Videos from other perspectives on our day out with the South Herrie and Crawley & Horsham hunts on Saturday. Videos are from one of our foot sabs and also our driver who spotted the terriermen behaving suspiciously and, as the video shows, there are two men walking quickly away from her, one with a bulge under his jacket which is not his beer-belly and the other with cable-ties in his hand. Add that to the fact whistles were heard just moments earlier and the fox seen running away from the hounds was described by an experienced sab as looking disorientated and unsteady and you may see why we believe the hunts may have been using a bagged fox.
Even other hunters will look down on hunts using bagged foxes. It's bad enough if, like Mark Meladay from the Ledbury hunt, you have to gather your hounds and take them to where you've seen a fox run instead of casting them and allowing them to find the line themselves, but the use of bagged foxes shows a totally different level of incompetence and desparation as a huntsman. Indeed, Peter Beckford (whose work is often looked to as an authority in foxhunting) certainly did not think that the use of such foxes is sport.
But who can say for certain...? We'll definitely be keeping a close eye on hunts from now on.
3C