Pipewell Foot Beagles huntsman, whipper-in and directors plead not guilty

Northamptonshire-based hare hunt in court over offences under the Hunting Act 2004

The whipper-in and huntsman from a Northamptonshire-based hare hunt have pleaded not guilty to offences under the Hunting Act 2004. The charges were brought after footage of the Pipewell Foot Beagles (PFB) tearing up a hare went viral earlier this year.

Huntsman Philip Anthony Saunders and whipper-in Rachael Victoria Lenton from the PFB both plead not guilty.

In a surprising move, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have chosen to bring charges against the PFB as a corporate body too. The Pipewell Foot Beagles Ltd was also listed as a defendant and was represented by its defence lawyer Stephen Welford, who entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of the company.

The pleas were entered at the PFB's initial hearing at the Magistrate's Court, presided over by three magistrates.

The trial of Pipewell Foot Beagles Ltd as well as Saunders and Lenton will be on 6 -7 November at Northamptonshire Magistrates Court. Protect the Wild will be paying close attention to what happens.

Killing enabled by Boughton Estate

The charges relate to the killing of a hare at Boughton Estate near Kettering on 25 January this year. The incident was filmed by a wildlife defender and caused a storm on social media, resulting in the temporary suspension of the Pipewell Foot Beagles

from hunting on the estate.

This footage from the 25 January shows the killing of the hare by the pack of hounds. It isn’t graphic, but it is upsetting.

The hunting of hares is prohibited by the Hunting Act 2004. Protect the Wild has seen graphic images from the aftermath of the incident, when the same local person was able to photograph the hare’s mutilated corpse.

Boughton Estate, which is owned by the Duke of Buccleuth, also hosts hunt meets by the Pythchley with Woodland (PwW) Hunt. Several breaches of animal protection legislation committed by the PwW and PFB have been witnessed by monitors on the Estate's lands.

The killing was by no means the first instance of illegal hunting on Boughton Estate. By the time the PFB's hounds were filmed ripping up the hare on 25 January there had already been multiple complaints about the Pytchley chasing foxes in breach of the Hunting Act. In fact, a concerned local resident called the police to the estate just five days before the killing of the hare. She told Protect the Wild that she had to physically intervene to prevent the Pytchley’s hounds from killing a fox.

Protect the Wild has seen several police complaints submitted by a member of the public detailing breaches of wildlife protection legislation and intimidation against the public by the PwW and PFB between 2022 and 2025.

Read our detailed account of the incidents of illegal hunting on Boughton Estate here, which includes covert footage taken by a local wildlife defender.

A cruel bloodsport that often goes unhindered by the authorities

Hare hunting is illegal under the Hunting Act, as is the hunting of any mammal with dogs. But, despite this, there have been comparatively few prosecutions of beagle and basset packs (which are used to hunt hares).

Since 2005, only two prosecutions directly related to illegal hunting by beagle packs are known to have occurred: the Warwickshire and District Beagles in 2010 and the Royal Artillery Beagles in 2013. At present, a 19-year-old man from the Dorset and Somerset Bassets is also facing a charge of illegal hunting.

So the charges against Lenton and Turner are unusual enough. But the really out of the ordinary thing is the fact that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have brought charges against the PFB as a corporate body too. Protect the Wild's Glen Black commented back in June that "this is only the third such case known to Protect the Wild following the successful conviction of the Heythrop Hunt as a body corporate in 2012 and the unsuccessful charge levied against the Warwickshire Hunt in March 2025". The successful case against the Heythrop was brought by the RSPCA not the CPS, underlining the rarity of state prosecutions of hunts as legal entities.

Hare persecution surpasses even fox hunting in terms of numbers killed

Hare hunting is comparatively little known compared to fox hunting, which often hits the UK headlines. However, this illegal bloodsport is no less cruel. Protect the Wild's recent report, 'The True Face of Hunting with Hounds' reports that the rate of wildlife persecution by beagle and basset packs surpasses even fox hunts. Hunt monitors and sab groups witnessed 26 incidents of hare persecution across 15 meets, which makes a massive 1.73 incidents per meet.

According to Black, the author of the report, if these figures were scaled up to the likely total number of beagle and basset pack meets throughout the season then at least 6522 hares are likely to have faced persecution.

At Protect the Wild we are determined to keep on campaigning against the cruel and little known persecution of hares by beagle and basset packs. We will be watching the case at Northamptonshire Magistrates closely. More than that, we demand a workable ban to protect our wildlife.

• Read our article about Boughton estate's complicity in illegal hunting: 'Blood on Their Land: Boughton Estate’s Role in Wildlife Crime Revealed',

• Support our petition calling for a proper ban on hunting mammals with dogs.

• Check out Protect the Wild's report, 'The True Face of Hunting with Hounds',

Video and screenshot of Lenton and Turner gratefully received from members of the public by Protect the Wild. Image of hare via Pixabay.

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