Reports (Issued twise yearly)
Nottingham, Sheffield & Leeds Sabs January – March 2010 Report
March 31, 2010
Foxes, hares, and our group alike had a few days off from the sickening display of violence and stupidity that is hunting this December and January. Divine intervention, in the form of snow, ice and frost meant that many hunts cancelled several meets.
We were out again on January 16th and had a go at finding some much overlooked beagles, without success. So we decided to call in late on the Badsworth & Bramham Moor hunt. The hunt, who on this occasion totaled only 10 or so riders and about 10 supporters, took one look at us, changed course and headed straight back to their meet!
We helped Cumbria Sabs with a Monday visit to the Ullswater hunt on Jan 25th. This hunt had not been sabbed for 20 years due to their violent reputation, but on sight of around 15 sabs, they decided to run, and hide in the car park of an agricultural college – all day. Result!
We visited the Quorn hunt for the first time in 5 or more years, with Merseyside Sabs at the end of Jan. They too took one look at us and packed up immediately, claiming the weather wasn’t suitable for hunting! With some sabs escorting the Quorn back to their kennels, others went on to the nearby Meynell & South Staffs hunt. At the Meynell a fox was seen by sabs and hunt staff in the same field as the hounds, but due to our presence, the huntsman hunted the hounds along the foxes’ scent, in the opposite direction, leaving the fox to run free. Later in the day we saw hunt staff again taking action to ensure the hounds didn’t hunt in front of our cameras. We know that this hunt (like all the others), kills foxes when left to their own devices.
On Feb 6th we paid a visit to the South Wold hunt, who had not been sabbed for a long time. The hunt spent a good while lingering round the back of a farm pondering what to do about us. Although they eventually shot off, losing us for a while, we caught up with them, took control of their hounds, and packed them up early – a timely reminder to all hunts that though perhaps rarely visited, none are forgotten. On the way home, keen-eyed sabs spotted a lurcher racing through a nearby field. Jumping out of the van again, we found a guy out hare coursing, and swiftly saw him off.
The next day we sabbed a group of about 8 ferreters near Leeds. They had sadly killed at least 3 rabbits before we arrived – a strong reminder of why sabbing is needed. The group were clearly intimidated by our presence and packed up as soon as they could retrieve their ferret from below ground. Ferreting is fully legal.
In 2009, our visits to the South Notts hunt caused them to give up on attempts to begin hunting Saturdays. So when we turned up on a Monday this Feb, they weren’t best pleased! Unfortunately though, they won this round by turning violent and forcing us to leave – more on that next season (and below).
On the 17th, Nottingham and Birmingham sabs made a week-day trip to the DNS Beagles hunt in Derbyshire. This caused them to cancel their day of killing without even starting. All we had to do was wait outside their kennels for a few hours, and endure some stern words from some not-so-brave officers of the law!
We sabbed the Quorn hunt again on the 20th, with Manchester Sabs. We weren’t close enough to see it, but, after a few failed attempts at finding foxes – to kill them with a “quick nip to the back of the neck” – the huntsman fell from his horse, injured his neck and had to be air lifted to hospital! The hunt continued anyway, led and followed by members of the South Notts hunt, who were out with the Quorn (due to cancelling their own Sat meets). The South Notts hunt members were the very same people who had got nasty with us just 5 days previously. So, we gave them what they deserved – a good sabbing. We put ourselves in the fields to distract the hounds several times, and caused them to loose the scent of a fox that they attempted to hunt.
On the 24th we made another trip to Cumbria, joining the local sabs, with others from Merseyside and Birminham. We found the Blencathra hunt after a bit of scouting about, even though they had changed their meet in a desperate attempt at avoiding sabs. Upon our arrival, the huntsman walked past all his supporters and drove off with the hounds, without saying a word to anyone! But, rather than driving straight to the kennels, he drove way out of the way, with us following behind, and led us to the Cumbria Beagles hunt! As soon as we got out of the car, the beagles were seen hunting two hares, so we intervened and managed to call them off using whip cracks and voice calls, they packed up straight away after that! Some of the group had also stuck with the Blencathra, who were followed back to their kennels. This day demonstrated just what an impact Cumbria Sabs are having on the Blecathra hunt!
At the end of Feb, just a week after our first visit, we returned to the DNS Beagles, this time on a Saturday. As before, after a bit of a run around (in vehicles), they cancelled their plans altogether. Another day of relaxation for hares in Derbyshire!
We sabbed the Burton at their last meet of the season on March 6th. We had to run/briskly walk all day to keep near the hunt, who were determined to hunt and hide in a massive wood. We took action to disrupt them whenever we could, took control of a good percentage of the hounds several times during the day and stuck at it till they finished.
We visited the Lunesdale hunt on the Cumbria/North Yorkshire border with sabs from several other groups on the 11th. This hunt hadn’t seen sabs for 20+ years, so they were probably a little surprised to see us pop up in the middle of the fells. We didn’t waste any time, and upon sight of the huntsman on a distant fell ahead, took the whole pack of hounds from him just as they started to pick up a fox’s scent. When the hunt managed to reclaim the hounds they went back to their meet and packed up! Watch video footage here: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1HzzUzerwA&feature=channel
We finished off the season with around 30 sabs from our usual groups, Merseyside, and other areas, and sabbed the Grove & Rufford hunt in Nottinghamshire, on March 13th. Dozens of police turned up – with motorbikes, a helicopter, vans, cars, horses, dogs and undercover officers at their disposal. They had come to prevent us from sabbing the hunt, but inadvertently did it for us, leaving us to watch in disbelief – as even the Grove & Rufford huntsman isn’t stupid enough to hunt in front of that many city folk!
So now we have a short break from such activities, but, if anyone is up for helping out, we will possibly sab some mink hunters in the summer; we’ll be working to protect badgers from baiting in South Yorkshire, and from culling further afield, from May; and we’ll begin the next sabbing season in August/September at fox cub hunts. Also if anyone can donate any funds or equipment, or help with fundraising then please get in touch!
Sab group contacts:
Sheffield: 
sheffieldsaboteurs@live.co.uk
Nottingham: huntsabs@hotmail.com website : www.nottinghamhuntsabs.weebly.com
Leeds: westyorkshuntsabs@yahoo.co.uk website: www.westyorkshirehuntsabs.wordpress.com
Merseyside: (contact via) sheffieldsaboteurs@live.co.uk
Cumbria: vulpuscarlisle@yahoo.co.uk
Birmingham: birminghamhuntsabs@hotmail.co.uk
Manchester: mcr-sabs@hotmail.co.uk
For other areas:
Hunt Saboteurs Association: info@huntsabs.org.uk website: www.hsa.enviroweb.org
Badger protection contacts:
South Yorkshire Badger Group: www.sybadgergroup.f9.co.uk
Coalition Of Badger Action Groups: get-active@badger-killers.co.uk www.badger-killers.co.uk
Summary of hunt saboteurs’ activity in the region from August – December 2009.
January 17, 2010
Nottingham, Sheffield & Leeds sabs started this seasons sabbing in September, when the hunts were training their young hounds to hunt by sending them after fox cubs. In the first few months of fox cub hunting, or“cubbing”, we sabbed the Burton, the Meynall & South Staffs, the South Notts and the High Peak hunts. As usual all were found to be quite blatantly flouting the Hunting Act and no longer even making a pretence of hunting within the law. Hardly surprising given how the police refuse to investigate illegal hunting – even when they attend hunts! The award for the most biased policing once again goes to the Lincolnshire force for turning up in large numbers when we sabbed the Burton. Watch out for us on “Cops On Camera” as they had someone filming for the show that day.
The South Notts hunt also decided to call the police, most likely as they haven’t seen sabs for 15 years or so. The police were delayed slightly as the bumpkin in charge of police relations couldn’t remember the number to call, and due to the incompetence of the call didn’t arrive for an hour and a half. Great news for us as the sun came up and burnt off the foxes’ scent. In disgust at the police’s incompetence, the hunt then galloped off and packed up – job done.
We also had several successful days sabbing the Badsworth and Bramham Moor hunt during cubbing. They probably didn’t expect us the first time as we popped up next to a wood they were hunting. They were onto a fox from the start, which eventually took shelter in a badger sett. This wasn’t quite safe enough as we then heard the sound of shovels, as the terrier men started digging out the fox. Luckily as we approached, the hunt members had a rethink and left the fox in peace. Shortly afterwards the hunt got onto another fox in a field of high crops and chased it into the same wood, and again we intervened, this time calling the hounds away and letting the fox escape. We returned to the hunt again a few weeks later and had a similar day, with the hunt immediately hunting foxes and us intervening to ensure a kill free day, saving two more hunted foxes.
We visited the Badsworth and Bramham Moor hunt again in October only to find the police pouring into the area at an alarming rate – with the intention of arresting sabs, for no particular reason. So we decided to head for the York & Ainsty hunt, who were hunting nearby. With some police following us all the way, we made a break for it down a footpath, heading towards the sound a huntsman’s horn. We found the tail end of the hunt leaving a large wood, were some men were staying behind to dig out and kill a fox that had hid in a badger sett. As we approached the terrier men stopped and walked back to their vehicle. So, another good day, and with no arrests.
We started the main season with an afternoon visit to the Rockwood harriers. Although this gave us a lie in after all our early morning cubbing exploits it was a difficult day as the hunt had spent a few hours in the pub and were well tanked up! Drunken driving and general aggression were the order of the day and this combined with the usual biased policing in the area made it difficult for sabs to get near the hunt.
The following week we paid a trip to the lesser spotted Colne Valley Beagles on the Yorkshire moors. It was hard going and we lost them for a time but sab perseverance paid off and we found them again and packed them up a few hours early.
Two weeks after our first visit there, twenty or so sabs returned to the Rockwood harriers, but the cowards smashed up one of our vans that two sabs were in and then the police held some sabs for around three hours and stopped us getting anywhere near the perpetrators. Complaints have been made to the police about the officers on the scene but we won’t hold our breath!
Sick of Yorkshire police, the following week we headed to Derbyshire to check out the Meynall and South Staffs. Derbyshire police are keeping a low profile at the moment after recently paying out £38,000 after wrongfully arresting members of our group last year. The weather was atrocious and it was depressing at 2pm when we thought the hunt were packing up due to the driving rain to find that they were actually just changing horses! Despite this, and despite constant aggro from hunt bumpkins, we had a pretty good day. Staying with the hunt for long periods and constantly popping up where they least expected it.
We’ve made several visits to Lincolnshire to sab the traditionally fast and aggressive Blankney hunt this season. The last week of November saw us there, and what an excellent day we had. Sabs were in exactly the right place at the right time to take hounds off a fox that was only 10 feet in front of the lead hounds and would definitely have been killed if we weren’t there. We stayed on the hunt all day and were always in the right place to sab them if necessary. At the end of December as the cold snap began we had another trip to the Blankney. They weren’t out due to the hard frost so with a bit of luck and skill we managed to find the elusive Per Ardua beagles who took one look at sabs, boxed up and headed back to kennels.
We visited the South Notts again during the main season, on one of their rare Saturday meets and packed them up at 2 o’clock.
Sabs from the group also had successful mid-week trips to the Badsworth & Bramham Moor and to Cumbria to support the local sabs with one of their hunts.
We have also had two successful benefit gigs, one in Nottigham and one in Sheffield, raising a good chunk of money to keep our vans running. Thanks to all who helped with these. Thanks also to sabs from other regions who have come over to give us a hand on occasion.
Anyone who is interested in coming sabbing in future, from Sheffield, Nottingham, Leeds, or anywhere else in the North or Midlands should contact either sheffieldsaboteurs@live.co.uk or westyorkshuntsabs@yahoo.co.uk . We’d also like to hear from people who could help with fundraising, vehicle mechanics and looking after saboteurs’ animals (when needed).
Some Photos from Recent Sabs
March 11, 2009
Following the hunt… 
B&BMFH Illegally Hunting 
Will somebody please hold the gate?! For more information on hunt sabbing in West Yorkshire, or to report any details of meets or hunt activity, please send us an email - westyorkshuntsabs@yahoo.co.uk.
Photos from grouse shoot sab in holme valley
Grouse Shoots Sabbed in the Holme Valley
August 31, 2008
West & South Yorkshire Hunt Sabs joined forces yesterday to stop grouse shoots in the Holme Valley, near Holmfirth.
At the first shoot, over 25 sabs got between the beaters and the guns and then blocked the shooting butts resulting in most of the bloodsports enthusiasts cracking their guns and abandoning the first drive. Obviously angry at their ‘sport’ being stopped, members of the shoot assaulted one sab to try and get their video camera, rammed the sab van and the owner of the shoot decided it would be a good idea to put one of the front windows through on the vehicle. As per usual, the police couldn’t care less and were more interested in getting rid of the sabs with laws they didn’t even know themselves.
The next group of shooters, a bit further down the road, packed up straight away when they saw the sabs arriving; however poor communication meant that they couldn’t tell the beaters who carried on driving the grouse towards guns that weren’t there. Realising they had been made fools of, on of the head beaters begun shouting at the police to enforce laws that didn’t exist, to which they just told him the truth.
The day’s sabbing was a great success, with countless lives being saved and two shoots stopped from killing.
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