Wynnstay Hunt terrierman Ryan Brennan has pleaded guilty to interfering with a badger sett in Shropshire. Blocking badger setts is illegal under the Protection of Badgers Act. Like every man who is found guilty of offences related to fox hunting, he avoided prison.
The incident took place in January 2024. Brennan was given a ten-month sentence, suspended for one year, meaning that if he commits no other offences in one year, he walks away free. Footage of the incident hadn’t yet been published at the time of publishing this article.
Protect the Wild spoke to Cheshire Borderland Monitors, which is regularly on the ground monitoring the criminal Wynnstay. The group said:
“The Wynnstay Hunt are prolific sett blockers, and we’ve caught them so many times. A few of them have been investigated for it, and Brennan was charged. There have been at least three incidents of sett blocking under three different police forces. They do it masked up so they can’t get caught. We’re really pleased that this footage has been gathered and that Brennan has been prosecuted. Hopefully it will stop the Wynnstay from blocking more setts – we’ll wait and see how the season progresses.”
HSA Footage
Brennan has found himself in the spotlight this week, having appeared in different covert footage of the Wynnstay Hunt, published by the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA). The HSA said:
“The video, taken on 5th November near Wrexham, features the hunt’s employed terrierman Ryan Brennan – currently under investigation for causing a dog to enter a badger sett – and Alistair Johnson, a regular lackey for the Wynnstay.”
The HSA continued:
“This latest covert footage shows the previously convicted hunt preventing a fox going to ground in a badger sett and scaring her back towards their pack of hounds.”
Trail hunting lies
Of course, hunts across England continue to say that they’re trail hunting (following an artificially-laid scent) when they’re really killing foxes. But their use of terriermen is evidence of their illegal activity: because terriermen are never needed for trail or drag hunting. They are employed by a hunt to block badger setts and fox earths prior to a meet, and to send their terriers to bolt a fox if she goes to ground. Or they’ll use their terriers to hold the poor fox at bay while they dig out a sett she is hiding in. And so where there are terriermen on a hunt, there is also sure to be illegal hunting.
On 9 November, Cheshire Monitors photographed Brennan and Johnson carrying a fence pole on their quad bike, pretending that they were mending fences rather than digging out badger setts. The monitors wrote:
“With their trousers covered in mud from digging out or filling in badger setts, their terriers peeping out of their quad box and their one token fence post to pretend to be repairing the countryside they knew the whole thing was a total circus act.”
Breaking the law twice a week
Cheshire Borderland Monitors, along with their friends at Welsh Border Wildlife Protectors, as well as hunt saboteurs, regularly catch the Wynnstay illegally hunting and blocking badger setts. So far this month, the groups have documented the hunt chasing foxes on 12 November, 9 November, 2 November, and the killing of a fox on 5 November.
This shows that the Hunting Act is doing absolutely nothing to deter the Wynnstay, despite a growing list of convictions.
- Ex-huntsman Chris Woodward was found guilty under Section 1 of the Hunting Act in December 2023 after Wynnstay hounds chased a fox.
- Months before that conviction, in August 2023, Woodward pleaded guilty to interfering with a badger sett.
- And in October 2022, Jamie Barnes and Ben Davies were convicted for digging out a badger sett the day before the Wynnstay Hunt were planning to meet there. The court was told the hunt had asked Barnes to “get a rogue fox” ahead of its meet. All of these men only received fines – clearly not enough to deter the hunt from carrying on with business as usual.
Protect the Wild argues that the Hunting Act needs to be scrapped and urgently replaced with stronger legislation, which would stop the Wynnstay once and for all. We are campaigning for the Act to be replaced with the Hunting of Mammals Bill.
- You can read the Bill in its entirety by downloading a pdf version here. And you can sign our petition for a proper ban on hunting here.
