Well what a delightful day we've had at the final meet of the Atherstone Hunt. Along with other groups we went to support West Midlands Hunt Saboteurs who have been focusing on the Atherstone this season. They met at the Horse and Jockey pub, in Bentley, Warwickshire and due to the number of sabs present immediately headed north into the private grounds of Meredale Hall, home of David Cameron's cousin Sir William Matthew Stratford Dugdale.
Sabs followed them in and were threatened and abused by a large number of hunt support whilst warwickshire Police stood by and watched. This set the tone for the day with the police acting as private security for the hunt. They sent 10 cars, two riot vans, two dirt bikes and a helicopter to harass sabs and allow the hunt to carry on breaking the law with impunity. Police issued sabs with a section 35 dispersal order which required us to leave the area. The police refused to define the precise area we had to leave (video to follow) but we didn't allow this to deter us and worked round the dubious section 35 as best we could. The police also set up road blocks to stop sabs (and the general public) from accessing large amounts of the area and turned a blind to illegal driving and road blocking by the large numbers of hunt support.
Our delightful friends the Northants stewards (easily recognised by their large waistline and home Knitted balaclavas) decided to put in an appearance so we spent the afternoon distracting them to enable West Mids sabs to keep a close eye on the hunt who appeared to be doing very little, content with just saying away from the roads and the attention of sabs.
So all in all, despite the combined attention of the violent hunt support and Warwickshire police, it was a fairly successful day with no kills and a very frustrating end to the season for the Atherstone. Please contact warwickshire police and ask how they can justify the resources to act as private security for this bunch of violent law breakers:
http://www.warwickshire.police.uk/contactingthepolice/makingcomplaint
Sabs followed them in and were threatened and abused by a large number of hunt support whilst warwickshire Police stood by and watched. This set the tone for the day with the police acting as private security for the hunt. They sent 10 cars, two riot vans, two dirt bikes and a helicopter to harass sabs and allow the hunt to carry on breaking the law with impunity. Police issued sabs with a section 35 dispersal order which required us to leave the area. The police refused to define the precise area we had to leave (video to follow) but we didn't allow this to deter us and worked round the dubious section 35 as best we could. The police also set up road blocks to stop sabs (and the general public) from accessing large amounts of the area and turned a blind to illegal driving and road blocking by the large numbers of hunt support.
Our delightful friends the Northants stewards (easily recognised by their large waistline and home Knitted balaclavas) decided to put in an appearance so we spent the afternoon distracting them to enable West Mids sabs to keep a close eye on the hunt who appeared to be doing very little, content with just saying away from the roads and the attention of sabs.
So all in all, despite the combined attention of the violent hunt support and Warwickshire police, it was a fairly successful day with no kills and a very frustrating end to the season for the Atherstone. Please contact warwickshire police and ask how they can justify the resources to act as private security for this bunch of violent law breakers:
http://www.warwickshire.police.uk/contactingthepolice/makingcomplaint