A search is underway for a missing rhea, who ran away on Saturday 1 February after a hunt group’s hounds rode close to the perimeter of the field where the rhea was being kept in East Kirkham, Lincolnshire. Andrew Collington posted that the Hunt seriously spooked the rheas, sheep and dogs that were in the field.
Collington has been searching for the rhea ever since. In a social media post on Sunday he thanked everyone who has been helping him try to find the bird. The search is continuing today, and drones have been enlisted to help locate the missing rhea. There is no sign so far.
It is likely that the hunt pack that spooked the rhea belonged to the South Wold Hunt, although this is as yet unconfirmed.
If anyone has seen the missing bird, please feel free to contact Protect the Wild. Collington says that the rhea is white, male – and about the size of a small ostrich. According to Collington, “his buddy, who wasn’t so panicked is depressed and missing him”.
Hound havoc
This is by no means the first time that a rhea has gone missing after being spooked by a hunt. In January 2023, Basil the rhea ran away from his home in Rushden, Northamptonshire for three days, after being terrified by a hunt pack. Peterborough Hunt Sabs said that they believed the North Bucks Beagles were responsible. When search volunteers found him, Basil was “so stressed that even after many sedation attempts… we still couldn’t safely catch him.”
A similar incident occurred in 2019, when a video published by local newspaper the Banbury Guardian showed a rhea running down the road away from the Warwickshire Hunt.
Hunts terrorising domesticated and farmed animals
Hunts regularly terrorise domesticated and farmed animals. For example, Protect the Wild’s Glen Black wrote in January 2023:
“In January 2022, the Essex and Suffolk Hunt were responsible for the death of a horse after spooking him while hunting near Wormingford. And in November 2020, Nottingham Hunt Saboteurs filmed hounds from the High Peak Hunt terrorising a calf near Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire.”
This hunting season, we’ve heard several reports of farmed animals being bothered by hunts. For instance Teeside Anti-Blood Sports (TABS) have reported two instances of the Zetland Hunt disturbing farmed animals, including one incident where a sheep got caught up in fencing while trying to escape the hunt’s hounds. North East Hunt Monitors reported that the South Durham’s hounds rioted onto a deer (rioting means chasing the wrong animal). Hunts are also regularly reported trespassing into private gardens.