Hey there ! Don't think I don't appreciate you coming around, but you should really get yourself over to the all new Chiltern Hunt Sabs Site it's a lot better than this 7 year out of date rubbish !

Lynn’s story - A former Hunt Supporter speaks

This is the story of one woman’s realisation of the truth behind the hunting myth. It makes compelling reading for all those who are opposed to hunting. Her name is Lynn Sawyer and she was at one time as committed to hunting as she is now repelled by it. She acted as a mole for the BFSS and found that saboteurs were not violent extremists motivated by class hatred, a tale she and every other hunt supporter had been force-fed for years. Instead, she found that saboteurs were on the whole deeply committed, sincere individuals who acted out of great and genuine concern for animals and that her own side were deliberately distorting the truth and provoking violence simply to suit their long-term political aims. Ironically, it was only the depth of her involvement in hunting that allowed her access to the inner echelons denied to most hunt supporters, where she encountered the brutality behind the respectable facade which was to make her question her support for bloodsports and ultimately turn her back on that world for ever.

The rest of this section is in Lynn's own words. We have left her tale as she wrote it as well as her open letter to the hunting world. Both pieces speak eloquently of the determination of the hunting hierarchy to continue on the path of violence and confrontation and the inability of the bloodsports community to set its own house in order.

Lynn's Story

My hunting career began with the Essex Foxhounds in 1982 when I was fourteen. By 1990, I had hunted with many different packs, including the East Essex, Essex Farmers' & Union, Puckeridge & Thurlow, Cottesmore, and West Kent Foxhounds; the Eastern Counties, Northamptonshire and Kent & Sussex Minkhounds; the Epping Coursing Club; and many West Country foxhound and staghound packs. Those eight years were spent running, or occasionally riding, to hounds; wielding a spade at digouts; helping out with hound exercise and doing odd jobs around hunt kennels; stewarding at point-to-points; collecting signatures on pro-hunt petitions and donations for the BFSS; and working on BFSS stalls and persuading the public at shows and by writing to the press.

From 1984-90, much of my time was spent gathering information for the field sports fraternity on anti-hunting activity. This meant doing anything to gather information including taking vehicle registrations (over 130 on file by 1990!), photographing sabs, delving through animal rights literature and music bought in specialist shops, attending animal rights meetings and gigs, chatting to the police and generally finding out what I could (none of which I am proud of now).

For several reasons in 1990, I could no longer continue these activities and I then spent four years trying to ascertain what exactly my feelings were. I spent time with the Shire hunts (the Quorn, Cottesmore, and Belvoir Foxhounds) and revisited the Essex before deciding earlier this year that it was time to speak out in the hope of stemming the tide of grossly exaggerated anti-sab propaganda and the violence it has brought to the field.

I went to great lengths to discuss the issue of hunt violence with the BFSS and other pro-hunting people [including John Hopkinson, Stephen Loveridge, Peter Smith and Nick Herbert of the BFSS and John Swift, director of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC)] before, and indeed for some time after, it became clear that I could not permeate their rather narrow-minded way of thinking or change or influence any of them without being patronised or being singled out as a trouble-maker.

An Open Letter to the Hunting World

This is an open letter to those who I feel have a right to be informed of my recent decision to abandon my position of neutrality on the hunting issue in favour of the animal rights movement. For those who are not already aware, I ceased to be a hunt supporter four years ago because I was very uncomfortable with the way in which I was expected to behave in that role and due to the reaction I received from some pro-hunt leaders when I disagreed with their tactics. Four years of sitting on the fence has given me time to reflect upon my past as a hunt follower, a BFSS voluntary worker, a farm worker, a meat-eater, etc. Endless hours have been spent studying animal rights literature, keeping up to date via the sporting press, attending hunt meets and listening whilst in the field to the views of a wide spectrum of people from both sides. This decision is probably the most difficult that I have ever had to make, it has not been taken lightly and I am simply being honest with the readers of this letter and with myself. My reasons are as follows:

Whilst maintaining my deep respect for the sanctity of human life and dignity, I have extended my concern to ALL sentient beings. I now believe that it is abhorrent to kill, unless in exceptional cases such as euthanasia, or to cause suffering to any living creature for our own benefit. This means that I am now a dietary vegan and I will be boycotting leather, silk, wool, etc. in the future. I can no longer ignore my remorse at the large amount of suffering that I have caused, nor can I ignore what is happening in the abattoirs, in the laboratories, in the oceans, down on the farm and out in the field.
Whilst I will admit that saboteurs are not all paragons of virtue, I can testify that during twelve years of observing sabs active in the field, including six years of information gathering for the BFSS, I was treated with courtesy on most occasions, witnessed others being treated in a similar fashion and non-violent, effective tactics. I am fully satisfied that most sabs are altruists and that there is more than adequate legislation to deal with anyone, from either side, who threatens or uses violence.
British history is full of cases when people have had no option but to use non-violent direct action unless they wanted their grievances to be totally ignored by a self-serving establishment. The suffragettes were not deterred by prison and their modern counterparts, the sabs, the road protesters, CND, or any other group or individual who refuse to be patronised by the state are not going to abandon deeply held beliefs when they face the same historical fate. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill seeks to criminalise all those seen by the government as weak enough, unconventional enough or easy enough to brand as a threat to society to use as scapegoats for their incompetence. This endangers the civil liberties of EVERYONE and it obliterates the right to protest effectively, the right of freedom of movement, the right of freedom of association and the right to live in a way that differs from what the government thinks is normal. I suggest that people read this draconian piece of literature and consider its implications very carefully. I cannot maintain a position of neutrality in the face of such a vicious attack on civil liberties.
The instigators of the use of stewards in the field could not have possibly thought up a more effective way of raising the levels of violence to unprecedented levels. It seems rather too convenient that when sabs used the inevitable, time honoured mass hit tactic when faced with large, less than diplomatic hordes of "the lads", who dragged them off public rights of way under the aegis of the BFSS, that Mr Howard then launched his attack on the less powerful, less influential group involved in the resulting battles. I hope that I am wrong in assuming that this was the desired outcome of those who put the lives of hunting folk, stewards, sabs and police officers at considerable risk by their confrontational tactics, because if I am right then the ramifications of this bill are even more sinister. Once again I cannot turn a blind eye to this sort of manipulation and bullying.

I apologise to those who will feel betrayed by this change of heart, especially those who have had the decency and integrity to listen. I will never support the use of violence against people and I guarantee that past confidences will remain confidential.

CHS, PO Box 281, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9WJ

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