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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but you should really get yourself over to the all new Chiltern Hunt Sabs Site it's a lot better than this 7 year out of date rubbish !
In the past few years, the hunting community has realised it has a serious image problem and has put substantial effort and millions of pounds into trying to make themselves more acceptable. Much of this effort has consisted of a smear campaign co-ordinated by the British Field Sports Society (BFSS) to cover up the brutality and violence of hunt supporters by "exposing" saboteurs as class war militants bent on violence and destruction. There is precious little evidence to support this theory, but the hardy folk of the hunting community will not let such trivia deter them and simply make up their "proof". Their campaign of smears has met with some success - solely on the basis of the sort of ill-founded propaganda exposed below, the Home Secretary has introduced new legislation to jail saboteurs for caring about animals.
There is a very real problem of violence at hunts - it overwhelmingly consists of assaults by hunt thugs against saboteurs. In recent years saboteurs have been kicked, whipped, beaten with staves, spades and other weapons, ridden down by horses and vehicles, throttled, threatened with knives and shotguns, knocked unconscious and sexually assaulted in a range of attacks all across the country. There has also been an alarming rise in the use of vehicles as weapons despite the deaths of two saboteurs in recent years under the wheels of hunt vehicles.
The names of Mike Hill and Tom Worby will remain forever in the hearts of saboteurs - 2 teenage boys killed by hunters. The name of Steve Christmas was nearly added to the list. The hunters not only murder our wildlife - they have killed our people.
Perhaps more shockingly the violence is not directed solely against known saboteurs as this first example shows.
No-one is Safe
Mr John Weavers, a member of the rural community hunts claim to represent, was quietly sitting at home one Saturday afternoon in 1990 when the Cury Foxhunt rampaged through his property. When he asked them to leave and complained at the damage caused he was headbutted by Geoffrey Thomas, master of the hunt, who then shunted one of Mr Weavers' cars into another.
An Appalling Example
August 1991 Old Surrey & Burstow Foxhunt Mark Bycroft, hunt whipper-in, and Nigel Trevithick-Wood, husband of a Hunt Master, beat and whipped one saboteur while hunt supporter Kenneth Banks kicked a second in the groin. At their trial the Recorder told Trevithick-Wood "You are a man who in the past has all too readily resorted to violence...As a senior member of the hunt you are setting an appalling example." This did not prevent the hunt from later appointing Bycroft huntsman.
Beaten With a Hammer
January 1994 Old Surrey & Burstow Hunt. Three saboteurs driving home after the hunt spotted a hunt official thrashing his horse to get it in a horsebox. They stopped to take photographs and the huntsman attacked them with a hammer, terrifying his horse which was only prevented from bolting when the female saboteur held and calmed the petrified animal. Her compassion was rewarded when the huntsman turned on her too, inflicting similar serious head wounds to those of her friends.
Scythe Attack
January 1993 Bramham Moor Foxhunt supporter Raymond Walker attacked saboteurs with a scythe, leaving two with head wounds and smashing van windows. In February 1994, he was convicted of affray and causing criminal damage along with two other hunt supporters, Mr & Mrs Winstanley, who pleaded guilty to affray for their part in the psychotic attack. All walked free from court with community service orders.
"From now on, we're going to start hunting the saboteurs..."
This is BFSS spokesman Nick Herbert's chilling announcement of the introduction of "stewards" to "deal with" saboteurs. The full sinister potential of his words was soon realised, as all over the country violent attacks on saboteurs reached epidemic proportions. It quickly became apparent that stewards, ostensibly introduced to tackle trespass, were actually being used as a quasi-legal cover for a new wave of violence designed to create unprecedented levels of tension at hunts. As violent attacks on saboteurs reached the point that at least one saboteur was being taken to hospital by ambulance every week, hunters launched renewed calls for legislation against peaceful protesters, citing their own violence in support.
"£5 for a broken leg, £10 for hospital"
In February 1992, the Mail on Sunday reported "at last week's hunt terriermen were told if they broke a saboteur's leg they would get a bonus of £5. It would be £10 for putting a saboteur in hospital." This is by far from being the only reported case of hunts offering their heavies money to attack saboteurs over the years. Now they could do so quite openly and claim the money was being paid for "stewarding".
Targeting Women
Many stewards have directed their attacks against female saboteurs, either simply beating them up or using the threat of sexual attacks.
December 1992 A woman was airlifted to hospital after being beaten unconscious by stewards at the Cheshire Foxhunt armed with cudgels.
February 1994 At the Hursley Hambledon Foxhunt, a woman was trapped and held down; her breasts were molested and she was threatened with having a lighted cigarette stubbed out in her face.
August 1992 Four stewards at a grouse shoot in Yorkshire surrounded a woman and subjected her to a lengthy sexual assault. Under the pretext of searching her, they pinned her to the ground and groped her body, thrusting their hands inside her clothing. The main instigator of this attack was subsequently employed by several other hunts where he continued to single out female saboteurs for sexual attacks.
Attacked
January 1994 Duke of Buccleuch's Foxhunt. An independent academic, commissioned by the Scottish Office to carry out research on saboteurs and hunting, was knocked to the ground and kicked in the face by the huntsman as he tried to film a fox being killed. The hunt refused to apologise and later attempted to excuse their employee's actions by saying they thought the man was a saboteur.
Iron Bars
January 1993 Cheshire Foxhunt. More than twenty hunt supporters, some armed with iron bars, attacked a group of less than a dozen saboteurs. All the saboteurs were injured in some way, and two required hospital treatment: one had a broken jaw; the other had suffered two black eyes, a broken nose, and multiple bruising in the sustained and frenzied attack.
Rotten to the Core
The hunting community often tries to dismiss violence against saboteurs as isolated incidents resulting from provocation and in fact the BFSS has published confidential guidelines urging hunt masters to adopt just such a defence if questioned by the media. The HSA has long felt that many hunts have allowed a culture of violence to develop in which engineering confrontational situations, intimidation and outright violence, both threatened and actual, are acceptable approaches to dealing with saboteurs. The deployment of stewards, in particular, has been a cynical step that has provided useful cover for such activity. It cannot be mere coincidence that since the introduction of stewarding, under the guiding hand of the BFSS, more saboteurs have been hospitalised and more hunt supporters jailed than at any time in the HSA's 32-year history.
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