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Dead fox dumped in protester's car
A DISEMBOWELLED fox was dumped on the front seat of a hunt protester's car off Stane Street in Pulborough on Christmas Eve.
Christopher Black, 17, a member of anti-hunt campaign group West Sussex Wildlife Protection, had gone with his mother Carol Tibbits to the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray Hunt's meeting at Coombelands on Friday morning.
They left the Nissan Micra parked and returned later that day to find the windows smashed and the broken body of a fox lying on the passenger seat.
Said Christopher: "Two anti-hunt cars were smashed and the week before another car was smashed too.
"It wasn't nice coming back to my car to find a disembowelled fox. There are blood stains on the seat."
West Sussex Wildlife Protection organises the majority of anti hunt protests in the area.
Spokesman Simon Wild said "We've always had an unwritten rule that we don't damage each other's vehicles.
"We leave our vehicles unattended, but so do the hunt supporters.''
Mr Wild said a post mortem on the fox was being carried out by a vet.
It is hoped the post mortem will confirm whether the fox was killed by a vehicle on the road or by dogs.
West Sussex Wildlife Protection press officer Jackie Payne said of the perpetrators: "The mentality of these deranged people is quite worrying."
Hunt master of the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray Hunt Nick Bamber said he did not believe any member or supporter of the hunt had been responsible for the damage.
He told the County Times: "From what I understand the saboteurs parked their cars some distance from the point where we meet, on a residential estate opposite Sainsbury's on the A29 in Pulborough.
"We hunt members and our supporters have a golden rule that we will not attack the saboteurs' cars and they have a golden rule that they won't attack ours.
"We stick to that. We cannot be held responsible for this incident, it happened away from our theatre of activity.
"It is a police matter and if at any point I discover that a member of the hunt was involved they will be ordered out, banned and reported to the police."
Mr Bamber, of the hunt kennels in London Road, Petworth, said all the foxes killed during the hunt on Christmas Eve had been taken back to the kennels and accounted for.
"We weren't missing a fox or anything like that," he said.
A Sussex Police spokesman confirmed the incident had been reported and an investigation was continuing.
* THIS Christmas's hunts could be the last ever, with the ban due to take effect during 2005.
The controversial hobby of hunting with hounds is due to become illegal on February 19, but this could now be delayed by legal challenges.
Meanwhile, a new opinion poll shows most people remain opposed to fox hunting.
The survey carried out for the League Against Cruel Sports showed 72 per cent saying it would be wrong to carry on hunting after it is outlawed and 57 per cent saying there should be no repeal of last month's Hunting Act, which introduced the ban.
Online info:
www.countryside-alliance.org
www.huntsabs.org.uk
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Weather for Horsham
Tuesday 07 February 2012
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