The High Peak Hunt allegedly acted recklessly as it charged onto a farmer’s field near Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire with a pack of hounds. In the field was a calf who was terrified. It ran in terror from the pack of hounds, jumping three drystone walls in the process. The walls are designed to keep livestock in fields so this was a dangerous manoeuvre which indicates the degree of fear the calf was suffering.
Animal rights activists, Nottingham Hunt Saboteurs, videoed the incident. The photograph on this page comes from that video. I apologise for its poor quality. I would kindly ask Nottingham Hunt Saboteurs to get a better video camera, please!
They say that they’re going to send the video to the police and the RSPCA and claim that the hunt was breaking the law because a legal trail hunt would not have have set a scent so close to livestock like this.
You can see them [the hounds] swarming around this poor calf. It is running for its life and terrified because there’s no way they would usually clear three drystone walls. It just shows how frightened this poor creature must have been.
They claim that the calf was lucky to escape unscathed. In defence, the High Peak Hunt said that hunt saboteurs confuse the dogs by spraying substances in the area, shouting and blowing hunting horns. They add that they were hunting legally and that the incident was highly unusual. They stopped the hounds as soon as they realised what had happened, the said.
