Hunt supporters throw two murdered foxes into a hunt saboteur’s garden

South Dorset Hunt supporters stooped to a new low on 12 January when they threw two murdered foxes into a hunt saboteur’s garden. This is just one of a number of incidents targeting those who monitor this criminal hunt.

The saboteur is part of Weymouth Animal Rights (WAR), which consistently monitors the hunt. WAR’s footage has been vital for ensuring that prosecutions against the South Dorset Hunt go to court. WAR’s videos were key to finding Mark Pearson, South Dorset huntmaster, guilty of illegal hunting in October 2022 after the pack killed two foxes in November 2021.

Weymouth Animal Rights said:

“This is the level of violence that these psychopaths have resorted to and shows this hunt for what it really is. We are under no illusion that this is directly because of our continued sabbing of the South Dorset Hunt and this is their attempt at intimidating our sabs to the point of not coming out any more. This will fail!”

Concerted attacks

Also on 12 January, an independent hunt monitor in his seventies was shot at by a South Dorset Hunt supporter, who used a catapult to fire a ball bearing at the man. The monitor was filming the hunt when he was attacked. Thankfully, the ball bearing hit his body and not his head, but the man suffered severe bruising. WAR said:

“This monitor was wearing five layers of clothing including thick waterproofs! Be left in no doubt that if this had hit the monitor in the head this would have killed him.”

The events of 12 January should be seen in the context of a wider concerted attack on hunt monitors and saboteurs by South Dorset Hunt supporters. Just weeks before, on 20 December 2022, a 77-year-old WAR monitor was hospitalised when he was observing the hunt. Two masked-up men beat him round the head and body with a metal bar. The monitor needed stitches.

At the time, WAR told Protect the Wild that they were certain that it was a “premeditated attack” and that the attackers “would have left him for dead”.

Hunt monitors and saboteurs need all our support

Despite these recent attacks, both WAR and North Dorset Hunt Sabs have told Protect the Wild that they won’t be intimidated, and will continue to go out and sabotage the hunt.

WAR said:

“Regardless of this hunts attempts to ‘scare’ us off we will continue to keep sabbing and monitoring the SD and exposing them for what they really are – murdering misfits, sociopaths, cruel and barbaric indiscriminate wildlife killers and blatant illegal hunters!”