Hunting News Early October: Two beagle packs fold and more

With the so-called ‘season’ for hunting hares in full swing, there’s reason to cheer: two of the UK’s hare hunting beagle packs have announced that they will be folding.

In other news: 

• The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has dropped the case against a Cottesmore Hunt terrierman despite damning covert footage gathered by Northants Hunt Saboteurs.

• Hunt supporter Tom Greig has been convicted of criminal damage for smashing a hunt monitor’s phone but the CPS didn’t charge him with assault. 

• The Wynnstay Hunt’s Ali Johnson does nothing as the Hunt’s hounds pursue a fox.

Two hare packs won’t be out hunting this ‘season’ 

As the annual ‘season’ for murdering hares approaches, two of the UK’s hare-hunting beagle packs have thrown in the towel. The Sandhurst & Aldershot Beagles (SAB) and the Park Beagles are no more. Both packs have transformed themselves into ‘Hunt Clubs’, which means they will henceforth exist as a club that occasionally invites other hunts to meet on their ‘country’ (the lands that the hunt uses for hunting). 

The fact that another two beagle packs are no more is good news for the UK’s hare population. Last ‘season’ monitors and hunt sabs reported that 58 hares were chased in the UK in breach of the Hunting Act, and four were killed. These figures only represent the incidents that were documented and confirmed. There were undoubtedly many more hares pursued and killed in the last year.  

Thousands of hares persecuted

Protect the Wild estimates that there were 58 beagle and basset packs active last season. If you take into account the number of un-monitored hunt meets in 2024/5 where there is no data, the figures potentially scale up to a massive 6,522 hares persecuted. 

According to Protect the Wild’s Rob Pownall: 

“The closure of the Sandhurst & Aldershot Beagles and the Park Beagles is yet another sign that this brutal pastime is fading into history. Fewer packs mean fewer hounds exploited and fewer animals chased to exhaustion and death. It is a reminder that public opinion has moved on, and that hunting has no place in a modern, compassionate society.”

A sordid history

The Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) recounted some of the sordid history of the unfortunately named SAB: 

“Like so many beagle packs, the Sandhurst & Aldershot are a merger of older hunts. The former Aldershot Beagles had a particular nasty reputation: their huntsman Roy Clinkard used to delight in goading sabs with the torn bodies of any hares he managed to kill. In those days the Sandhurst could muster 60-70 supporters and sabbing could often turn ‘eventful’. One veteran sab recalls a lively Boxing Day meet where a large supporter with a broken arm tried to deck sabs with his plaster cast!”

According to the HSA, SAB soon started to lose support after hunt saboteurs began to focus on them. 

It’s great news that there will be two fewer beagle packs out hunting next season. We need to redouble our efforts to end this cruel bloodsport once and for all. 

• Read ‘20 Years On: The true face of hunting with hounds in 2025‘ 

• This month, the Atherstone fox hunt has officially closed too, six years after it officially disbanded and stopped hunting. Read the Hunt Saboteur’s Association’s account of the downfall of the Atherstone Hunt.

• Despite the Hunting Act, wildlife persecution remains widespread in the UK. Hunts continue to exploit loopholes, such as ‘trail hunting’, to conduct illegal activities. Inconsistent enforcement of the Act further exacerbates the problem. Sign our petition demanding a proper ban on the hunting of mammals with hounds. 

CPS drops charges against Cottesmore terrierman and huntsman, despite damning covert footage 

Max Logan and Sam Jones of the notorious Cottesmore Hunt were in Loughborough Magistrates Court on 17 and 18 September, accused of interfering with a badger sett on 9 January 2025. Jones and Logan’s first appearance in court for this offence was in August, where the pair pleaded not guilty.

The Cottesmore interfered with the badger sett at Owston Wood, Leicestershire, during a small and secretive hunt meet. Northants Hunt Saboteurs (NHS) shared this footage of the incident on Facebook: 

The video shows a fox running for her life with the hounds hot on her heels. NHS’s covert film crew identifies Sam Jones and his wife with the pack of dogs. The video then shows Max Logan digging into a badger sett in an attempt to unearth the terrified fox. A second terrierman is seen releasing a terrier wearing a GPS collar, worn to track the dog’s movements underground. 

According to NHS: 

“The objective of the Cottesmore Hunt on this day was very clear. The hunted fox had clearly gone to ground in the sett and was marked to ground by the hounds. .

Terrier men were called in to locate the exact position of the underground fox with a terrier dog and then dig down until they found the fox.” 

The decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to pursue the case against Max Logan is proof that the legal system will never be enough to protect wildlife from the menace represented by hunts. As always, it’s direct action by wildlife defenders that we can truly rely on to protect foxes and badgers. 

• Donate to Northants Hunt Saboteurs petrol fund.

• At Protect the Wild, we want to end the gruesome world of terrierwork. Sign our ‘End Terrier Work petition and read our article on ‘Terrierwork, terriermen and the grotesque world of fox hunting’.

Essex & Suffolk Hunt (ESH) supporter convicted of criminal damage after smashing wildlife defender’s phone 

ESH supporter Tom Greig appeared in Chelmsford Magistrates Court on 8 October, charged with smashing hunt monitor Chantelle Leach’s phone. Leach told Protect the Wild that she was disappointed that Greig’s brutal assault on her wasn’t taken into account by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). 

Essex Police initially refused to take any action at all after Greig was filmed smashing Leach’s phone and shoving her during the ESH’s meet in Little Bentley on 26 February. Protect the Wild launched an e-petition calling for them to take the case seriously.

The officer who handled Chantelle’s complaint has since been reprimanded for inappropriate and sexist behaviour in another case.

On 8 October Greig appeared in court and pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage. He was sentenced to a 12 month conditional discharge, ordered to pay £85 court costs and £26 to victim services. 

Assault not taken into account

Chantelle described Greig’s assault on her to Protect the Wild’s Rob Pownall:

“From nowhere, someone grabbed my phone from that my hand and flung it. And then he starts grabbing me. He starts throwing me around. Unfortunately, this is when the lady filming stops filming, and she didn’t get [footage] of my assault. So it’s really hard for people to understand what actually happened to me. You see one of the times he smashed my phone, but after that, he kept hold of my phone and he was grabbing me here [gestures to her collar area].

I remember my forearms hurting afterwards. I still have shoulder pains. I still have lower back pain. So he was shaking me down quite a bit.”

Chantelle told Protect the Wild that the police treated her as if she were the criminal, implying that she was wasting police time. 

After the officer in the case received thousands of messages from supporters, they eventually informed her that they would be taking action. However, the CPS failed to charge Greig over the serious assault that Chantelle was subjected to.

In fact, Chantelle will not even be compensated for the damage to her phone. 

Although the Crown Prosecution Service did eventually pursue a charge against Greig, Chantelle’s experience is one more example of pro-hunt bias shown by some police and courts. Beyond that, Chantelle has told Protect the Wild that the way Essex Police treated her had “misogynistic undertones”.  

• Read Protect the Wild’s original article on the assault by Greig and watch our video interview with Chantelle.

• Chantelle was acting as a hunt monitor for Suffolk Action for Wildlife. Consider donating to the monitors here. Any amount will be gratefully appreciated.

• Check out our Protectors of the Wild page on ‘Assaults and the Law’.

• If you’ve been affected by violence from the hunt when out sabbing it can be useful to get mental health support. Protect the Wild is in touch with a trained counsellor who can provide sessions to sabs, funded by Protect the Wild. Click here to find out more.

Wynnstay terrierman stands-by as hounds pursue a fox 

If you needed any more proof that trail hunting is a sham, this video gives us yet another example of a fox blatantly being chased by the notorious Wynnstay Hunt’s hounds.

Check out this footage by Cheshire Borderland Monitors of Wynnstay terrierman Ali Johnson doing nothing to call off the hounds until he realises that wildlife defenders are filming what’s going on. 

The video was captured at the Wynnstay’s meet at Wolvesacre Hall on 13 September. It has been handed to a member of the North Wales Rural Crime Team, and police are considering whether to take action.

Johnson initially feigns ignorance of what’s going on. The footage shows the fox running past and then – seconds later – the Wynnstay’s hounds following the line of her scent. 

However, Johnson eventually thinks better of it and calls up the huntsman to tell him that the pursuit has been filmed. It’s not surprising that Johnson thought twice. He probably doesn’t want yet another conviction for the Hunt. The list of Wynnstay court appearances over the last two years or so is nothing short of astonishing. Men linked to the Wynnstay have appeared in court charged under the Hunting Act, the Protection of Badgers Act, and even for harassment and hate crimes.

A life saved

The actions of Cheshire monitors more than likely saved the fox’s life 

Welsh Border Wildlife Protectors witnessed what happened. They wrote: 

“A fox cub was seen by Cheshire Monitors being actively chased by hounds, right in front of Ali Johnson and other support who all chose not to intervene. It was only when a Cheshire monitor instructed Ali to tell [huntsman Henry] Bailey to stop them, that Ali phoned the huntsman reluctantly to tell him to get the hounds.

We are under no illusion that if Cheshire monitors did not position where they did the hunt would have chased this cub and killed it.”

This video proves once and again that the likes of the Wynnstay are not trail hunting, they are intent on pursuing and killing foxes. The actions of Cheshire Borderland Monitors on the day are yet another example of how wildlife defenders are an essential line of defence against the likes of the Wynnstay. They do this at considerable risk to themselves. Protect the Wild has documented at least 17 violent incidents by Wynnstay members and supporters during the 2024/5 season.

• Donate to Cheshire Borderland Monitors and Welsh Border Wildlife Protectors.

• Wolvesacre Hall is run by the Clarke family. Find out more on Protect the Wild’s Blood Business database. 

• Join your local monitor or hunt saboteur group.

• Use Protect the Wild’s automated tool to email your MP and demand a proper ban on hunting.

Picture of hare via Pixabay, screenshot of Ilminster Beagles via Hounds Off/Vimeo, video of Cottesmore terrierman and pictures of Max Logan and Sam Jones courtesy of Northants Hunt Saboteurs. Video of the Wynnstay Hunt’s meet at Wolvesacre Hall courtesy of Cheshire Borderland Monitors.