Keeping an eye on the Thurlow Hunt

Equipment Fund #23: East Northants Hunt Sabs

On their Facebook page, the East Northants Hunt Sabs say “We are an experienced hunt saboteur group based in East Northants. Our mission - to stop illegal hunts.” That’s a sentiment we can get fully behind! While the group sabs a number of hunts, their focus is on the Cambridge Hunt and (especially) the Thurlow Hunt (the latter hit the headlines in 2019 when a huntsman was found guilty of illegally hunting a fox and assaulting a saboteur).

The sabs often find themselves trying to cover large areas of countryside, and recently approached Protect the Wild about help buying a drone. Modern drones with their high-resolution camera and improved battery life are increasingly becoming a major tool in the fight against wildlife crime and disproving claims of ‘trail hunting’, and we’ve been proud to have supplied several groups with one already - see our posts on Suffolk Action for Wildlife and Cheshire Independent Hunt Monitors for example.

A spokesperson for East Northants Hunt Sabs told us:

One of the challenges of monitoring illegal hunting is that the perpetrators are on horseback and we are on foot. So keeping up requires speed and stamina. Having a drone is not only beneficial for locating the hunt if we lose sight of them at ground level, but film footage from drones has also been used in court cases as evidence of illegal hunting. 

East Northants hunt sab group - you can find us on Facebook, are very grateful to have been given the funds to purchase a quality drone by Protect the Wild. We will be updating in the coming season as to how we are getting on with it!

Sabs and monitor groups up and down England and Wales are steeling themselves for yet another horrific cubbing ‘season’, the time of the year when the ‘criminals on horseback’ start to hunt again. Hunts use fox cubs to train their hounds to chase and kill foxes (see ‘Spoof sports show used to expose sick pastime of 'cub hunting') and are desperate to keep ‘eyes in the field’ off them while they do it.

This year, though, those ‘eyes’ are on hunts like never before as more and more groups have drones to use. Equipment like drones are not cheap to buy and they are out of reach of many groups, which is why we set up the Protecting the Wild Support Network! Thanks to our supporters, East Northants Hunt Sabs will be out in the field with a drone keeping watch, and we will be keeping in touch with them to report back on what they find.

• If you’d like to learn more about East Northants Hunts Sabs you can find them on Facebook and Instagram.

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Our content is free (now and always) but we do offer the option of paid subscriptions to help us support groups like the East Northants Hunt Sabs. They start from as little as £3.50/month and any money we receive from those paid subscriptions is ring-fenced and used to support those on the frontline protecting wildlife. Supporting real people protecting real animals and making a real difference on the ground where it matters most.