The Ledbury Hunt chasing foxes and blocking badger setts March 2015

On the 6th March 2015, the Ledbury Hunt met for their last day of the hunting season and, as rumour had it, Roger Warner's last day of being a master for the hunt. The meet was held at the Hunter's Inn in Buckbury from where they hunted around the Bushley and Forthampton areas of their country, land which is also within the Gloucestershire badger cull zone.

After a lot of running on all sides around Forthampton and Bredon School, the hunt chased two foxes in quick succession near to Pound Farm in Forthampton, chasing one across the A438 before hounds turned and came back along the heel line (still on the line, but now going away from the fox). Trying the same land again, they then picked up on the second fox which ran almost the same line as the first. When sabs intervened again, hounds lost the scent and gave up soon after in the middle of a field. Another fox was also believed to have escaped by running through a farm before sheltering in a barn where the hounds had lost the scent.

The five sabs present tried their best to remain with the hunt as much as possible throughout the day, but although the weather was warm and sunny (usually bad for scent), hounds managed to pick up on various scents over the hours and while we definitely helped some foxes escape, there may well have been others killed (it can only take a few seconds!) However, good calls were made and good communication ensured that we got some fantastic footage and thwarted some attempts by the hunt to kill.

With it being Roger's last day, it seems only right that illegal activity then took place on his land. Hounds had given chase across several fields around the Tirley area before sabs heard Mark blow the horn for the terriers and noticed whipper-in Tim Pearce-May, terriermen and other supporters acting extremely suspiciously around a small covert. Having already run inland, some sabs filmed while others navigated a wider-than-we-realised stream and caught up with some defensive men in a bush.

Fearing the cover-up of a kill, we confronted them and entered the area to find a freshly blocked-up badger sett smelling strongly of fox. Badger hair, bedding, paw-prints and fresh latrines confirmed it was an active sett and, having unblocked the hole so that any fox could escape before a dig-out could happen, sabs were about to leave when the men returned. Put off by our presence, they left the area to go have a chat with their mates, huntsman Mark Meladay, Tim Pearce-May and Roger Warner back at the farm.

The sett was checked by an anti-cull group working in the area a couple of days later and it remained untouched. Job well done, if we may say so ourselves!