Emerging from the woods in a quiet corner of rural England, a small band of anti-foxhunting campaigners have just one goal: to confuse the pack of dogs chasing a fox and save its life. Fox hunts have been illegal in the UK since 2004, with trail hunting -- in which packs of dogs follow a route artificially laid with a fox's scent -- permitted as a replacement. The "hunt saboteurs" say that trail hunts are used to cover up actual foxhunting and regularly gatecrash gatherings across the country, distracting the hounds and gathering evidence of lawbreaking, in what has become a fierce clash of cultures.
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00:00 Going up to the farm, eh?
00:02 You want to go right now?
00:04 Yeah.
00:06 So, they'll know we're here now.
00:10 Yeah. 100%.
00:12 We're going in Wadgers Wood.
00:14 Copy that, we're going in Wadgers Wood now from the south.
00:18 The hunt is on the other side of the wood at the moment.
00:22 It's good to have a footing here in case they move our way.
00:28 We have to keep ourselves with them on the other side.
00:30 They have eyes on them.
00:32 (footsteps)
00:34 (indistinct chatter)
00:42 (horns honking)
00:44 (indistinct chatter)
00:58 (wind)
01:00 They want people to believe that trail hunting is a person running through a field with a rag with a scent on it that the hounds will then follow and no foxes are harmed.
01:20 That's not what they're doing. It's not what they're doing at all.
01:24 They are still hunting as normal. They're hunting foxes.
01:28 The law is weak enough that they can still get away with it.
01:32 So, and for a long time the police have been believing them, the public have been believing them.
01:36 And it's been, we've had to work very hard to show the powers that be and the public exactly what they are doing.
01:42 That they are still hunting foxes, they are still chasing foxes, they are still killing foxes.
01:46 Every time these hunts go out.
01:48 An area, a wooded area that could contain foxes.
01:52 (wind)
01:54 (indistinct chatter)
01:56 Why have they been sent in there if not to hunt?
02:02 (wind)
02:04 (horns honking)
02:12 (wind)
02:14 These hunters that we're at today, the furlough hunt, they have been convicted of illegal hunting before.
02:28 In March 2019 they were convicted.
02:30 And this is the sort of person who you'll find in your regular hunt. An abusive, belligerent thug.
02:38 I believe in what I do. I don't care about my name being out there.
02:42 They know where I live. I've had death threats. I've had dead rats sent to me in the post.
02:46 I've had dead foxes left on my car windscreen. I don't care.
02:50 I'm going to carry on until I've put them all out of business. If I live long enough.
02:54 Alright, North London to all saps on channel. Huntsman and hounds are spilling onto the road in front of us, heading in the direction of the kennels. Over.
03:04 (wind)
03:06 Trail hunting is widespread. It's what the hunts do. There's 200 packs of hounds going out twice, sometimes four times a week, different hunts.
03:18 And they go out, they lay trails. And it's designed to simulate traditional hunting, which is why it looks the same.
03:23 People wear the same clothing, they still use the hunting horn, they still use packs of hounds.
03:27 And much of the tradition is kept around it.
03:30 It's really difficult when the hunt saboteurs get a hunting horn out and they play music, because they're trying to take control of those hounds.
03:37 It's a bit like you're driving a car and someone in the passenger seat tries to take your steering wheel.
03:41 (wind)
03:43 (shouting)
03:49 Oh yeah, it was fake. They got him.
03:56 They got him?
03:57 Yeah, they got him.
03:59 (wind)
04:01 (radio chatter)
04:03 (wind)
04:08 You come and get me please.
04:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]