Hunt sabbing is on the rise again – and of course so is the police backlash. While sabbing expeditions have yet to rise to the heights of the late 80s/early 90s numbers are on the up.
Forty hunt sabs from around the south-east headed up to get on the case of the notorious Old Surrey and Burstow hunt near Tandridge in Surrey this Saturday (3rd). They were met with a heavy-handed police response – two arrests and the seizure of the South Down's groups vehicle.
Despite the fact that hunting is in fact technically illegal – nobody seems to have told Surrey Cop. SchNEWS spoke to one sab still splattered in mud from the fields “The police were out in numbers and immediatley hostile, arresting one sab for spraying citronella on a footpath”.
Sab vehicles were pulled over and subjected to intense scrutiny – needless to say none of the hunt vehicles got the same treatment. At around 2 p.m cops decided that the South Down's group vehicle was overloaded and seized the opportunity to impound it. One cop even said “We don't have to take the vehicle but we're going to because we want to”. The legal niceties of the situation remain dubious to say the least.
The day's sabbing was successful as SchNEWS was told “All we have to do these days is be there and that alone prevents the kill” but the South Down's group need £200 to get their vehicle out of the pound and ready for next week's efforts to stop the hunt – Can you help them?
Please send a cheque to
Southern Anti-Bloodsports
6 Tilbury Place
Brighton