Beds and Bucks Hunt Sabs have confirmed that the Oakley Hunt will be folding at the end of this hunting season. The sabs have had the news confirmed by a number of sources.
The Oakley has hunted foxes in four counties – Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Buckinghamshire. Like other hunts across the UK, it has claimed to be trail hunting while breaking the law and killing wildlife. The hunt is also one of a growing list of packs that have savaged family pets, and it has thought nothing of trespassing on private land.
Also like other hunts, its supporters are notoriously violent: in 2022 a hunt saboteur was beaten unconscious and was left bleeding on the ground by thugs with the Oakley Hunt. And in 2017 a hunt supporter drove into and rammed a hunt sab vehicle.
“A massive drop in subscriptions, no new Masters, lack of country and the sacking of their hunt staff means they are unable to remain viable. This brings to a close 10 years of our concentrated efforts against our local wildlife abusers.
The hunt are likely to claim this is merely a blip and a chance to regroup while quietly vanishing into history but the fact remains there will no longer be foxhounds rampaging around and terrorising wildlife in our patch of country. We’re told that the North Bucks Beagles will remain kenneled at the same location.”
Financial woes
Despite charging a £70 fee to hunt with them (reduced to £10 a day if you wanted to indoctrinate any of your children under 16 into hunting) the Oakley has been struggling for some time.
It was one of a number of hunts handed a COVID grant by its local council during the pandemic. Apparently a bunch of thugs targeting foxes fitted the criteria for the small business grant fund, which aimed to help struggling businesses. But the £10,000 that was rewarded only bided the hunt a little time.
One of many
In England alone, there have been many hunts collapsing or merging over the past year. In January 2023, the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) shared news that the Airedale Beagles was disbanding. And then in February, the British Hound Sports Association permanently expelled the Avon Vale Hunt. In March, the Meynell and South Staffordshire Hunt folded. And in August, North London Hunt Saboteurs said it had visited the kennels of the East Essex Hunt and found the property abandoned.
And then there were also a number of hunt amalgamations in England. In April 2023, the HSA said that the Ilminster Beagles and West Somerset Beagles would merge for the coming season. The new pack was to take the name Ilminster & West Somerset Beagles. In July, hunt saboteurs in Kent celebrated the news that there would only be one hunt left in the county – the newly named Kent Foxhounds. The Puckeridge also merged with the Essex with Farmers and Union for the 2023/2024 season, becoming the new Puckeridge and Essex Union Hunt. And then in January 2024 it was confirmed that the Southdown and Eridge Hunt was merging with the East Sussex and Romney Marsh Hunt.
Hunting is clearly on its knees, as public and landowner support hits an all-time low. Indeed, Beds and Bucks Sabs wrote that “local land owners no longer want [the Oakley] riding all over the place and the hounds going where they shouldn’t.“
- It is thanks to the dedicated work of hunt saboteurs on the ground that the acts of the Oakley and other hunts are exposed. We can all celebrate as yet another hunt bites the dust, and as foxes in the Oakley Hunt’s country can now live a life free of the terror of illegal hunting
- You can donate to Beds and Bucks Hunt Sabs, who were instrumental in shutting this hunt down, here.
