Guest blog: Trail Liars, Recklessness and Observation and Flushing for Fun.

The bastardisation of the Hunting Act by the Staghounds.

A few days ago, appalling footage of the Devon & Somerset Staghounds killing a stag emerged. The hunt had spent four hours on their ‘sport’ before the stag, exhausted and desperate, waded into a river to escape. Encircled and trapped, too weak to run any further, he was finally shot and his suffering was over. (See ‘A stag swims for his life before being brutally killed by hunters’.)

Members of North Dorset Hunt Sabs and Mendip Hunt Sabs did everything they could to stop the hunt, but - on foot and outnumbered - they had little chance against a determined pack of riders and supporters. As they told Protect the Wild “The stag ran on [whipped by the hunt to get him out of view of the sabs' camera] and sabs were assaulted by hunt members, thrown to the ground and driven into by a quad bike. A shot rang out and it was over. He had been on the run for over four hours. Riders massed at the riverside to see the stag’s body and followers gathered at the farm clearly waiting for “the viewing” or even a carve up."

Bobbie Armstrong has spent years independently monitoring the staghound packs that kill deer - with absolute impunity - in the southwest of England. She has seen things she will never forget. Things none of us could forget. Following this latest unspeakable act, Bobbie has written a blog for Protect the Wild which we have published in full below. It is a cry from the heart. While she has no affiliation with the group, Bobbie has asked us to make a donation to North Dorset Hunt Sabs which we are proud to have done.

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“The Hunting Act 2004 should have been the end of scenes which have once again emerged thanks to the tireless and courageous work of hunt saboteurs.

Scenes we’ve seen before, over and over again, an exhausted stag not just running for his life, but pushed beyond the most extreme physical limits that his body could endure. The animal took to the water and swam for his life, surrounded on both sides of the riverbank by whooping and gleeful hunt supporters who couldn't wait to see him dead.

At one point, the footage shows a saboteur within a few feet of the stag. Stood in the river the stag is clearly in distress, exhausted his tongue swollen and protruding out to the side, as he struggles to reduce his body temperature. His terror-stricken eyes bulging, he gasps for breath, blood visible from his nose. The bleeding from his nose is due to the intense physical exertion of him having run for his life for hours, causing tiny blood vessels in his lungs to explode.

This latest incident was the work of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds.

Devon & Somerset Staghounds. Credit North Dorset Hunt Sabs

The Hunting Act 2004

Many regulations (eg the Animal Welfare Act 2006) exist to protect animals from suffering. Whether that be animals in agriculture, domestic animals or service animals - even animals on their way to die are protected, yet this stag and many many more like him will suffer the same fate. Chased for hours, then when they can provide no more fun for the hunt, killed.

How is this happening? For the explanation we need to look - ironically - no further than the Hunting Act 2004…

In 1997 a private members bill, introduced by Michael Foster MP, received a second reading with 411 MPs voting in support of it, but failed due to ‘lack of parliamentary time’.

It has long been said that the pro-hunting fraternity is privileged, in their interactions (or lack thereof) with the police, in their disproportionately advantageous financial positions, in their social mobility, and most poignantly in their fortuitous alliances. This is underlined and demonstrated by the fact that the House of Lords repeatedly blocked attempts made by the Commons to bring into force a bill which would completely ban hunting.

Shortly after the Burns Inquiry, which looked into all aspects of hunting with hounds, the Government introduced an ‘options bill’ which would allow each House of Parliament to choose between a ban, licensed hunting and self-regulation. The House of Commons voted for a ban, the House of Lords for self-regulation. It is no coincidence that the House of Lords wanted the fox to guard the hen house. By its very nature, it is a demographic heavily represented on the hunting field. A privileged representation not similarly enjoyed by saboteurs!

Such was the determination of good people to ban hunting outright, repeated attempts were made to bring into existence a piece of legislation which would end the heinous scenes which continue to be recorded to this day due to the grit and resilience of hunt saboteurs. The Lords equally determined to block any such legislation continued to ‘sabotage’ efforts made to bring hunting to an end – most likely due to a concern that they might have to find something else to do when visiting their country retreat of a weekend.

The House of Lords was heavily criticised for undemocratically blocking the legislation. Due to the inability of the Lords and the Commons to come to an agreement, the then Speaker of the House of Commons (Michael Martin), invoked the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, a rarely used legislative device which allows the Commons to overrule the Lords where an agreement can’t be reached. The Hunting Act was one of only seven statutes since 1911 which was enacted using these provisions.

The Hunting Act finally came into effect on 18 February 2005. It banned the hunting of ‘most’ wild mammals with dogs, subject to some strictly limited exemptions. To clarify, deer amongst other commonly hunted mammals like foxes, hare and mink are included in the ‘most’ wild mammals.

As for the ‘strictly limited exemptions’, that has remained one of the most contentious elements of this piece of legislation since its inception.

The stag hunted by the Devon & Somerset Staghounds. Note the blue-tinged tongue and blood coming from his nose. Credit Mendip Hunt Sabs

Exemptions and stag hunts

For 7,130 days, for 1,018 weeks, for 234.1 months, for 19 years, 5 months and 28 days, hunting wild mammals with dogs has been banned in the United Kingdom.

Why then are we still viewing the most disgusting, morally bankrupt, cruel, sadistic, vile, horrific and perverse images spewing out of Exmoor like puss from a sceptic boil?

Today as I sit and write this I place the blame firmly at the door of the Labour Party.

You failed in your promise to ban hunting. These last 19-odd years have been a battleground for those of us who supported you at the time, for those of us who believed that a better world was possible, for those of us who paid with our liberty, our lives and our futures, for those of us who sought to protect our wild animals from barbarity, these last 19 years have been hell.

You are responsible for the impotent police forces, the prejudicial courts, and the blind eyes that have been turned systematically across the board to the plight of our wildlife.

It is unconscionable that an entire tourist industry has been built upon the beauty of the iconic red stag, yet if the tourists could see the death and destruction which rains down on these magnificent animals they would recoil in bloody horror. How dare you leave this mess for us to deal with. How dare you leave us with police forces who have neither the courage nor the appetite to pursue convictions in any meaningful way. How dare you betray the animals, leaving them in the hands of monstrous hunts who continue to plague our countryside.

Upwards of 80% of the British public want to see a real ban on hunting. This isn’t an urban/rural prejudice: rural voters polled showed that 70% wanted the law changed to prevent hunting with dogs. And neither is it a political party affiliation which drives this: of those polled some 85% planned to vote Labour, 67% Conservative and 78% of Liberal Democrat voters wanted stronger laws. You see, normal people want normal laws, however they vote and wherever they live.

I implore Steve Reed and the rest of the DEFRA ministers, take a moment to view the footage of these incidents -past and present - and for one moment ask yourself if this is just. Ask yourself if this is fair. Ask yourself if this is in the ‘spirit of the law’.

And then consider for a moment, what you are going to do about it.

There must be no licensing, no exemptions, no ‘self governance’. The hunting fraternity have had their time to comply, to adhere, to behave, to demonstrate their ‘guardianship’ of the countryside.

They’ve had damned near 20 years! And in that time what have they done? They’ve done exactly what they said they would do. They’ve broken the law. But then they never had any intention of complying…

Images credit Peter White

Their crudely scrawled childlike banners displayed all those years ago during the violent Countryside Alliance marches of 2002 illustrated precisely that, an intent to break the law, banners which they thrust above their orb-like thatched heads.

And somehow now we are supposed to believe that it is but a mere mistake that the huntsman chases a fox, or a hare, or a stag?

No, the mistake was MPs and Parliamentary officials ever believing that these people were normal, normal enough to follow the democratic rule of law, normal enough to evolve past a childish and petulant desire for self-gratification, a desire to kill, normal enough to join civilised society in a democratic decision.

You must not fail us again

I have not laboured heavily on the detailed circumstances of the deer routinely being tortured and slaughtered by the three registered Stag Hound packs which remain. That is not a coincidence, it is deliberate.

I want you to go and look.

Go and visit the social media pages of North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs and Mendip Hunt Saboteurs.

Steel yourself to view the footage which so many lament is ‘too distressing to watch’. You are damned right it is, but it’s also no different to the footage recorded before the ban came in. It’s exactly the same. And for those of us who have been on the front line, for those who continue to put themselves between the hunted animal and their persecutor, it is not a privilege afforded, to simply turn away.

Repeatedly traumatised, repeatedly let down, repeatedly harmed, the defenders of our wildlife need to know that they are seen, that they are heard and that they will be helped.

It is beneath me to beg anyone, but I will implore, I will insist, I will demand that any member of parliament, either side of the aisle, Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman or any police officer, no matter the rank, Natural England, the Environment Agency, any measured and sane individual, even Lord Mancroft, I even invite the cowardly stag packs – view the footage, I dare you, and justify it.”

Bobbie Armstrong, August 2024

• Images credit Peter White, North Dorset Hunt Sabs and Mendip Hunt Sabs. To support North Dorset Hunt Sabs please go to their Paypal page. To support Mendip Hunt Sabs please go to their ko-fi.com page.