The Kent Hunt Saboteur Association are claiming a victory after reporting that the Blean Beagles – a Kent-based hare hunt – has closed down following pressure from the group.
They say that The Blean claims to have ‘merged’ with a neighbouring pack to become the Downland Beagles – but the reality is there were two hare hunts, and now there is one.
The Kent County now has 1 hare and 2 fox hunts left, which the group will be targeting in future protests.
The group have confirmation that the Blean Beagles are to amalgamate with the Brighton, Storrington, Surrey & North Sussex Beagles.
The Blean Beagles used to be kennelled with the West Street & Tickham Hunt at Norton but had moved. Unfortunately, for a while, no one knew where, so they were able to continue killing hares uninterrupted. When the association received a tip off that there were hunt kennels near Doddington, they thought this was where the foxhunt had been hiding. But to their surprise – a tiny beagle peeped over the kennel walls and the hiding was over.
The saboteurs established that the Boxing Day meet at Faversham was still held, so they organised a protest. Interestingly, the name of those involved, a Mr M Bax was a former huntsman and, at that point and still master of the Blean Beagles. He was also the chairman of Kent Wildlife Trust, chairman of the advisory group for rural crime at Kent police and High Sheriff of Kent.
Every meet the saboteurs attended or heard about was reported to the rural crime team and even the landowner of one meet was visited by the police, losing the hunt a valuable meet. The huntsman’s house is now up for sale and the kennels resemble a building site – apparently the hounds were taken away a week or two ago.
The amalgamation means one less pack of beagles chasing hares. As for the hunting area of this newly-amalgamated hunt, it is hard to believe it can cover an area from west Sussex to the tip of Kent effectively.
