North West Hunt Saboteurs AssociationGrouse Shoot Sab
August 14th 2004
Hunt sabs gathering in West Yorkshire managed to stop a grouse shoot involving
over 60 people without a shot being fired and no grouse falling victim to the
guns.
The shooting party was discovered by the sab at 9.00am following a tip-off
from a local anti-bloodsports supporter. The sabs then followed the shooting
party up onto the moor before the shooters were even able to leave their convoy
of vehicles.
Unfortunately stewards hired by the shooting syndicate
from a company called ‘Countrywatch
(UK)’ took it upon themselves to inflict a vicious assault on a small
group of protestors isolated on Snailsden
Moor near Holmfirth, West Yorkshire.
Such was police concern for the missing protestors, they scrambled the force
helicopter to try and locate the injured protestors using a heat-seeking camera.
All four protestors were eventually found but were sufferering from head injuries.
A three hour stand off ensued when no shooting took place,
during which a large numbers of police arrived, the sabs
then left the moor peacefully. Shortly
afterwards, at 2.30pm, the shooting party was observed leaving the moor meaning
that not one grouse was killed for ‘sport’.
Interestingly, all protestors were searched by police using powers under Section
60 of the Public Order Act (no weapons were found), whilst the shooting party
and stewards were allowed to leave the moor without police interest.
The victims of the assaults have made statements to West Yorkshire police and
are awaiting action on the matter.
Notes: Countrywatch (UK) previously provided
stewards for a number of foxhunts in Southern England,
but discontinued their services after Surrey police confiscated
a large cache of weapons from a van hired to the company
on its way to a hunt. David Dunn, head of the company was
quoted as saying at the time ‘business is booming – as
long as there is trouble’.
Click here for pictures taken on the day
January 2004 - March 2004
The second half of the season was much in the same vein as
the first half with sabs from Manchester, Bolton and Liverpool
continuing to keep the pressure on the Holcombe Hunt. Due
to the regular huntsman being ill for the last few meets
of the season his replacement was whipper-in Ron Stouph who
provided us with many laughs watching his professional hunting
skills. He was that bad that if you would have taken a person
off the streets and asked them to be a huntsman for a day
they would have done a better job them him. At the last meet
of the season Stouph was that incompetent that on the last
meet the hunt only let him loose with nine hounds.
Sabs from the North West also had a few great days
at the High Peak Harries.
This season has been a bit of a
struggle for us as it has we have
been without our normal sab van, but im sure it will be service as
normal next season. During the coming months sabs will be out on
the streets getting new members and trying to raise as much money
as possible to enable us to but a new vehicle.
September 2003- January 2004
Since the start of season in September
sabs from Manchester, Bolton and Liverpool have been sabbing the
Holcombe
Hunt.
Every weekend
sabs have been in attendance at this hunt and this has meant
their kill rate is down to single figures.
On Boxing day there
were two demonstrations, one at the Holcombe
Hunt and the other at Cheshire Forest Hunt, both were very well attended
and attracted a lot of local press coverage. Also on Boxing Day sabs
from the NWHSA attend a meet of the Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and
Staffordshire Beagles near Alton Towers, sadly the hunt killed a
hare and took great delight in showing off their trophy (a hares
leg) to all the support who missed the kill.
Some good news now due
to bad weather over Christmas and the new year the Holcombe Hunt
did not go out hunting once, which was nice.
The Holcombe’s
first meet of the 2004 was on the moors near Rochdale, late
in the afternoon hounds got onto the scent of a deer.
However, sabs were on the spot straight away and managed to split
the pack all over the moors, thus allowing the deer enough time
to escape.
The NWHSA new campaign is Dying for a pint? - We
started a campaign asking the general public in Lancashire and Cheshire to
boycott pubs who providing a venue for hunts who hold social or fundraising
events or by hosting a meet. This campaign was launched on November
1st 2003 to coincide with the start of the hunting season and so
for we have had a lot of support from the public and a few have contact
us to say they will no longer be drinking in their local while the
hunt is still welcome.
There are nearly 50 pubs listed and so far we have taken off two who have banned
the hunt since the start of this campaign.
August 16 2003
5.30am the alarm goes off
7.33am the van departs
8.26am it’s the second week of August, the opening week of the
grouse shooting season and yet again it is The Peak District’s
(Derbyshire) privilege of having sabs disrupt their days ‘sport’.
8.44am sab vehicles are spread all over the area looking for ‘fat,
lazy, hates walking animal’, yes I mean the grouse shooters. It
wasn’t long before a shoot was located on Strines Moor, just
east of Ladybower Reservoir.
10.31am all the sabs have made their way to the moor and set off across
it towards the shooting butts.
11.03am all shooting has stopped as sabs are between the beaters and
the shooters. So starts the long, slow walk off the moors this shooting
party.
12.38m an opportunity for both sabs and shooters to have dinner.
2.02pm Things get going again as its discovered that the shooting party
is trying to start again out of sight of the sabs.
2.24pm sabs once again manage to stop the shoot despite threats of violence
from the local inbred beaters.
3.16pm the shooting party decides to call it a day and could it have
been the police helicopter that had just arrived proved it just wasn’t
their day.
3.47pm sabs leave the area with the feeling of another great day fresh
in the minds.
4.49pm sat in the sun in a beer garden of a local watering hole.
6.42pm back home.
9.03pm fast asleep on the sofa with my dog (ah bless)
Outcome - 73 pissed off shooters and beaters and sadly two grouse shot.
A big thanks from the North West Hunt sabs to all the groups who were
active during the first week of the grouse shooting season these include Manchester,
Derby, Sheffield, North Yorkshire, Birmingham, Reading, South Wales and
Pewsey Vale.
Poetic Justice, one week after being sabbed, see
the above article - 26/8/03 An estate manager
died after being stung by wasps while he was out grouse
shooting. Guy Canby (54) the agent of
the 2,000-acre Fitzwilliam Estate at Wentworth, South Yorkshire,
died after being stung several times on the knee on the
Strines Moor at Bradfield, near Sheffield. He is believed
to have stood on a wasps’ nest and suffered an allergic
reaction. His wife, Diana, was among the shooting party
who took Canby to a nearby pub, where two doctors who were
drinking there tried to revive him with heart massage and
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was taken to hospital
but died on the way. Jeremy Standish, landlord of the Strines
pub, said: “We are a long way off the beaten track
and the ambulance came in about 15 minutes. In the end
it was too late.”
August 2002 - March 2003
Lancashire - This season has seen Bolton sabs concentrating
almost exclusively on the Holcombe Hunt with Liverpool in attendance
earlier in the season and at their Wednesday meets, thank you.
The Holcombe did away with early morning meets this year and went straight
into 12.00 meets, yes! Lie-ins in the morning its grim up north but not
always. The lack of Hares especially on the moorland meets has resulted
in a quiet season so far with no kills during sabs attendance. Even some
of the lowland meets have shown reduced hare numbers, so much for their "hunt
"motto.
One of the best sabbing days of the season found the Holcombe at a moorland
meet 6 miles south east of Blackburn, the hounds put up a hare around
a disused quarry and pursued it down into the valley below. Whilst the
hunt argued amongst them selves as to the merits of riding down a steep
narrow track to continue hunting, sabs split with half going down and
half staying up. The master
and camp carry on look-alike Charles Hawtrey told the huntsman that
if he continued down the hillside he would take the riders back to the
meet. The huntsman Alex Sneddon ignored the master and the rest of the
hunt promptly went home!
In the valley below the hounds continued to hunt with the hare repeatedly
climbing out of the valley and then arcing back down. Close to total
exhaustion the hare resorted to occasional spurts of running and stopping.
Sabs at the top of the valley had a perfect view of the events and via
mobile phone directed sabs in the valley to head off the hounds. The
hare made its escape through a gateway, which the sabs blocked much to
the annoyance of the huntsman. Dam those pesky hunt sabs.
Cheshire - A varied, busy and sometimes entertaining
sabbing season has been the lot of Merseyside and Manchester sabs.
Whilst Cheshire has been the mainstay of our targets
there have been several visits midweek to the Holcombe
Hunt. With eventful days at Standish (twice), Rossendale,
Darwen and Wardle, Rochdale. Where all of 7 mounted
members slobbered onto water board land. The Wardle
meet ended with the countryside ranger very abruptly
rounding on the hunt in full view of sabs with a
long lecture on access, permission and who on earth
they were.
One day was spent with the High Peak Harriers outside Leek on the Derbyshire
border. Within minutes the huntsman had dismounted, handed his horn,
hat and whip to his staff and wanted a clean fist fight. Sabs had better
goals to attend to and proceeded to whip hounds off each and every hare
they put up. A very fast and busy day.
There have been several visits to the 3 beagle packs in Cheshire. Best
of the bunch was the opening meet of The Cheshire Beagles at Willington
Hall with 30 old duffers representing the hunt. Its been quite sometime
since this group has so happily and laughingly run nearly an entire pack
down country lanes away from hunt staff, with a motley collection of
duffers limping along with beagles under their arms to stop them scooting
off even further. A jovial day to be sure.
The Royal Rock Beagles have been sabbed 3 times to much effect, all 7
of them that is. Peter Jones their overweight and bumbling huntsman was
reduced to apoplexy when an inspector he had ordered to arrest sabs who
had just whipped his entire pack off their hare, simply shrugged his
shoulders, asked Jones to calm down and then gave him a jolly escort
back to the meet at Belmont Hall where he remained sulking.
Once again the Cheshire Forest Foxhounds has seen far too much of sabs.
We attended many of the cubbing meets thanks to information provided
by local anti hunt sympathisers, experienced a very fair and open reaction
from all the policing districts in Cheshire.
Best days so far with the Forest were the opening meet at Oaklands Hotel,
Gorstage and the following Saturday at Great Budworth where even the
police were astounded by sabs inventiveness, audacity and sheer nerve
in getting between fox and hounds with whips and taking them off. You
had to have been there.
Just to give you a hint of our dexterity, Xmas week is proof of the pudding.
The 18th saw us at the Holcombe, the 21st at Withington Hall, Macclesfield
for a couple of hours with the Cheshire Forest then straight over to
the Royal Rock Beagles where we all stood in a field for 90 mins waiting
for the non-existent police cavalry. The 23rd saw an aborted day with
North Staffordshire Moorland who failed to venture out in low cloud.
The 24th saw us at the Forest then off to another meet of the Royal Rock
on the Wirral. (they have two left of 18 when NWHSA first started hitting
them 25 years ago) and to end the week on the 26th sabs took the entire
pack off hunt staff of Forest and District beagles despite them drafting
in uniformed security and boy they did not have a fruitful week.
In March we attended the last meet of the season of The Holcombe Harries
at Leisure Lakes and the following week also attended the closing meet
of The Forest and District Beagles who by chance were having a joint
meet with The Royal Rock Beagles. This rounded off yet another season,
which was nice!!!
March - August 2002
During the month of June we sabbed along with a few other groups from
around the country a couple of meets, both very successful, of The
Three Counties Minkhounds.
As a beautiful day dawned over the Peak District long after Reading,
Northampton, West London and Southampton sabs had set off from their
home towns to head towards a day of grouse shoot sabotage, August was
here again. By the time that they had met with the other groups at the
rendezvous point the police had already been called as the locals apparently
thought our presence 'suspicious'. Now lets just think about this for
a minute. The Peak District is prime rambling country. Your average sab
get up comprises walking boots, army trousers maybe, a well packed rucksack
full of vegan butties and certainly much wielding of maps. Suspicious?
I can see how that happens - NOT! Or maybe it was because a certain contingent
were dressed like they were off for a day at the beach, complete with
shorts and cooler box…
Once
the local police had completed their investigations
into our suspicious behaviour (they stared at us
for a bit, handed out a producer or two, and then
went back to the station to finish their breakfasts)
we headed out. As befits the sabotage way, the operation
was planned with military precision, with each vehicle
assigned different parts of the surrounding moor
to investigate for any evidence of shooting. The
good news (!) soon came through within the hour that
a large shoot had been located a few miles away,
the bad news was that it required at least a two
hour trek across the moor to get to the pesky shooters.
Undeterred by the baking heat, the locating sabs
marched onwards towards the shoot whilst the other
groups were notified and began to head the same way.
The
shoot was located on Ronksley Moor, which is adjacent
to the magnificent Ladybower reservoir. As stated
previously, this part of the Peak District is fine
looking country and draws many tourists, ramblers
and out-doorsy types. Thanks to this a fabulous thing
had happened - there was a bus which took you up
to the moor!!! Liverpool sabs had already
earned themselves a ticket from the local police,
who had obviously found enough time between breakfast
and lunch to stick their oar in again and had blocked 
the
road up to the moor. As such the only option was
to commandeer the bus as a sabotage vehicle! (Or
rather stand in an orderly queue, stick a cautious
hand out and then proffer the required 65p to get
to the last stop). Oh how we laughed as the police
car drove down the track and past the bus as we sped
up to the top of the moor! And then the trek through
valleys and streams, and across the moor began. (Yes
the bus did have 'Sabbing Special' written on the
front, just click on the image to see)
Despite walking for over an hour, not a shot
was heard from in front of us. This was due to the
shoot having the sense to eventually retire to their
shooting hut for an early lunch as more and more
saboteurs kept appearing from over the hilltop. However,
it should be noted that in clear breach of their
own rules (as stated by the British
Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) -
the main organisation representing shooters in the
UK) the shoot initially continued to shoot whilst
saboteurs stood right next to the guns, and did this
for around an hour. In situations like this the BASC
advises all it's members to immediately break their
guns and lock them away safely - obviously these
shooters had as much regard for human life as they
did for the grouse they were blasting out of the
sky.
A leisurely couple of hours spent sat around basking in the sun followed,
with the shooters, beaters 
and
associated hangers-on trying to pretend that were honestly quite happy
to simply sit around chatting, eating lunch and reading the Daily Telegraph
(I'm not making that up) instead of shooting grouse as they had paid
thousands of pounds to do (and I'm not making that up either - a days
shooting costs serious money, and even then you're only allowed to shoot
a set number of birds!). Eventually, at around 4pm, the shooting party
eventually decided to call it a day, packed up and headed back to their
'Liberty and Livelihood' bedecked vehicles, and we duly escorted them
off the moor (with the help again of the mighty, mighty sab bus, but
this time in the other direction). The day ended with a quick picnic
on the grass and then all concerned headed off home. Many thanks to all
who came from the following groups - Reading, West London, Guildford,
Manchester, Liverpool, Northampton, Southampton, Lancaster. (Pictures
from West London HSA)
December 2001 - March 2002
Sabs from the North West which include Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton, Lancaster and Preston have been out sabbing two or three times a week in our ongoing campaign against The Cheshire Forest Hunt and The Holcombe Hunt.
Our first sab of this short season on The Cheshire Forest turned out to be very eventful.
After about an hour and a half the hunt put the hounds into a kale field where they put up a fox. A hunt rider rode in front of the fox to 'chop' it back into the hounds. There was nothing the sabs could do to save the fox but we managed to retrieve the body despite violence and threats from the hunt. The fox had been disembowelled by the hounds and had a number of wounds across the stomach but no obvious bites to the neck.
Two days later we held a demonstration outside the hunt secretaries house about the killing of the above fox.
The fox was taken to a local vets
who did an autopsy.
The cause of death may have been haemorrhage, circulatory failure
of asphyxiation. Although death may have been rapid she would not
have been instantaneous. It would be very difficult to argue that
the fox would not 
have
suffered significantly before death.
During the Christmas period many hunts in the NW did not hunt due to bad weather/F&M restrictions, however, this did not stop us staging many demos outside meets/hunt function. One even put out our very own disinfecting point!!!
In the new year during a mid week visit to The Holcombe Hunt at Holt Lane Farm, Brindle, near Chorley (which is the home of Hunt Master, Arnold Greenhalgh) its supporters, riders and staff showed little regard yet again for the fate of a hound which was killed after falling 30 feet down a cliff.
During the afternoon the pack of hounds were seen hunting near a cliff face, when one of the hounds fell. Sabs were at the incident within seconds to attend to the injured hound. One sab then picked up the dying hound, which had blood streaming from its mouth, and ran over to the nearby road to get help. Despite the presence of 20 hunt supporters at the road they all ignored the sabs pleas for help and it was not until a member of the hunt staff decided to intervene after several minutes that a supporter reluctantly decided to put the injured foxhound in his Landrover. Sadly, the hound died later from its injuries.
The complete lack of concern shown by the hunt and their supporters over the incident was disgraceful and highlights the hunt's blatant disregard for life - whether it be fox, hare or hound. It also goes to show that the hunt see the hounds as expendable as they just carried on hunting as if nothing had happened.
During another sab on The Cheshire Forest sabs were subjected throughout the day to threats and intimidation from hunt supporters. This culminated in an ambush on sabs where they were confronted by 15 hunt supporters. During this confrontation one sab from Liverpool was pushed to the floor, pinned down and a hunt supporter picked up a large boulder and deliberately smashed it down onto his legs. These hunt supporters then tried to leave the area, however, Cheshire Police officers who were in attendance managed to stop one of their vehicles and arrested one of the occupants. A week later another hunt supporters have been arrested in connection with this attack.
The news on the sab is that he is now out of hospital after spending three days there, however, he will be off work for the next six months.
Many thanks to all the groups who tuned to remember Mike Hill who was killed in Cheshire 11 years ago.
We have also managed on the odd occasion to sab the Cheshire Hunt, Forest and District Beagles and The Royal Rock Beagles.
Massive thanks to Marcus, Charlie and Russ who without their help and support we would not be able to go sabbing.
January 2001 - Feb 2001
In what turned out to be a very short second half of the season the usual crew of Manchester, Bolton, Preston and Lancaster were joined by a revived Liverpool group for a doubling of efforts against the Cheshire Forest. Thanks to more sabs mid-week sabbing started and the huntsman Matthew Puffer was certainly not impressed by our increased attendance level. Even the Cheshire Foxhounds got a couple of visits, with the most noteworthy marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Mike Hill which saw around 100 sabs descend on Cheshire as a mark of respect for a lost colleague. Thanks to all groups who made the effort to attend - we couldn't have done it without you. The Cheshire Beagles, the hunt who Mike was sabotaging when he was killed, were also duly sabbed on this day and were sent scurrying back to their vehicles for a quick exit once they realised that they were on to a loser.
Other events worthy of mention was the good press coverage received for our hunt ball demo at the Cheshire Forest, who we condemned for going ahead with it despite the obvious Foot and Mouth risks of many countryside dwellers meeting up at the height of the crisis.
On the legal side six hunt sabs were awarded damages after a Judge ruled that the Cheshire Constabulary was wrong to continue to detain the saboteurs after the hunt had packed up, as no grounds for a breach of the peace existed at that stage. Shame that it took 7 years for the case to get to court, but it's always worth pursuing as it was cases like this that forced the cops to cease their policy of mass arrests back in the early 1990's.
News From The Lancaster Group
The start of this season saw Lancaster sabs off the road as the van their received a trashing at the end of last season. We therefore joined with Bolton and Manchester sabs attending the Holcombe and Cheshire Forest hunts, and the very successful (for us) National Beagling Day on which there were no kills and an early finish was forced upon them.
Thanks to the dedicated efforts of two Lancaster sabs (and some help from East Northants- cheers guys), the van was back on the road and through its MOT for the new year after months of hard work. This year has also seen our numbers swell considerably. In our recycled van we sabbed the Royal Rock Beagles with Manchester & Bolton, despite a massive police presence, and attended the Mike Hill memorial weekend on the Cheshire Foxhounds. We have also been active with the Vale of Lune Harriers, which had not been sabbed for five years.
The F&M outbreak saw an early end to the season. A new group, we are now able to act independently, but still need more members, so get in touch!
November 2000 - January 2001
The usual motley crew comprised of sabs from Manchester, Bolton, Lancaster and Preston have been busy sabotaging the sordid activities of the Cheshire Forest FH and the Holcombe Harriers. On top of this regular stuff north west sabs also managed to visit the infamous Cheshire Beagles not just once but twice so far this season. The second visit was by far the best as we descended upon them on the annual farce that is National Beagling Day (see below for more details)
The Christmas period saw a number of excellent demonstrations at meets of both the usual packs which got good media coverage, and the new NWHSA website also made it on the front page of a local daily paper. We also managed to put together a new local leaflet and took part in a Granada TV debate.
New Years Day sabbing had it's own treat as the large police presence at the meet of the Forest & District Beagles alerted us quickly to the fact that we found the hunt on a day when the local MP Nicholas Winterton (Con) was to be found amongst their midst. Thanks to our presence they caught bugger all, and you never know, if we're lucky we might get a mention in the House of Commons after so upsetting such a pro-hunt MP!
National Beagling Day - 18/11/00
NBD in the North West was truly a day to behold! Thanks to tip off from a friendly local we had advance information on precisely where and when not just one, BUT THREE, beagle packs would be meeting. Considering it rude not to turn up on such a prestigious date in the Master of Harriers and Beagles diary, sabs duly arrived at the meet held near Nantwich, Cheshire and pulled up in the car park right in the middle of the gathered support. The first pack to hunt was the Cheshire Beagles, infamous for their involvement in the incident in which Mike Hill, a dedicated hunt saboteur from Merseyside, was killed after being driven over by the then huntsman Alan Summersgill. A new huntsman now hunts this pack, although all does not seem to be well with the Cheshire Beagles, as they are yet again advertising for a replacement. Something we said perhaps?
Saboteurs were present with the hunt from the
moment they left the meet and thanks to our efforts (combined with
very poor ground underfoot) the hunt and support returned to the
pub just a couple of hours later without any kills. Both hunters
and support then retired to the pub for a long lunch, before venturing
out again at 2pm ready for the second pack to hunt. Peter 
Jones,
hunted the Royal Rock Beagles (see pic. left) and Forest and District
Beagles (see pic. left), he obviously a very low tolerance level
with hunt saboteurs as it took him only 30 minutes before he decided
to call it a day, being heard to declare 'I'm going back - we can't
get anything with this bloody lot here!'. And so with less than
three hours hunting conducted in total, and certainly with bugger
all to show for it apart from some very muddy britches, National
Beagling Day for three packs in the north west was swiftly brought
to an end. See you next year then, or maybe not, if your PR people
have any bloody sense!
August 2000 - October 2000
Sabs from Manchester, Bolton, Lancaster and Preston and have been busy since the start of September upsetting the cubbing activities of the Cheshire Forest. Once these have packed up for the day we've headed up north into Lancashire to do the Holcombe Harriers. This 'double whammy' has been a regular feature of our first couple of months of each season for a few years now, and we pride ourselves in spreading our resources so widely and effectively. The most notable meet so far was the opening meet of the Holcombe Harriers at Lydiate, a village which lies on the Lancashire/Merseyside border. On one side we had a couple of fluffy(ish) Lancashire cops in their short-sleeved shirts, and on the other we had a riot van and cop car containing Merseyside police with bullet proof vests on! The Merseyside police seemed quite keen on arresting a couple of the sabs so it was a case of jumping the border and making a run for it to ensure that they weren't unduly detained. Sadly, although this hunt aren't known for their hunting skill, they did manage to kill a hare despite the best efforts of a sab who managed to pluck it from the jaws of hounds. Unfortunately it was already too late as the hare, despite being in one piece and alive, had sustained severe internal injuries which, combined with shock, meant it didn't stand much of a chance. Which just goes to show that even a relatively crap hunt can still wreck havoc on our wildlife, and that's why we'll continue to do all we can to prevent them in their killing mission.
August 12th 2000
Despite media reports that yet again guns on the shooting estates in Scotland and the north of England were likely to be silent due to diseased birds we took no notice and ventured out to see for ourselves the state of play. Saboteurs from Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton, Preston and Lancaster spread themselves strategically around the north west ready for spotter cars reporting back from pre-determined sites. The good ole' Duke of Westminster it seems is riddled with disease, or at least his grouse are, as for the second year running all was quiet at his estate in Lancashire, as where the surrounding moors. Despite this the Duke, rumoured to be the richest man in Britain, still had the protection of a sizeable chunk of the Lancashire Constabulary swarming around the place just in case. All in all it's now four years since the Duke managed to get a shooting party onto the moors on the traditional first day of the Grouse shooting season. Three years ago hunt sabs managed to prevent both shooters and beaters from leaving the estate simply by turning up and staring at them! A not-very-interesting-at-all 4 hour stand-off at the estate ensued that year, and one of the main things that got us through was thinking of how much money the Duke must have lost on that day alone, not to mention the damage to the reputation of his estate.
Back to this year and about 10am a call came through that movement had been sighted on a moor just north of Bolton in Lancashire. Sure enough on our arrival we noticed the tell-tale flags stuck in the ground ready for the beaters to pick up and start the beat line from. Although the moor wasn't exactly teaming with birds we thought a spot of pre-beating was in order, and as such duly formed a beat line away from the butts to get the birds shifted in the right direction. Whistles, horns and shouts were employed to good effect as we walked forward in a strict line, and low-and-behold those birds did shift thanks to a bit of text-book sabotage! Much easier than presenting yourself in front of a loaded gun, and it not only seemed to scare away the birds but also the shooters themselves as a quad bike was seen approaching to have a good look at us and then it scurried off back to the shooting lodge from where the shooters themselves never even bothered to set foot! All that was left for us to do was to make ourselves comfortable amongst the heather and lie back in the sun for a few hours - just to make sure those pesky shooters didn't change their minds. So there you have it, grouse shoot sabbing can be as easy as that! And if you need any reminding as to the tactics involved you can find these in our tactics booklet or you can get a hard copy by sending a cheque/PO for £3.50 to North West Hunt Saboteurs Association, P.O. Box 155, Manchester, M60 1FT.
January - May 2000
The season drew to a close pretty much how it began, with sabs from Manchester, Lancaster, Preston and Bolton splitting resources between the Cheshire Forest FH in Cheshire (surprisingly enough) and the Holcombe Harriers in Lancashire. Manchester sabs had cause to yet again report the Cheshire Forest FH to the British Transport Police towards the end of January after the pack were seen trespassing on the high-speed Manchester to London mainline - unbelievably for the third time in three years!!! However, it seems the good 'ole BT cops don't give a shit about hunt trespass as despite sabs trying to help the police with their inquiries, the cops seemed far more interested in getting information about sabs rather then from them. We were absolutely appalled to discover that more than a month after the incident the police had failed to even question the hunt on the matter - despite the fact that one of the joint hunt masters had admitted the trespass on the front page of a local paper!!!!!! Although obviously frustrated at the lack of interest shown in the hunt trespass by the police, we took heart from two facts - firstly that the incident got good local press and secondly that at least no hounds were killed this year, whereas on the two previous occasions some hounds didn't make it back to the kennels.
The season finished with a bit of a bang, both
at home and away with certain Cheshire Forest FH supporters having
a go at the end of one of the last meets, and Quorn FH stewards
losing it big time (must have been the red van that set them off)
when we visited Notts
sabs et al for their end of season meet. Lets just hope the
cops on this one prove themselves to be a damn sight more useful
that their British Transport counterparts.
Group news September 2005-March 2006
Grouse shoot sab 13th August 2005
Group news September 2004-September 2005
Grouse shoot sab 14th August 2004
Group news March 1995-January
2000
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info@nwhsa.org.uk
Tel: 07960 038230
NWHSA
PO Box 239
Manchester
M14 7XB
