What "Sabotage" Means for Saving Foxes

For over 60 years, the Hunt Saboteurs Association in the U.K. has been working to thwart the practice of fox hunting through direct action:“sabbing” hunts so that hunters cannot successfully kill foxes. The organization’s press officer, Rowan Hughes, spoke to Current Affairs about why, when it comes to lasting change, "actions are everything."

Q: Could you tell us a bit about hunting culture in the U.K. and the controversy over it?

Rowan Hughes:  The hunting community is very hierarchical, and historically those with money, land, and power have been involved in hunting. This makes it very hard to challenge, as hunts often have links with high ranking police, people within the court system etc. Hunting of this sort is very much a rural “sport” for the landed gentry, though not everyone involved is affluent, and it comes with a lot of pomp and pageantry.  Nowadays, there is less wealth involved, but hunters hold onto the memory of being landed gentry who nobody had the power to oppose, and often trespass on farm land and do not respect the wishes of local communities if they do not support hunting. A lot of the controversy comes from the fact that it is a “sport” and foxes are raised, and encouraged by hunts to keep their numbers up so they are available to be hunted, as well as the absolute cruelty of tearing a fox apart with a pack of dogs.

Q: What kinds of actions do hunt saboteurs engage in?

Hughes: Our primary aim is to save the life of the hunted animal, and we will often use the same techniques a huntsman uses to control his hounds—but we use them to misdirect the hounds away from their quarry, instead of towards it. For example, we carry hunting horns, but will mimic gathering calls, to bring the hounds towards us, where the huntsman would use calls encouraging the hounds to hunt on. We use homemade whips to emulate the cracking noise made by the hunters’ whips. Hounds are trained to stop when they hear a whip crack, so saboteurs can give the hunted animal time to escape by putting themselves between the hounds and quarry, using these techniques. 

We also use a selection of cameras, including body cams, long range camcorders and drones to observe the hunt, and will use this footage on social media to expose the reality of hunting, or sometimes as evidence to bring to court.  A lot of what we do is run with the hunt, observing and anticipating their actions, and stepping in when a life is in danger. Hunting was once more accepted in rural communities, but video evidence is leading to more and more landowners dissociating themselves from the cruelty and violence that has been shown to be associated with hunting.

Q: Why is sabotage your chosen form of action? 

Campion: The HSA has a saying that actions are everything, words mean nothing. Although this is of course not true, and campaigning through words is a big part of what we do, the sentiment is that we make change happen through action. We are the only organization who is on the ground, opposing hunts, saving lives, and using our energy, skills and action to directly sabotage hunting. It seems that direct sabotage—supported by the social media campaigning, lobbying, and legal work we do—is a successful combination. We are seeing hunts close, dwindling supporter numbers, reduced county they have land-owner permission to enter, much reduced finances, and less legal pro-hunt bias year on year. Very often it is the hunts which have been the target of sustained saboteur attention who are struggling the most. Actually stepping in and stopping the kill is much more effective than just campaigning from the side-lines.

This Q&A, along with many others, appears in Issue 57 of Current Affairs.