Fox Hunting Exposed: The Smoke and Mirrors of Trail Hunting

Hello and welcome to the Wildlife Matters podcast.

I'm your host, Nigel Palmer, and this week we're going to be looking into the smoke and mirror deception of trail hunting.

We're also going to be taking a look at hedgehogs, their hibernation, and just what's going on in the world of hedgehogs at the moment.

Of course, the regular features like nature news and our call to action will be there and we'll enjoy a mindful moment.

All that's coming up later in the episode, but right now, let's take a look at this week's wildlife Matters nature news.

And on this week's nature news, we're going to be looking at the animal rights activists who on Thursday the 15 December scaled the Defra building in UK to urge the british government to move away from animal agriculture.

the animal justice project activists climbed up the building to unfurl a giant banner calling for an urgent end to the industry.

This is due to links to animal suffering and pandemics.

They are urging the government to open up dialogue on moving towards a plant based system and they have three demands which are as firstly, to implement a subsidies scheme solely incentivising plant based farming secondly, to recognise the urgency of ending the animal agriculture to prevent pandemics and third, to translate this recognition into legislative reform.

Defra, though, have ignored epidermiological research linking large dirty farms to the emergence and spread of infectious diseases.

Hope Wetherall, a campaigner for animal justice, told us it's vital that we take action to save animal and human lives as bird flu sweeps the UK.

This action comes as the we are experiencing what is thought to have been the worst outbreak of avian flu of all time.

Intensive farming has been identified as an ideal incubator for the disease due to the fact that animals live in cramped and often poorly ventilated conditions.

Around 3.8 million birds have either died from the disease or been preventatively culled.

It was reported earlier this month that over half of the UK's so called free range turkeys have also died.

While the current virus is of low risk to humans, there is a chance it could mutate and spread among us.

This means that avian flu has been identified as a pandemic risk.

Around three quarters of the newly emerging infectious diseases originate in animals and have mutated before spreading to humans.

With our current global food system, we are under constant threat of another pandemic, animal justice warned.

The UK government, then must surely act.

It's estimated that around 85% of uk land animals are now factory farmed and this number is growing.

Earlier this year, an investigation highlighted the influx of so called mega farms that have been popping up all over the UK.

And some of these farms can hold more than 1 million animals at a time.

Farmed and free living birds have suffered immensely, with the spread of bird flu failing to slow even during the summer months.

For the first time ever this year, Animal justice said we must act now to prevent catastrophic consequences.

And we at wildlife matters support what their call for a change to the laws in the UK to change agriculture.

So that has been this week's wildlife matters Nature news.

In this week's hab your say, we're going to be diving into the fascinating world of hedgehogs here in the UK.

Hedgehogs are one of just three mammals in the UK that hibernate, along with the dozing dormouse and snoozing bats.

Hedgehogs are well known for their winter naps, but changes are afoot.

On our winter evenings, you see hedgehogs, being the cool creatures that they are, can survive well in cold weather, but they cannot survive without food or water.

Like many other keen watchers, wildlife matters has seen changes in hedgehog behaviour over the last decade or so.

It's clear that hedgehogs are no longer hibernating as they used to.

Some are sleeping only for days, then reappearing for short spells.

Could this be down to climate change?

Or is there perhaps a more straightforward explanation?

Well, let's start by finding out why some animals hibernate.

Animals hibernate because food supply becomes scarce.

Hibernation happens in areas where the climate has a high percentage of change between seasons.

It is usually associated with extreme cold, but also happens in hot climates where it is known as aestivation.

Hibernation is state of minimal activity and metabolism depression.

Hibernation can be characterized by low body temperature, slow breathing, slow heart rate and a low metabolic rate.

Most of the calories warm blooded animals burn go into maintaining the basal metabolic rate.

The metabolic rate is the use of energy expenditure per unit of time by an endothermic animal.

An endotherm is an organism that maintains its body at a metabolically favorable temperature, largely by the use of heat set free by its internal bodily functions, instead of relying almost purely upon ambient heat.

Hibernation is a risky business and many animals don't survive during hibernation.

A hedgehog's heartbeat can slow from around 190 beats a minute to just 20, and their body temperature drops dramatically to match that of the ambient temperature in the nest.

Their body temperature, which is usually around 35 degrees c, drops to ten degrees c or less, and their new low respiration rate means that they will breathe just once every few minutes.

This helps them to conserve energy for the long sleep.

Here in the UK, it's around September into October when hedgehogs start looking for safe places to hibernate.

Popular hibernation sites include fallen trees, woodpiles or under garden sheds.

They love compost heaps, greenhouses, garages and any other undisturbed space that they feel safe in.

They have been found under tarpaulins, in old builders grab bags, in barbecue covers, and even under an upturned paddling pool.

Gardens often provide an ideal range of potential hibernation sites for hedgehogs and may also include a reliable source of food and water.

That combination is heavenly for a hedgehog.

One word of caution, if you are intending to do any work over winter in your garage, sheds or outbuildings, please do check for hedgehog nests before you start work.

Hedgehogs can hibernate in the strangest of places to us, but the hedgehog has chosen that place as it fulfills their needs for the long sleep.

Maybe it successfully hibernated last year in that space, or a similar one.

One thing you can be sure of is that a hedgehog won't have a backup plan, so please do check carefully.

A hedgehog disturbed from hibernation will be unlikely to get back to sleep without help and care.

Although they have been known to build a new nest once disturbed, it takes a hedgehog around 20 to 30 minutes to raise its body temperature and heart rate as it wakes up from hibernation, and this uses an awful lot of energy.

Once awake, hedgehogs will need to find food to restore the energy they have used.

Of course, there is no natural food and their water source may well be frozen.

This could spell big trouble for a hedgehog.

Wildlife matters advise is that if you do disturb a hedgehog from hibernation, we strongly recommend you contact your local wildlife rescue and follow the advice that they give you.

So on the Wildlife Matters podcast.

Main feature today we're going to take a look into the dark and murky world of fox hunters and specifically trail hunting.

But before we start that, let's just quickly go through the types of hunting of foxes here in the UK that have been used and the status of them, just to try and clear up.

So prior to that, the other type of hunting that was around was called drag hunting.

And drag hunting, they use scent hounds, and they follow a pre laid trail.

So that is over a set route.

There are no animals pursued in it, and the trails are often a herbus oil or aniseed based mix.

It can vary, and every pack will have its own sort of mix.

So both drag hunting and clean boot hunting have no kill.

They're not in pursuit of animals.

They are out there to ride horses and have fun in the countryside.

What trail hunting and why it's so different is that it is basically, it's a hybrid version of that that the hunters came up with once.

What they had tried to do was use the traditional sport of drag by saying that they were going to lay predetermined trails and follow those, and therefore, they weren't actively hunting live animals.

Of course, the laying of the trail to mirror the movements of a live fox, they're also done in areas where they know there are live boxes.

And also, obviously, from the hunter's perspective, the hope that the hounds will then pick up on a live foxes scent trout and they will still hunt it and be able to call that an accident.

This varies massively from drag hunting, where they lay a trail, they use scent hounds, and actually they go off at a fair pace, whereas the fox hunters go, the blood hunters, I think I will refer to them throughout this as blood hunters now.

They tend to go slower, and, you know, whether that's just because they can't ride as well or, you know, most of them are also a bit too heavy on their hip flasks.

There is much more emphasis on helm.

What in trail hunting than drag hunting?

The trail scent supposedly used is animal based, but there is little information on the types of scents.

And different hunts use different things.

Many traditional blood hunts do use fox urine, and it is often claimed that they will use other things, but it's well known that they do.

The reason that they do that is because they live in the hope, sad people.

They live in the hope that one day the hunting act will be repealed.

And then they would not have to retrain their hounds to pick up on a natural policy center.

Of course, here we are 17 years on, and they're still putting out these really, really poor excuses of why they keep doing what they're doing.

Surely with it banned, any person with any sort of morals would have stopped breeding their hounds many, many years ago and there would be no hounds that are trained to follow an animal scent any longer.

They saw through the smoke and mirrors and said, basically, we, as drag hunters, want nothing to do do with you.

And so the blood hunters had a problem and that's when they came up with the term trail hunting.

It just didn't exist before that point.

So if you go back and read through some of the literature, this is a quote, a direct quote, actually, from Alistair Jackson, who was then the director of the master of the Foxhounds association.

And he said, while the hunting act is in place, one of the several legal alternatives to provide activity for hunts is trail hunting.

This is for hands to follow an artificial scent which has been laid in such a way as to mimic a real fox hunt.

It would ideally not be the flat out gallop typical of drag hunting, but it would take in different types of country and be a challenge for the hounds.

It is one of the ways to keep the infrastructure of hunt intact until such time as repeal of the hunting act can be achieved.

Now, whilst I don't want to give too much credit to Alistair Jackson, he's actually really speaking the truth there.

Exactly what they were doing.

They were in a holding position because they only wanted to do that because they really thought that they would have the hunting acts repealed or overturned within a very short amount of time.

Basically, the measures need to be taken to avoid hunting live quarry.

As the trail scent laid is animal based and trails are laid in areas where traditionally live quarry have been found, it's not surprising that hounds often pick up on the scent of an animal and pursue it.

This is often the defence used by hunts that they were trail hunters and their hounds accidentally picked up the scent of a fox.

However, hunts claim that they are trying to replicate pre band hunting as closely as possible.

Many did not want to convert to drag hunting, as they wanted their dogs to retain the scenting ability for a wild fox in the hope that the hunting act will be repealed.

If a hunt is taking reasonable steps to avoid hunting a live fox, they should be able to show that they have retrained their hounds to follow an artificial sense.

There are a number of measures that can easily be taken to prevent any accidents, namely the hunting of live animals from occurring.

Firstly, to avoid those areas most likely to be used by the hunts traditional quarry of foxes, and not lay ascent in those areas.

Secondly, when hunting foxes, the line is unpredictable and the animal may run anywhere.

But with trail hunting, the exact route is known.

So it is very easy to position hunt servants and or hunt supporters at key positions so that they can, one, watch the hunt and two, help stop hounds if they change to start following the scent of a live quarry or inform the huntsman if the hounds have changed to live quarry, so that the hunt could be ended promptly.

So very frustrating for hunt savages and many other direct action groups who have consistently proved that these people are out there doing this, this continuing to fox hunt on live animals and obviously killing a number of foxes every year.

We all know there's no reason to it, but saps have always been very good at finding new ways to overcome what seem to be insurmountable obstacles when you've got, you know, the, supposedly the law of land on your side, but with the police and the judiciary against you often wanting to prosecute sabs for wearing masks and being on private land, and these are very common things, but what we know is that, you know, fox hunting in general, particularly blood hunters, it's a real minority past time, and it was never a sport as they have so often claimed.

Hunting is widely deplored by the majority of the british public, with over eight out of ten people calling for a complete ban on hunting.

The hunt slabs released a video of a Zoom meeting conducted by the master of the Foxhounds association, or MFHA, via Zoom, where the directors of the MFHAE are clearly giving advice on how to create a smokescreen and evade any interest from the police.

During the webinars, the panel talked about creating a smokescreen that would enable them to continue illegally hunting.

And at one point, ex police officer Davis said, I hope no police officers are watching this.

The Hunt Saboteurs association said they released the webinars so that people can draw their own conclusions about the damning content.

It will be clear to everyone that their aim is to incite widespread criminality and allow the hunter of live animals to continue as if their crawl sport had never been found.

One example of the damning evidence is when MFHA director Mark Hankinson makes their key point.

It's a lot easier to create a smokescreen if you've got more than one trail layer operating, and that is what it's all about, trying to portray to the people watching that you're going about your legitimate business.

So disgusting.

Hankinson then tried to justify the presence of terrier men who have no purpose whatsoever in a trail hunt, by saying, terrier work.

This is our soft underbelly.

A lot of people would say that if you're going to trail hunting, why do you need terrier men following you around?

Yes, it is totally legal for them to be out doing everything if they follow the correct exemptions, but it does flag up a bit of a marker to anyone.

You know.

Why do you, as trailhunter, why do you need them there?

Well, Mark Hankinson, again, clearly speaking the truth, and there is no reason for any terrier man to be involved in anything, really.

But they have no place on any legal form of hunting.

So if you ever do see a hunt, and you do see terrier men, which are often on quad bikes and called terrier men, because on the front of the quad bike, they'll have a steel box and they will keep their terriers in there and they are used.

So if a fox were to run to ground, which is perfectly natural for a fox that's fleeing, they will put the terriers down to either flush the fox out or hold the fox until the terrier men dig down and get it out, and then they throw the fox to the house.

Later in the zoom, webinar, ex police inspector Phil Davies also referred to the smoke screen by saying, now you know more about hunting than the saboteurs or the courts will know.

But what it will do is create that smokescreen or that element of doubt that we haven't deliberately hunted a fox.

So if nothing else, you need to record that and it will help us provide the defense to huntsmen.

Paul Jelly, the committee member and ex police officer, suggests that hunts purchased phones for the purpose of concealing criminality.

He said, so something for you hunt staff and terrier, menta, trail layers and everybody to consider if you're recording evidence for the hunting act, trail laying, whatever, don't use the same phones or anything you've been using for social media and bragging about what you've been doing out hunting.

The arrogance of these people is absolutely stunning.

And from an ex police officer, that's just disgusting.

Lord Mancroft, at the end of the first seminar, advises the audience, quote, please take that on board, everybody.

Anything that comes out of these meetings is to be kept amongst ourselves.

It is not for general coverage.

Now, we all know that fox hunting, blood hunting, has been fatally injured by this exposure by the hunt saboteurs.

And we loudly and long the people who got in and got this information out, exposed them.

In hindsight, we know that only Mark Hankinson has been prosecuted and is no longer a director of the organisation.

And many of the others who, in our opinion, are just as guilty of trying to mislead our police and judicial services are still not prosecuted at this stage, where the evidence seems overwhelming clear.

What we do know is that the video exposure will certainly finish off the hunting community's bastard guys creation known as trail hunting.

It was and always has been a complete sham.

Smoke and mirrors.

It's a deliberate attempt to mislead the police.

But the hunts are breaking the law.

What landowner can now allow these exposed liars back onto their land?

Thin veneer of acceptability that master of the Foxhounds association may have had.

Well, that's gone and it's gone for good, with the trust of the british people, including many of those who they once relied on for their support.

Like so many of you, I've been opposed to hunting all my life and have worked for over 30 years to proactively stop these people from carrying out their barbaric and cruel and unnecessary needs.

And I really want to see an effective ban on hunting with the teeth of custodial sentences for those who break the law.

That's it for this week's look into the smoke and mirrors of trail hunting.

We'll be back right after a quick break with a mindful moment.

Oh, the acute sound of a hedgehog as it snuffles its way around the garden here in the UK at night.

That was a lovely, mindful moment.

On next week's wildlife Matters podcast, we are going to be having a look into the fur farming industry and specifically the impact Covid has had on it and how it may in fact help end the fur farming industry in Europe and hopefully around the world.

We're also going to be looking at the cetaceans that are being taken from our sea, stolen from the wild, that's orcas and dolphins and whales that purely to be put into captivity and parks for the benefit of human entertainment.

So I do hope you can join me next week while we look into those things.

But for now, this is me, Nigel Palmer, wildlife matters, signing off.