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Copper Chopper Helps Hunt Stoppers

Hunt sabs prevent first Essex Mink Hunt

Squall Download 1, Oct/Nov 1999, pg. 8.

Around 50 activists drawn from six regional Hunt Saboteur groups successfully thwarted the first hunt meeting of the newly formed East Counties Mink Hounds in September. Members of groups from Essex, North London, East London, Cambridge, Croyden and Kent travelled to Essex in a collaborative effort to prevent the new hunt get started.

Mink hunting is an increasingly prevalent pursuit amongst the blood sports fraternity, accompanying hounds on foot whilst beaters walk ahead flushing out any wildlife along the banks.

Confrontations between Essex hunters and hunt sabs have been profuse over the last five years. Essex Police have particularly active in attempts to thwart the Hunt Sabs. Last year alone, Essex Police made two out of court settlements with maliciously prosecuted Hunt Sabs. The money has been used to fund further direct actions.

During the successful operation to prevent the East Counties Mink Hounds Hunt in September, one Hunt Sab was arrested for possession of a hunting whip by an Essex officer who had slipped and fallen into the river whilst running toward the activists. Police efforts to obtain convictions on this charge have never succeeded in the past and it is expected the charge will be dropped when the drenched Essex police has recovered his composure.

Tim Notech, a North London Hunt Sab and veteran of several Essex campaigns, told SQUALL: “The good thing about the police helicopter which Essex police always send out is that, if we can’t find the hunt, we just go over to where the chopper is hovering. The noise of the thing scares the fuck out of any animals in the area anyway so the hunt can never find any furries to mutilate.”