Protect the Wild is planning to write regular digests showcasing the latest news in the struggle against fox hunting.
In this Spring 2025 roundup we have the latest on the sentencing of the ex-Essex & Suffolk (ESH) huntsman Sam Staniland; news on the collapse of one Scottish hunt and the amalgamation of several hunts at the end of the 2024/5 hunting season; and the convictions of four members of the notorious Blackmore And Sparkford Vale Hunt.
Sam Staniland narrowly escapes prison after conviction for animal cruelty
Sam Staniland arrives at court to plead guilty – via Suffolk Action for Wildlife
Sam Staniland was given a suspended 26 month prison sentence in Norwich Crown Court on 10 April, after pleading guilty to multiple charges of animal cruelty. The former ESH huntsman was banned from keeping dogs for five years. His jail sentence was suspended for 18 months, meaning he’ll have to keep his nose clean for a while, as another arrest could mean that he is re-sentenced for this offence.
Staniland was ordered to pay £1,200 cost to the RSPCA and a £180.00 victim surcharge. He will have to do 150 hours of community service too.
He had plead guilty to three animal cruelty charges on 26 February after his defence team did a plea bargain to do away with two more additional charges. The offences that he did plead guilty to show a shocking disregard for wildlife and for the dogs he should have been caring for. They were:
– Failing to prevent three Patterdale terriers from fighting foxes and badgers between 21 March and 21 April 2023, thus failing to meet their welfare needs.
– Causing unnecessary suffering to two foxhounds by failing/preventing them from fighting a fox on 17 October 2022.
– Failing to prevent two lurcher dogs from fighting a fox and a badger on 17 October 2022 – thus failing to meet their welfare needs.
The case against Staniland was brought by the RSPCA and Suffolk Police Rural Crime Team. The evidence for the case came from Staniland’s own mobile phone, which was seized in a raid triggered by footage gathered by SAF of an illegal cub kill. After finding the damning videos, the police and the RSPCA conducted a second raid on Staniland’s property in January 2023, confiscating all five of the dogs, who have since been re-homed.
Staniland was previously convicted of an offence under the Hunting Act back in 2018. He pleaded guilty that time too after he was filmed cub hunting with the Meynall and South Staffordshire, his former hunt. He was fined just £350 on that occasion.
Suffolk Action for Wildlife (SAF), who were instrumental in providing the evidence that led to Staniland’s prosecution, shared on their Facebook page:
“What do we all think of that? Rubbish and nowhere near enough, he should never be trusted with dogs ever again. Depraved and sadistic.
Where will he be serving his community service, any offers? Think he would decline monitoring with SAF.”
SAF told Protect the Wild that they were also disappointed that the fact that Staniland was working as a huntsman for the ESH wasn’t mentioned in the local press. They told us that they need support to carry on their work:
” we will keep up the pressure on people like this and the hunts, and need funds to do this”
- You can donate to SAF by clicking here.
Some good news! There will be fewer hunts next season
Anti-hunt activists are celebrating this week as another Scottish hunt has announced that it has folded.
The Dumfriesshire & Stewarty Hunt is no more. Glasgow Hunt Saboteurs (GHS) posted on their Facebook page:
“Another Scottish fox hunt has folded! The Dumfriesshire & Stewartry Hunt is the latest hunt in Scotland to throw in the towel since the introduction of the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023. This means that almost half of Scotland’s registered fox hunts have now gone!
The news comes after a disastrous end to the season for the hunt, following the arrest of a hunt member for assaulting a hunt saboteur — in what was possibly their last ever meet.”
On top of this, several hunts are planning to merge at the end of the 2024/5 fox hunting season, showing that many hunt groups are struggling. One of the key factors that is causing these hunts to struggle is lack of land, as large landowners are increasingly following the lead of the National Trust and Ministry of Defence and banning trail hunters from their land.
This year’s confirmed mergers (so far) are:
1. The Morpeth Foxhounds in Northumberland amalgamating with the West Percy
2. Somerset’s Weston & Banwell/West Somerset Vale Hunt (W&BWSV) merging with the Taunton Vale Harriers
Protect the Wild spoke to Lynne Graham of Northumberland Hunt Watch about the closure of the Morpeth. She confirmed that many local landowners have refused the Morpeth permission to hunt on their land and that the hunt was increasingly having to return to the same old spots. She pointed out that another significant factor was that some land they were allowed to hunt on has land adjacent to it that they were not allowed on. This wouldn’t cause a problem for true trail-hunters, but it does for hunting foxes with dogs. Lynne explained why:
“[it] causes them huge problems too, as foxes are not restricted by boundary lines. If they are hunting a fox on land they are allowed on and the fox runs into the adjacent land, then the hounds will run there too. Of course that wouldn’t be an issue on a trail hunt; they could lay the trail on the land they are allowed and avoid the land they are not, but they don’t do that.”
Lynne also thinks that the fact that Morpeth now has its own police station has increasingly presented problems for the hunt. An example of this is 21 January when the police showed up very promptly after reports of the Morpeth chasing a fox and interfering with badger setts.
We know that there are more hunts folding this season too (we’ll post a full list as soon as we get it). As we posted recently, the North East Hunt Monitors have very good reason to believe that after a long and focussed campaign the South Durham Hunt is having to amalgamate with the larger Braes of Derwent Hunt.
No hunt wants to merge with another. However they spin it, it means considerable loss of face. What these amalgamations mean is that hunts are struggling amid consistent public opposition, dozens of recent convictions for illegal hunting and loss of available land. As the government prepares for a public consultation on a ban on trail hunting, the outlook for hunters is looking dire.
- You can donate to Glasgow Hunt Sabs here, click here to donate to Northumberland Hunt Watch and click here to check out Somerset Sabs.
Yet more convictions for the BSV criminal gang
The Blackmore and Sparkford Vale hounds kill a fox. Drone footage by North Dorset Sabs.
On 4 December 2023, the Blackmore & Sparkford Vale (BSV) Hunt shocked viewers of the mainstream TV news when drone footage filmed by North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs was broadcast on Channel 4 News.
The video showed the Hunt ripping apart a fox in a residential house’s garden. The BSV were given a suspension for the remainder of the season by the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA).
Last week four members of the BSV were convicted of illegal hunting, North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs (NHDS) posted on their facebook page:
“Justice for the Pelsham Farm Fox today after 4 members of the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt were found guilty of hunting a wild mammal with dogs in breach of the Hunting Act. Police who attended on the day, found the fox’s severed leg and guts left on the ground. “
Protect the Wild’s Rob Pownall said:
“I’m pleased to see convictions finally handed to members of the infamous BSV Hunt — but this is no isolated incident. Fox hunting is still rife across the countryside. We need a stronger, enforceable ban to truly protect our wildlife.”
NHDS were less than impressed by the defence presented by the BSV’s barrister, they wrote:
“Their defence included some gems from the hapless BHSA employed barrister Stephen Welford, including that the huntsman couldn’t hear the hounds in cry after the fox over the sound of cows mooing in a barn and a tractor driving past! There was also a story concocted about a distressed hound trapped in the barn!”
NHDS reported that BHSA’s executive director Julian Barnfield was sitting in the back of the courtroom monitoring proceedings throughout the trial.
Even amongst UK hunts, the BSV has an outstandingly inglorious record of disrespecting both wildlife and wildlife protection legislation. Protect the Wild has gathered reports from hunt saboteurs and monitors who have witnessed the BSV killing two foxes already this season, and chasing foxes a massive 57 times. The Hunt has also been caught tampering with no less than nine badger setts this season, in flagrant violation of the 1992 Protection of Badgers Act.
Just how bad are the BSV?
- On March 24 2025 the BSV’s Charlie Mayo and Kieron Bashford plead guilty to willfully obstructing the highway on 3 March. The two BSV members had tried to block sabs from protecting a fox.
- In March 2025, a member of the BSV was filmed threatening a council worker with a spade while causing havoc on the road.
- Dorset Police Rural Crime Team has said that it is investigating two reports of illegal hunting by the BSV in February 2025.
- In February 2025, police were called after a BSV member rode into a sab from NDHS while in pursuit of a fox.
- In 2024, Dorset Police arrested two members of the BSV over attacks on sabs from NDHS. One man was charged with assault and theft. The arrests are thought to relate to an assault on two female sabs by three masked men in October 2023. On that occasion, the women were pushed and shoved and their cameras were stolen. This assault was followed by attacks on the homes and vehicles of several acitivists.
- In August 2023 the BSV was filmed allowing its hounds to kill a fox, and then tear up her corpse. BSV members didn’t intervene at any point.
- Also in August 2023, the Hunt was caught blatantly cubbing (trapping and killing young fox cubs).
- In 2020, a monitor from Somerset Wildlife Crime was deliberately knocked down by another member of the BSV.
- In 2014, the BSV’s Mark Dogrell trampled hunt saboteur Nid Warren with his horse, leaving her with serious injuries.
- You can donate to NDHS here.
This round up illustrates just how bad things are looking for fox hunting at the end of this hunting so-called ‘season’. It is time to put an end to this cruel sport for good.
- Sign the petition for a proper ban on hunting
- Read our page on ‘Foxes and the law’.
Featured images Sam Staniland outside court via Suffolk Action for Wildlife, sleeping fox via Dušan Veverkolog/Unsplash, image of the BSV’s hounds killing a fox via North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs.
