NEWS AND OPINION: The Times reports that a 34-year-old man has been arrested following an incident in which, on my understanding, the foxhunter’s horse struck a hunt saboteur. I believe that the photograph below shows the incident as it happened.
The arrested man is from Rutland, UK. Leicester police arrested him yesterday “on suspicion of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm”. The hunt took place on Saturday. The man is in custody.
The police received a call in the early afternoon reporting that a horse had collided with a woman in a field. The woman is in her 60s. She has not suffered any serious injuries.
The hunt saboteurs posted footage of an incident which took place in Whissendine, Rutland. The woman, is a member of the Hertfordshire Hunt Saboteurs. They were filming the Cottesmore Hunt at the time.
Cottesmore Hunt describes themselves as “one of England’s premier hunts”. As the photograph indicates, and as the hunt saboteurs reported to the BBC, the incident happened when the rider jumped over a gate while one hunt saboteur was sitting on it. That’s my understanding based on The Times report and the photograph.
The Cottesmore Hunt made the statement on Monday and said that an incident had occurred while they had been trail hunting. Remember that not infrequently fox hunters use trail hunting is a smokescreen for real foxhunting with dogs. There is an ongoing major issue about that in the UK and it appears that the police are at least interested in doing so investigative work on it.
We can thank the hunt saboteurs for highlighting these crimes. There are numerous altercations between hunt saboteurs and hunters sometimes resulting in actual violence when fights break out.
Detective Inspector Charles Edwards from the Leicestershire police force said:
“Our investigation into this incident is continuing. We are aware of footage posted online and would urge caution when sharing such content while enquiries are ongoing.”
I am being cautious 😎👍.
As mentioned, the Cottesmore Hunt admitted that the incident occurred. I’ll be a question as to whether it’s a crime.
A quick comment on that: the report and image indicates that there were two hunt saboteurs one of which was sitting on a metal gate while the hunt took place around them. The other, the person who was struck, appears to have been behind the gate on foot. The individual rider concerned decided to jump over the gate while one hunt saboteur was on it. Perhaps he was highly irritated by their presence and was compelled to take what appears to have been a reckless act.
On my interpretation, of this basic information (subject to correction if the reports are misleading) the man has committed a crime because he was reckless as to the outcome of his activities and he could have foreseen that it might cause harm. Of course, I am slightly biased as I HATE fox hunting.
Below are some articles on foxhunting.
