Dorset Police Rural Crime Team responded to two separate reports of illegal hunting by the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale (BSV) hunt on 1 February. They say that “the evidence into these matters is now being collated and investigated.”
Dorset Hunt Monitors posted the following video of the incidents on Facebook:
The video shows a fox fleeing across a country road, followed by footage of the BSV’s hounds. The terriermen arrive on a quad bike, followed by the huntsmen.
The hunt then takes one lane of the busy A3030, causing havoc – as traffic can be seen backed up behind them. The hounds are being led down the road too. They are in cry, having picked up another scent.
The group wrote:
“Foxes chased, hounds out of control, huntsman losing control of himself and his hounds and traffic disrupted on main roads…just your average day with the BSV in Dorset.”
More illegality, from a gang of violent thugs
This clearly isn’t trail hunting, and it isn’t legal. The Hunting Act 2004 bans the hunting of wild mammals, but the footage clearly shows a fox escaping. When hounds are in cry on the A3030, its clearly not for a pre-laid trail. Who would lay a trail along a busy public road?
But anyone who has been paying attention to the reports put out by Protect the Wild, and by hunt sab groups will know that the BSV doesn’t care about legality. They are bent on hunting foxes, despite the ban – and they’re willing to commit acts of violence to get their way.
On 26 December 2024 the BSV used a horse as a weapon, narrowly missing a hunt sab, and on 20 January 2025, police were called after a BSV member rode into a sab from North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs (NDHS) while in pursuit of a fox.
It gets worse, In 2014, the BSV’s Mark Dogrell trampled hunt saboteur Nid Warren, hospitalising her and causing serious injuries. In 2020, another member of the BSV knocked down a monitor from Somerset Wildlife Crime.
Dogrell managed to avoid conviction, but his assault on Warren seems like part of a pattern of violent behaviour. In 2018, according to Protect the Wild’s Glen Black, Dogrell was filmed in a pub fight alongside his two sons. Dogrell’s sons received suspended sentences for affray, after pleading guilty.
One supporter of the BSV, according to Black. was convicted of assault on a hunt monitor in 2018.
A menace on the roads
The footage from 1 February of chaos on the A3030, endangering drivers, hounds and horses alike is, unfortunately, nothing new for the BSV either. Monitors have been reporting similar incidents for years. For example, the BSV was filmed taking their hounds down a busy poorly lit public road in February 2019.
And much more recently, on Christmas Eve 2024, the BSV brought their hounds onto a busy road yet again, to the horror of residents of the village of Yenston:
Still murdering foxes
The BSV’s appalling behaviour got them suspended by the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA), after the Hunt’s killing of a fox at Pelham Farm was exposed on Channel 4.
The ban was imposed in early 2024, but fast forward to one year later and the BSV were causing exactly the same carnage. They chased and killed a fox in a residential garden in Somerset on 17 November.
And over Christmas 2024 the Hunt chased a fox into a garden yet again, this time in Stalbridge. Protect the Wild’s Eliza Egret wrote at the time:
“huntsman George Pierce encouraged the remainder of the pack to carry on the pursuit in front of the furious owner. A complaint has been made to Dorset Police in respect of this incident”
Sabs have reported the BSV illegally chasing foxes on the 15, 23, 24, 26 and 28 December 2024, as well as 20 and 25 January and 1 February 2025. We all know that what they are doing has got nothing to do with trail hunting, and everything to do with committing violence against foxes and sabs alike.
The BSV are a living breathing example of just why we need a proper ban on hunting. Even the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) now admits that trail-hunting is being used as a thinly veiled cover for killing of foxes and hares in breach of the Hunting Act. Its time for the government to follow through on its promises.
- Donate to the sabs and monitors! Please show your support for both groups by donating to Dorset Hunt Monitors here and North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs here.
- Click here to read our proposals for a proper ban on all hunting with hounds.
