THURLOW: Emerging from 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 prevent its death.

These “hunt saboteurs” regularly gate-crash meetings across the country in what has become a fierce clash of cultures. “Kermit to Animal, are you receiving?” crackles the radio from one old Toyota 4X4 to another, each with their own codename. The field sport of foxhunting, in which a pack of hounds chases and kills a fox accompanied by riders on horseback, was once an integral part of country life. But the use of dogs to hunt wild animals has seen outlawed in England and Wales since 2004.

Trail hunts, which allow packs of dogs to follow a route artificially laid with fox scent, are allowed. But critics say they are used as a cover for fox hunts to continue as before. They say dogs still chase and kill live animals on these hunts, with organisers then claiming it was accidental. Hunters counter that they comply with the law and that it is the saboteurs who are illegally interfering with their monitoring activities. Today the saboteurs’ target is the Thurlow Hunt in rural Suffolk, eastern England.

Armed with maps on their phones and drones overhead, around 20 saboteurs exchange information over their radios about the position of the riders, taking care not to risk driving the fox back towards the pack. Spotting a saboteur, one rider — dressed in a traditional red huntsman’s jacket — looks unhappy and turns back.

The barks of the dogs echo in the distance and hunt members including children on ponies gallop past. “We don’t want to lose sight of them,” says Angela Vasiliu of the North London Hunt Saboteurs.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2023