With Theresa May failing to gain the mandate at the last General Election, her manifesto pledge to hold a free Commons vote on repeal of the Hunting Act of 2004 will have to be shelved. At least for now. With over 80% of the British public opposed to hunting with dogs, many will be breathing a sigh of relief. For a small band of people dedicated to protecting British wildlife, the work continues. I met one such...
Faith*
is tiny. Even at just 5’3” I tower over her. She’s calm,
soft-spoken, diplomatic - everything you could possibly hope a NHS
nurse with her years of training and experience would be.
Faith
is a qualified RGN specialising in midwifery, but more often than
not, you’ll find her in the front lines of her local hospital’s
Accident and Emergency department on a Saturday night. In her neat
blue scrubs, with her stethoscope draped around her neck, she’s
just the sort of capable unflappable health professional you want to
see when you’ve broken a bone or opened an artery – even if you
did it out hunting… because Faith is also a dedicated hunt
saboteur.
Indeed,
her professionalism is such that not so much as a flicker will show
on her beautiful face, even when she is presented with a Master of
Foxhounds who’s taken a tumble out pursuing wildlife to the death.
Unlike
many of those who follow and support hunts, and who have punched her,
kicked her, and sliced at her with sharpened implements, Faith, and
other saboteurs like her, have a strict code of non-violence. They
will defend themselves if they have to, but their ultimate goal is to
prevent unlawful killing of British wildlife, and their method is
simple interference.
Hunt
monitors and saboteurs like Faith work simply to undermine hunts, and
expose hunt cruelty. They lay alternative scent trails to draw hounds
away from fox dens, they’ll expertly play hunting horns to give
hounds conflicting instructions, they’ll padlock gates to cause
delays, and they’ll also place their own bodies between hunters and
their quarry. The risks are obvious. The ‘need’ for hunting less
so.
Hunters
claim foxes are ‘out of control’, yet undercover work has
revealed the practise of ‘bagging’ - foxes being captured alive,
incarcerated, then released on the day of a hunt to ensure live
quarry for the hounds. When the inevitable happens, and a
disorientated ‘bagged’ fox stumbles into a ‘drag’ hunt (the
only legal form of hunting, using an artificial scent trail for the
hounds), hunters throw up their hands for sickened onlookers, and say
“oh dear, well, hounds will be hounds”…
For
anyone in any doubt, this practise is still illegal. The Hunting Act
of 2004 forbade the pursuit of wildlife with more than two hounds,
yet everyone who has seen a post-legislation hunt in action knows
this law is flouted at every turn. However, as Faith has found,
catching and convicting law breakers is not an easy task, as they
would appear to be very well protected.
In
one incident, when she was clearing a den by hand (it had been
stopped up to prevent the fox within from escaping until the hunt was
ready to chase it), a hunt supporter stood on her hand to crush it.
Obviously, Faith rather needs her hands to tend to patients, sew
stitches in broken flesh, that sort of thing. The person standing on
her hand also managed to kick her in the head, before some of her
colleagues arrived to pull him off her.
When
Faith attempted to press charges however, even with multiple
witnesses, the local Police said they “couldn’t identify” the
man.
 |
| Smiles and handshakes - Atherstone & Pytchley Hunt, January 2017. Pic: courtesy of Devon County Hunt Saboteurs |
Unlike
the stereotype of the hunt saboteur as inner city yob, out of touch
with the needs of the countryside, Faith was born and raised in the
rural north, and began her life of tending and caring for all living
things as a little girl accompanying her grandfather out on what he
called his ‘little walks’. On these walks, she would watch and
learn as he dismantled traps and snares, explaining to her that not
only were they cruel, they were inefficient, capturing everything
else as well as rabbits. They would find all manner of wildlife
caught in these traps, and would rehabilitate any that were still
alive as best they could.
 |
| Red fox caught in a snare |
I
wondered if this was what decided her to become a nurse when she was
older? She thinks for a moment, then says: “Nurses aren’t made,
they’re born. You either are or you aren’t. I’ve always cared
for things, all creatures. I am bewildered by the attitude that says
‘it’s just an animal.’ All animals matter, just as all people
do.” Funnily enough, I tell her, I am always saying this to those
who scold me for “caring more for animals than people”, telling
them “animals are people – they just don’t look like
you.” Faith laughs, and agrees. “Yes, exactly.”
When
one goes into this in any depth, and makes the connection that nearly
every serial killer on Death Row in the United States started with
acts of cruelty inflicted on animals, one can see why such as Faith
get frustrated.
Hearing
of the sort of violence that those who protect hunting are willing to
inflict on anyone who wants to stop them, even a little woman like
Faith, it is chilling indeed. One has to wonder what, besides some
sort of primal bloodlust, is actually behind the mindset.
In
part it seems, it’s money. Hunts bring income to a lot of local
businesses. Hunt supporting Pubs benefit. As do those ‘rewarded’
for permitting hunting on their land, as well as hunt staff, employed
year-round to manage the pack (the hounds). For many, hunting is a
way of life, and one they are prepared to kill, or at least harm, to
protect.
What
Faith described sounded not unlike some sort of rural Mafia. Scare
tactics include mutilated fox corpses thrown at people’s front
doors, cars damaged, and people threatened. One never knows who is in
the thrall, if not the pay, of those with interests in hunting, so it
is no wonder that Faith and her colleagues wear balaclavas and other
coverings to protect their identities in the field. It’s not
because they’re ashamed of what they do as hunts would have it, it
is because they know only too well what some hunt supporters are
capable of. If they know anything about you, you can expect
harassment. Identifiable only as female given her stature and
speaking voice, Faith is used to being called a “bitch” and a
“slag” while out with her group. As well as the constant threat
of physical violence, sexism, misogyny, and racism are par for the
course.
The
sort of people that hunt followers are insulting in this fashion come
from all walks of life. Out ‘sabbing’, Faith has found herself in
the company of doctors, solicitors, office workers, even farmers.
“It’s a myth that sabs are all townies” she says. Most sabs she
works with are rural dwellers who’ve lived in the countryside all
their lives.
It’s
also a myth that all hunters are “toffs”. A lot of the people
Faith sees out hunting are “city boys made good.” One, who has
been seen to be particularly active and vicious in his efforts to
keep sabs from following the hunt, has been identified as a former
inner city drug-dealer. Having spent time in prison, he is now an
avid hunter with three horses.
“It’s
a new social class” Faith observes. “They want the status that
they think hunting confers. They’ve got the money, now they want
‘in’ to the social set.”
So
what has that to do with wildlife and countryside management then? I
ask. “Absolutely nothing.” She confirms.
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| The end of a 'good' day... (Pic: LACS) |
Hunters
also claim they care more about animals than those who oppose it.
They say they are managing the countryside, that hunting is good for
the environment, and that if hunts were forced to shut down
operations for good, a great many hound packs would have to be
destroyed because foxhounds and beagles cannot be rehabilitated as
family pets.
“That’s
just not true” says Faith. “Whenever we have encountered hounds,
they’re just like any other dogs. They love affection, and respond
well to petting and attention. That’s just hunt propaganda designed
to tug at the heartstrings of animal lovers, and make them worry that
if they stop hunting, animals will ultimately suffer. Very cynical.”
What
of the claim that foxes kill indiscriminately, for fun? Decimated hen
houses, dead lambs and so forth?
“Only
humans kill for fun.” Faith counters, shortly. “It’s worth
taking a clinical look at the mentality behind hunting, the theatre
of it, the rituals, like ‘blooding’ (where new hunters have the
blood from the fox’s severed tail smeared on their faces). There is
a sadistic psychopathy at work that in any other situation we, as
humans, would normally find unacceptable. The aim of a hunt is to
chase and kill a living creature in as brutal a fashion as possible,
and have fun at the same time.”
I
wondered if, now the threat of repeal was temporarily suspended
seeing as Theresa May had failed to gain an overall majority, whether
Faith could see an end to the hunting question?
“I
like to hope so, but I think it will always be around. Too many
people have too much of an investment in it.” She sighs. “Besides,
just as I was brought up to respect animals, these people bring their
kids up to hunt and be indifferent. Children learn what they live.
I’ve seen kids as young as six or seven going out with the hunt,
looking all excited. It’s heartbreaking.”
©
Emmeline Wyndham – 2017
*
Not her real name.
