Tonkawa Massacre

Hunt sabotage is the direct action that animal rights activists and animal liberation activists undertake to interfere with hunting activity.

Description

Anti-hunting campaigners are divided into hunt saboteurs and anti-hunt monitors to monitor for cruelty and report violations of animal welfare laws.

  • Interventionists usually use citronella sprays to mask the scent of the animal the hounds and hunters track or use sound and visual distractions to prevent the hunters from being successful, destroy hunting towers[1] and enter hunting estates and farms to disarm animal traps.[2][3]
  • Non-interventionists use video, photography and witness statements to support prosecution of hunters who commit offenses or to raise awareness of issues they consider show hunting as cruel, ineffective or in a bad light.

Both hunt saboteurs and independent monitors share similar techniques as both hunt saboteurs and independent monitors document and support the prosecution of those caught illegally hunting. The methods of documentation used by both saboteurs and monitors are usually videoing and photographing the illegal activities conducted by the hunt.

Criminal behavior

Both hunt supporters, hunt staff and saboteurs can on occasion be violent and unlawful with successful prosecutions against hunts and saboteurs. However since the hunt webinars of 2020 were made public with hunters describing creating ‘smokescreens’, the police have been more proactive and having received 999 calls from the public and saboteurs have attended hunts that have been reported to be illegally chasing foxes, with hunts being suspended or even shut down as a result of saboteur work.

On 8 December 2023 Paul Allman of the "Stockport Monitors" received a 5-year Criminal Behaviour Order barring him from disrupting trail hunts for the next five years.[4][5] Previously, Allman was convicted and fined in March 2019 for assaulting the master of the Cheshire Hunt.[6] Then in July 2022, Allman was convicted along with his four associates for intimidating and assaulting hunt spectators, including two adults and a girl, causing injury; they were given suspended sentences.[7] However, in August 2023, Allman was branded a "danger to the public" for his history of violent offending, and was sentenced to 20 weeks in jail for an incident where he, along with 9 other balaclava-masked "militia", struck two men causing serious injuries.[6]

Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said "[Allman's] actions are however representative of hunt saboteurs across the country who demonstrate this type of appalling behaviour regularly."[6]

By country

In the United Kingdom the interventionists are usually members of the Hunt Saboteurs Association, or independent hunt saboteurs or independent anti-hunt groups while the non-interventionists are often members of the League Against Cruel Sports or, more recently, Protect Our Wild Animals or the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Every year in Spain, organisations such as Equanimal or the platform Matar por matar, non[8] are involved in the sabotage of the Copa Nacional de Caza del Zorro (Spanish: "National Fox Hunt Cup") following the hunters making noise with megaphones to scare foxes and preventing them from being killed.[9][10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Hunting towers burned". North American Animal Liberation. 29 January 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  2. ^ "HSA Tactics Book - Legal". Hunt Saboteurs Association. Archived from the original on 24 November 2007. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  3. ^ "Traps & Snares: Secret Sabotage". Hunt Saboteurs Association. Archived from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  4. ^ Dixon, Hayley (23 December 2023). "'Dangerous' saboteur given Asbo-style ban from attending hunts". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 25 December 2023.
  5. ^ "Paul Allman". Behind the Masks. 21 December 2023.
  6. ^ a b c Dixon, Hayley (12 August 2023). "Hunt saboteur Paul Allman branded 'danger to society' as he is jailed for attack". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 25 December 2023.
  7. ^ Dixon, Hayley (6 September 2022). "Balaclava-clad hunt saboteurs left 15-year-old girl 'fearing for her life', court hears". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 25 December 2023.
  8. ^ "Equanimal se suma a la espantada del zorro el día de la copa nacional" [Equanimal joins the scare of the fox on the day of the national cup]. La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). 8 February 2007. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  9. ^ Lombardero, Xavier (28 January 2008). "Incidentes entre cazadores de zorros y ecologistas acaban con un detenido" [Incidents between fox hunters and environmentalists end with one detainee]. La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  10. ^ "«Es una matanza, no una competición deportiva», afirman los ecologistas" ["It is a slaughter, not a sporting competition," say environmentalists]. La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). 24 January 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2018.

Further reading

Books

  • Braunstein, Mark Mathew (November–December 1995). "Confessions of a Hunt Saboteur: A Real Sab Story". Country Connections. ISSN 1082-0558. Retrieved 12 October 2017. The hunters took aim (upon deer, not upon us) and were just about to release the bowstrings. BOOM! The blasts from our foghorns twice sent deer fleeing to safety.
  • Pedler, Ian (2008). Save our stags : the long struggle against Britain's most controversial blood sport. Bristol: Black Daps. ISBN 9780955478604.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_sabotage