The most distressing and horrifying part of the film is to hear them shrieking with delight when realising there was a second fox.
A criminal investigation had begun, we hope the sentence fits the crime. I’ve tried to be as subtle as possible on this issue, always willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. Previous filming from the sabs has often been obscured and difficult to define precisely what’s happening, but this is undeniable, trail hunting is an outright lie.
This definitive proof shifts the way I’ll handle my wording on such reports, for it’s conclusive, that hunters are nothing but bloodthirsty criminal scum, and I, for one, believe the time has come to ban these so-called trail hunts once and for all.
Wiltshire Hunt Sabs told The Hunt Saboteurs Association, “We routinely sab this particularly vile and vicious hunt, so we aren’t surprised to see them shrieking in delight as the whip chucks the first fox to the hounds as a second fox tries to flee. It’s almost a year to the day since they seriously assaulted a hunt sab after sabs stopped a similar dig out of a fox from an active badger sett near Erlestoke.
We hope Wiltshire Police do their jobs properly this time. For too long this hunt has gotten away with murder, largely because of the protection of Wiltshire Police who have had serving officers riding with this hunt. The Avon Vale are now truly exposed for the bloodthirsty criminals they are.”
So, we find ourselves at the conjunction where I will not refrain to mince my words any longer; anyone condoning the actions of the Avon Vale Hunt, from allowing meets on their establishment to political figures supporting the hunt or claiming they’re doing nothing illegal, will be called out and treated as an accessory to a crime.
A Wiltshire police spokesperson said, “We have received a report of alleged wildlife offences and will be reviewing the evidence that has been presented.” Begging the question how it can “alleged” if the offence is clearly caught on camera?
For a fuller story and to watch the film, please refer HERE, but warning, the video can be distressing. And please, if you can, donate to the Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs so they can continue their hard and often dangerous work.
Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs report some great news, ahead of the Avon Vale Hunt’sBoxing Day Hunt, happening in Lacock today….
Wadworth-owned Lacock pub, The Red Lion, traditionally the meeting point for the start of the hunt, has made the decision to not open until after the hunt has left the village.
The National Trust has also restricted usage of their carpark in the village for the hunt supporters. Although we’ve currently heard The Bell on Bowden Hill will provide car parking, people are being urged to contact them to let them know their feelings on this. Devizine has done this, and we await their response.
If brewery owners of The Red Lion, who part-own the hunt kennels, and have been masters of this hunt in years past, can make the right decision to restrict their facilities to the Avon Vale Hunt in light of the violence last year, so can the community as a whole.
Let’s hope for a peaceful protest, and for Wiltshire Police to provide a more efficient and impartial service this time, as it seems the support for the hunt is dwindling rapidly, and a majority present today will be campaigning against hunting rather than supporting it.
Here we go again, Lacock’s Boxing Day incongruous pageant of corruption and barbarism plans to go ahead this year, despite protests, as The Avon Vale Hunt will gather in showy and shameless glory.….
Safe in the knowledge the single patrolling WPC, Laura Hughes was a member of the hunt, and it was suggested did little to remain impartial, last year’s Boxing Day fiasco turned nasty, with violent clashes between hunt supporters and protesters. The protesters intend to be in attendance again, for peaceful intent as always, but hoping for safety in numbers.
While you’d like to think Wiltshire Police have learned a lesson, and this year’s event will be more efficiently manned, no charges or disciplinary was deemed necessary for the officer in question, despite publicly stating “we do accept a potential conflict of interests should have been declared,” and claiming they were unaware of her association with the hunt. Well, they’re aware now, only time will tell.
We also hope Wiltshire PCC Phillip Wilkinson’s recent crackdown on rural crime strategies, which has seen recent arrests for hare coursing, will extend to hunting, but he has shown little respect for hunt protesters in the past, apparently calling anti-hunt individuals, “balaclava wearing thugs.” In similar logic as Nelson Mandela was a deemed terrorist, no doubt.
With Conservative MP James Gray accused of being in attendance last year, in support of the hunt, sonething he later denied although photographed there, it would seem there’s a clear aborehence of the Hunting Act within many powers that be, resulting in these clashes, which sadly takes costly lawsuits to justifiably resolve. Something avoidable with proactive policing, me thinks; or is that a tad too bleeding obvious?!
In April, three hunt supporters were convicted after pleading guilty to using “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause unlawful violence.” In September though, the anti-hunt individuals were acquitted. Judge Dickens said, “ultimately, the evidence is pretty thin, wafer thin…While there is just about a case to answer, the evidence is wafer thin and it won’t get any better, and for those reasons I won’t be able to be sure they were not acting in self-defence.”
What is becoming clearer through this, is the wheels of the ‘trail hunting’ smokescreen are coming off, as the populous accept it’s a charade, and leaving hunters frustrated, and aggressive. I can understand this, they’ve taken their toys away, and in the name of tradition it would seem a shame, if the activity wasn’t a completely unnecessary bloodthirsty and barbaric activity which has been democratically deemed unwanted and unlawful in today’s society.
It now falls on town and parish councils, landowners and pub landlords to accept the majority’s appeal on this matter, and outright ban all hunting meets and activities on their land, regardless of these petty bogus claims of lawfulness, until such a time they can prove no acts of animal welfare have been breached. Which, and let’s be frank, they can’t, ergo they react in force of vengeance. For if they could, there would be no valid reason to behave with this thuggish mentality.
So, I cannot advise you attend, for your own safety, but the Boxing Day meet will start at 10am in Lacock, but doing so at your own risk will show support for the rising campaign against this, and, as I said, it is the responsibility of Wiltshire Police to ensure the event runs more smoothly this time. Here’s to a peaceful protest, then, and also to those risking themselves to protect our wildlife, not just on Boxing Day, but throughout the year.
Make no mistake, there’s a civil war under our noses, which comes to an apex when blood-thirsty predators triumphantly parade their wrongdoing on a day when most of us struggle out of bed to reach the fridge. Judge for yourselves who’s the goodies and who’s the baddies here, but pray tell me you’re not party to this obnoxious pageant? I mean, hardly “Christmassy,” is it, unless of course, Santa puts a bullet in the head of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for not keeping up with the herd?
Posing a question in a headline, I’ve learned, attracts hits. Usual method is for me to then waffle endlessly, circling the question but never really answering it, until, only sometimes, at the conclusion. I’m gonna swap, answer it now, get it out in the open. Can we stop Boxing Day hunts across Wiltshire?
Don’t be disillusioned, and apologises for bursting any bubbles; the answer is no, not a chance, pal.
Despite good news last week that the Wilton Hunt Ball has been postponed due to the omicron outbreak, we all know pandemic restrictions last year didn’t bother them, and with reference to breaking news of government Christmas parties, flaunting the law for the most powerful in society doesn’t need investigating, according to police.
I mean, whatever did happen to the inquiry as to how hunting organisations pushed for a drink-driving Avon Huntsmaster to stand as Wiltshire PCC, costing the taxpayer over £3million for a re-election? The carpet is looking lumpy, how much more can be brushed under it?
Every avenue I explore on this subject gets blocked, no one in any position of power to help wants to address the issue. That is a total and utter disgrace and they should, quite frankly, hold their heads in shame.
Make no mistake, Boxing Day Hunts aren’t the bee-all-and-end-all of hunting, but they’re the most important hunt on the annual calendar, because the audience it attracts. The Countryside Alliance will try convince you droves arrive in support. True, Boxing Day hunts aim to condone and promote the tenet, crucial in their campaign to turn the Hunting Act 2004 on its head. Though many onlookers remain oblivious to the cruel realities, while others will be lobbying against it.
If all is not lost, councils of both county, town and parish levels can take action, if they wanted, ban it on their land, or at least refuse to accept invitations to, and disallow council land to be used to meet, thus reducing the celebration of blood sports and gradually eradicating the archaic and brutal custom.
In a heartfelt campaign, non-profit organisation, Keep the Ban, urge concerned folk to contact their councillors, celebrating success when Keswick Town Council in Cumbria decided to revoke their invitation to the John Peel Hunt. Locally, the wonderful Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs informed me Bradford-on-Avon Town Council “have banned both hunting and culling on their land at town council level” but reckoned, “it’s mostly symbolic, although there are definitely council owned farms (tenant farmers of WCC) that do cull, so a wider wildlife protection policy is probably going to be more use.”
However, fresh from a meeting, Alison Kent, Clerk to Pewsey Parish Council replied yesterday, “the decision was to allow the Tedworth Hunt to meet in the car park on Monday 27th.” A local hunt which the Wiltshire Hunt Sabs claim “weaponised their horses against sabs.” Why would they do this, without anything to hide?
Armed Tedworth Hunters
My first port of call is Wiltshire Councillor Laura Mayes, who despite as Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education and Skills, this is not her area of expertise, it must be said, is always willing to humour me and answer my endless questions on any random subject, and I thank her for her help. Although, her answer was unswerving; “I have done some digging and asked Cabinet colleagues and we all agreed that WC has no power to take any action, re trail-hunting as it is currently a legal activity. Any illegal activity would be a police matter.”
Wiltshire Council may convince themselves nothing illegal is happening, yet I argue, like a speeding driver, for them, the thrill of the activity outweighs the carnage it might cause. I’m no prude, I can understand it must be exhilarating to ride across the hillsides in pursuit of a target, addictive even, given hunting is ingrained in their psyche, passed down through generations. If an arsonist wandered into a fireworks factory with a lighter, would WC turn a blind eye, safe in the knowledge setting it alight would be illegal, therefore the arsonist would resist the temptation of their own obsession?
Countryside Alliance website outrightly states they oppose the hunting Act 2004, claiming it’s “bad for rural communities,” even, and, get your head around this brazen irony, “bad for animal welfare,” and a “waste of police resources.” If they feel like this, and nothing is done to prevent them, how on God’s earth can you expect them to not pursue a wild animal if it was to be caught in heat of the moment on this supposed fake trail?
Let’s take the last part of the CA’s stance; on Boxing Day police resources will be stretched, on a day they’d rather be peaceful I’d wager, because they’ll need to be present across the country where the crowds gather to observe this pretentiously parade of their unforgiving activity as a magnificent pageant. I have to wonder how much police time is spent keeping an eye on the hunters against policing the meetings. I also emailed Wiltshire Police to ask how they would actually patrol a hunt, horseback I’d imagine being the only effective method.
I also wished to enquire what their relationship with the hunt sabs was like, if they supported the portfolio sabs are building to suggest unlawful acts are indeed taking place. Only this week, they posted a video to their Facebook page clearly showing The Royal Artillery Hunt rioting on two deer in an SSSI area on Salisbury Plain Training Area on Saturday 4th December, and Huntsman, Charles Carter, did nothing to call them off; something the Daily Mail suggested put the sabs “at war” with the Army.
A spokesperson for the sabs told me, “If something is being used as a smokescreen for a crime then either it’s an illegal activity or the law needs addressing!” Face it, Western Huntsman John Sampson in Penzance, was only found guilty of being in charge of dogs which killed a cat caught in the hunt on a Cornish housing estate, because a neighbour filmed him from their window, shamelessly lobbing the cat’s dead body into a nearby garden. If it wasn’t filmed, there would be no evidence. A clear indication hunters need monitoring, but while my press office contact with Wiltshire Police is usually responsive, they felt the matter needed to be addressed by the Rural Crime Unit, and passing my queries onto them was the end of our communication.
Should the police wish to respond, I can amend this appropriately, but time is pushing forward to Boxing Day, and my only line of information comes from The Wiltshire Hunt Sabs themselves. Far from a Batman-Chief Commissioner Gordan relationship, where Gordan doesn’t necessarily like the vigilante but compromises on the grounds they share the same goal, the Hunt Sabs were keen to criticise Police.
“I can show you a clip of an officer blocking a byway,” the sabs expressed, “when challenged he demanded evidence that they were illegally hunting, which the sab asked ‘well if you stop blocking the public right of way, I can get you some.’ He refused.” Whatever happened to inspector’s hunch aside, if investigation isn’t gathered by official resources, someone has to, furthermore, isn’t the officer acting unlawfully in blocking the byway, it’s a public right of way?
“Yeah,” the sabs replied, “accessing the byway was first a small section of ORPA (other routes of public access) so even though he had no idea what the public access rights where, he still chose to block it, even after offering to show him on an OS Map.”
Playing devil’s advocate, I supposed, his defence would be they were potentially there to “start trouble” when the hunters were doing nothing illegal. But how can he tell if the police don’t even follow the hunt? Have the Sabs ever seen police patrolling a hunt, keeping up with it to insure nothing illegal occurs?
“There’s no history of us starting trouble,” they replied. “The hunts always claim that but we don’t. We’re just there to make sure they don’t kill. Wilts Police have never to my knowledge ever patrolled a hunt. Any time they are there it is to ‘keep the peace,’ which in reality means blocking us from stopping them killing. The police don’t even know the law; on one hunt recently, two officers turned up and had to Google it on the way. I had to explain to them everything that was happening, and to be fair they listened, but initially they were too quick to take the hunt’s word that they were legally hunting. They have no training on this, I personally have emailed the rural crime team and asked, they’re not interested.”
I gulp at this, as while Wiltshire rural crime unit certainly isn’t responsive, the sabs said Gloucestershire Police now have “operation hunt,” and have said they will go out to hunts. But the real hard pill to swallow was my contact with The Wiltshire Hunt Sabs felt contacting the authorities was futile, adding in their understandable frustrations, “I can’t see them doing much, I personally have given up bothering with them.”
Still, all they ask for doing the tasks the police you pay for should be, is the price of a coffee to help their campaign funding, and they ask you sound your objection to Pewsey Parish Council for allowing the Tedworth Hunt to meet in their carpark, or contacting your MP and councillors in general, as Boxing Day Hunts go further than simply potentially bludgeoning a fox or any other animal which might accidently stumble into the crossfire, to death, but also act as a celebration and promotion of such cruelty.
I wish the season of goodwill to all men could extend to all life, all god’s creatures great and small, and I’m a realist who cannot accept nothing unlawful is happening here, when photograph and video evidence is there for all to see that clearly it is, and I thank the sabs for their time when others in power barely gave theirs, and for the difficult and arduous task they take on.
With a rolling hook in the chorus, piano riff over acoustic guitar and a heartfelt narrative, here’s a promising debut single from Salisbury’s young singer-songwriter…
Land ahoy me hearties! Devizes Corn Exchange was boarded last night by Cornish punk pirates Jolly Roger, for a frivolous and swashbuckling opening to Devizes…
Images used with kind permission of Pacific Curd Photography West Wilts and Somerset folk-rock collective Courting Ghosts are about to release their debut album, Falling…
We’ve been chatting with the Community Organiser and Campaigns Manager of Devizes and District Foodbank, Alex Montegriffo, about an important free community conversation on Monday…
By Ian DiddamsPhotos by Gail Foster In 1971 Ken Russell enchanted film audiences with “The Devils”, which incorporated nuns in the story – somewhat controversially.…
In recognition of his selfless ministry and leadership of St James Church, where the community and residents are at the core of everything, birthday boy…
It’s going to be all strawberries and cheese baps in pith helmets swinging in trouserland bedlam, with chap-hop shenanigans galore at the Barge on Honeystreet…
devizine.com 