tactics

tactics

General tactics against houndsports

As said previously all of our tactics do not harm any animal or human, the tactics we use have been tested in the hunting field and have been used successfully against all types of hunting. Successful sabotage means taking on the role of the huntsman and using your knowledge of hunting against the hunt to stop them from killing. The tactics we employ range from using hunting horns, voice calls and laying false trails to confuse the hounds.

Horn Calls

The hunting horn is one of our most important tools whilst sabotaging a hunt, the horn we use is exactly the same as the huntsman’s and when used effectively it can impersonate the huntsman’s calls and control the hounds. ‘The calls we use differ from hunt to hunt but two basic rules can be applied............FAST CALLS ........ are used to hunt the hounds on and to make them run faster SLOW CALLS ...... are used to either slow or stop the hounds, draw out of cover before using the horn, or any tactic for that matter we always check and listen to the huntsman’s calls and the hounds. If the huntsman is using a slow call on his hunting horn he is probably trying to stop or slow the hounds down, his hounds may be going away from him on a false trail. If this is the case we would employ horn calls which will hunt the hounds away from him and towards us. This will enable us to take control of the pack and will also stop the hounds from finding an animal to hunt. Anyone can blow a hunting horn but it must be used cautiously and correctly, if used without thought the hunted animal and the hounds could be placed in danger so we must be careful !

Voice Calls

The hounds in a fox hunt, beagle pack or any other houndsport are not only controlled by horn calls but they will also respond to the huntsman’s voice as well. With this in mind we, as saboteurs can employ this as a tactic for taking and controlling the hounds. An excited string of “ON, ON, ON, ON, ON” will cause the hounds to run and follow a scent. This type of voice call is used to hunt hounds onto false trails and to encourage them towards us. Gruff, angry voice calls such as, “LEAVE IT”, “HEADS UP” and “BACK TO `IM” will make hounds assume that they are doing wrong and stop them. Holloas are used by hunt supporters to notify the huntsman that they have seen the hunted animal, we can therefore give false `holloas’ which will confuse the huntsman and his hounds (you must be careful not to pull hounds onto an animal when doing this). High pitched screams can also be used to get the hounds attention and to stop them from following an animal’s scent.

FOR MORE IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION OF HORN AND VOICE CALLS, A TAPE AND BOOKLET
TITLED, ‘LEARN TO PLAY WITH THE H.S.A.’ CAN BE PURCHASED FROM THE
Hunt Saboteurs Association, BM HSA, London, UK. WC1N 3XX
Tel: 0845 4500727.
Email:info@huntsabs.org.uk

Whips

We also use whips to control the hounds once we have taken them away from the huntsman. The hounds are trained to respond to the ‘cracking’ of the whip and this is used to stop the hounds from running off and doing things that they are not meant to do. We can therefore stop the hounds when they are on a scent by getting in between the hunted animal and the hounds and crack our whips. We can also surround the hounds and stop them from running off once we have control of them.

Sprays

The sprays we use are either commercially bought `ANTIMATE’ sprays, which are used to keep other dogs away from bitches on heat or home made mixtures which generally consist of crushed garlic, citronella (a harmless lemon scented oil) and water. These sprays are used to dull the scent of the hunted animal so the hounds cannot find it. It is also used to lay false trails which the hounds follow because they believe it is different type of scent, e.g. dried blood. Spraying woods which the hunt will enter will also confuse the hounds and will give the animal a better chance of escape, some hunts will not put their hounds into a wood which has been sprayed by antimate. Spraying the ground around the hounds and stroking the hounds with antimate on your hands will also confuse the hounds, all of the sprays used do not contain any harmful substances which could harm any animal.

Pre-meeting

Pre-meeting takes place before the hunt (usually a fox hunt) sets off from the meet, it is done to clear any animals from the surrounding area and to give them a much greater chance of escape. Many fox hunts hunt the same wood/area in the same order every time they meet, this means with local knowledge the hunt’s actions can be quite predictable and our pre-meeting can be organised around this predictability. We will firstly clear the wooded areas of any animals, this is called `pre-beating’. A line can be formed across a wood and this will act as a beat line, rather like in shoots.

The line will then advance through the wood and make enough noise to scare any animals out of the wood, whilst advancing `antimate’ can be sprayed to dull any scents which are in the wood. Blocked badger setts and fox earths can also be cleared but you must be careful to only unblock ones which are undigable, ones which are in very hard ground or under large trees etc. All the animals must be beaten out and away from the meet, they must be cleared far enough away so that they do not return immediately. Finally, rook scarers (bangers on string) can be placed in woods to make enough noise to scare the animals away, this is useful to do if there are insufficient saboteurs to beat through the woods.

IT MUST BE NOTED THAT SOME GROUPS DO NOT FEEL THAT PRE-MEETING A HUNT IS BENEFICIAL TO THE HUNTED ANIMAL, BUT, IT IS TOTALLY UP TO THE INDIVIDUAL/GROUP
AND WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS ON THEIR HUNTS.

Physical Intervention

When a fox has gone to ground and the terriermen are called in, the fox will be either dug out and released, to be hunted again or killed and chucked to the hounds, although some hunts have been known to `bag’ up foxes and release them later in the day, to provide the hunt with some ‘good sport’. When this does happen we have two choices, we can either wait and hope that the hunt will release the fox to hunt it again, so therefore giving us another chance to save it or go in and sit on the fox earth or badger sett, stopping the terriermen from digging it out altogether. Physical intervention such as this can be dangerous and may lead to a violent situation but it can also be very effective and can save many animal’s lives. Intervention can also be used against shooting and is probably the most effective tactic employed to stop it. When the shooters are waiting for the birds to fly over them we can place ourselves in between the guns and the birds, therefore forming a human barrier and preventing them from shooting.

ALL THE TACTICS WHICH ARE MENTIONED IN THE PREVIOUS SECTION ARE JUST THE VERY BASICS AND ARE BY NO MEANS EXTENSIVE.

FOR MORE IN-DEPTH TACTICS THE H.S.A. PRODUCE A TACTICS BOOKLET WHICH NOT
ONLY EXPLAINS THE TACTICS WHICH CAN BE USED AGAINST HOUNDSPORTS. BUT
COURSING, FISHING, SHOOTING AND ALL OTHER BLOODSPORTS AS WELL, see: www.huntsabs.org.uk/tactics/

THE MAIN POINT TO REMEMBER IS THAT EVERY HUNT IS DIFFERENT AND SOME TACTICS WILL WORK BETTER ON THE DAY THAN OTHERS ..

THERE ARE NO STRICT RULES ON HOW TO SABOTAGE A HUNT.

THE ANIMALS’ WELFARE IS ALWAYS THE MOST IMPORTANT !!!