Message from Devon County Hunt Sabs
28th July 2021
In Nov 2019 we caught Eggesford terriermen Seward Folland and Nathan Bowes (now with the Pytchley with Woodland Hunt) blocking a badger sett at Bridge Reeve, after the hounds had hunted a fox to ground.
Watch the video here – https://www.facebook.com/devoncountyhuntsaboteurs/videos/511956433199024
Earlier this month the case finally went to court and today the judge returned his verdict: both terriermen were found guilty and ordered to pay £940 (Bowes) and £732 (Folland).
Seward Folland is also a parish councillor and a licensed badger cull contractor. Clearly someone with a criminal conviction for interfering with a badger sett should not be licensed by Natural England to cull badgers!
Read on below for the full report.
Sabs found the two terriermen at a badger sett where the Eggesford hounds had just hunted a fox to ground. The terriermen had already blocked several of the sett entrances with nets and soil, but sabs got there just in time to stop them from digging out the fox.
On the day they denied that hounds had been present, they denied blocking the sett, they denied it even was a badger sett, and they denied wanting to use their terriers to flush the fox from the sett. As usual, their terriers were “just out for a ride”. In court they finally admitted they’d intended to use terriers to flush the fox from the sett in order to kill it. They also admitted that the Eggesford’s hounds (under the control of huntsman Jason Marles) had just ‘marked’ the sett, which is what they do to indicate a fox has gone to ground.
Their defence in court was that the sett wasn’t in ‘current use’ by badgers. However, sabs had documented several clear signs of badger activity at the sett at the time of the incident and the large volume of footage we submitted to the police was vital for deciding the outcome. We also deployed cameras on the night of the incident to keep an eye on the sett, as we know the terriermen like to come back to dig out once sabs have left. This sometimes even happens the next day.
In this undercover video you can hear convicted sex offender and regular Eggesford Hunt follower Jason Kiddle talking about how the terriermen (Nathan is mentioned by name) often go back to dig out once sabs have left. “If there’s a badger in there, they’ll have that as well”:
https://www.facebook.com/823511854423851/videos/465270390831813
And this video shows the bloody aftermath of a digout in a badger sett the day after an Eggesford hunt meet: https://www.facebook.com/823511854423851/videos/612076669374753
Nathan is no stranger to being caught red-handed digging foxes out of badger setts, having received a caution for this in January 2018: https://www.facebook.com/823511854423851/videos/1445845815523782
We were right to suspect the terriermen would return. Nathan told the court that he went back to the sett the next day. He didn’t give a reason why… but four of our trail cameras subsequently ‘went missing’.
Fortunately, we had been able to retrieve one camera which was hidden in a tree overlooking one of the open sett entrances. This camera filmed two badgers at the sett on the night of the incident. This, along with the many video clips documenting clear evidence of badger activity on the day, plus two very detailed reports from an independent expert witness for the prosecution, resulted in a successful conviction. There’s plenty more to be said about the defence’s expert witness, and we will be posting about this in due course!
Devon & Cornwall Police: Take notice! These incidents are well-documented, regular occurrences with the Eggesford Hunt. When they’re not illegally hunting foxes, causing havoc for locals by rampaging across their land, damaging property, or assaulting people who disagree with them, Eggesford hunt members are digging out protected badger setts. You only have to look back through the videos on our page to see multiple clear examples of all of the above.
In court both terriermen said they did this kind of work “two or three times a week”. Bearing in mind this is just one of twenty foxhunts in Devon, this speaks to the sheer scale of hunt-perpetrated wildlife crime. The vast majority of it is still going uninvestigated and unpunished because of Devon & Cornwall Police’s reactive and at times overtly biased approach to policing hunts. When will they start being proactive about dealing with hunt offending?
We lost four expensive trail cameras in this incident (total value of about £500), but our actions protected a fox and several badgers that day and resulted in the successful conviction of these animal abusers. Trail cameras are increasingly essential for what we do, so if you would like to support our work, please consider donating to our fundraiser to help us replace our stolen cameras: https://www.paypal.me/dchs
WHY DO THESE SCUMBAGS ONLY GET FINED THAT IS NO DETERTENT THEY WANT LOCKING UP FOR A VERY LONG TIME. FILTHY PARASITES LIKE THESE WILL BREAK THE LAW OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND THEIR FINES WILL BE PAID FOR BY THE HIGH AND MIGHTY CRAP.. THESE PEOPLE ARE VILE NASTY EVIL MURDERING SCUM AND NEED TO BE PUNISHED.