Affiliations: Geordie Hunt Sabs, Teesside Against Blood Sports (TABS), Newcastle Hunt Saboteurs
Location: Whickham, Gateshead
Michelle Smith is the reputed leader of the Geordie Hunt Sabs, a group operating in the Northeast of England who have been specifically targeting the Braes of Derwent Hunt. Smith is also thought to be involved in the Newcastle Hunt Sabs and Teesside Against Blood Sports groups, with hunt followers reporting a significant crossover in membership between the groups.
Smith, 59, purports to work as a pharmacy technician for Ashchem Limited. Little information about this business is available online, however Fewster Square Pharmacy in Gateshead is also listed as Aschchem Chemists on Yell.
Smith must have been spending too much time out sabbing and not enough time with her patients as the reviews for Ashchem/Fewster are abysmal. According to the NHS services website, Fewster Square Pharmacy has no reviews higher than two stars. On Google, one patient complained that Ashchem had “the slowest service I have ever encountered”. She also mentioned that “one of the people who works there, a woman, is particularly rude.” Could this be our sassy sab?
Ain't nothin' but a hound dog - cryin' all the time
When Smith isn’t ignoring the phones at Aschem she can be frequently found out with the Geordie/Newcastle/TABS mob terrorising the countryside.
Video footage submitted to Behind The Masks depicts a member of the Geordie Sabs, apparently Smith, playing an audio recording of hounds in cry.
According to posts on the Geordie Hunt Sabs Facebook page, this device is known as a ‘gizmo’ and is a common tool in the hunt saboteurs’ arsenal. The sounds of foreign hounds confuses and upsets the live pack who will fall off the trail in search of these mystery dogs. All quite disturbing.
Bad Company
The Geordie Hunt Sabs are a prolific operation, regularly harassing and disrupting legal trail hunts carried out by the Braes of Derwent. One video, submitted to BTM by the hunt, appears to show members of the Geordie sabs trespassing on private property. It also shows some sabs blowing a horn to distract the hounds – a very dangerous tactic which could result in hounds running onto the nearby main road shown in the video.
One of the sabs in the video is identified by a hunt follower as Simon Taylor - member of the TABS and erstwhile Sunderland City Council employee.
The Geordies fund these sab escapades in part through the sale of t-shirts and hoodies – yours from just £16.50! We at BTM certainly can’t think of a more cost-effective way to tell people you’re not allowed to use scissors unsupervised.
Not that the Geordie sabs are short of cash. A photo posted to their Facebook page shows that members of the group participated in the infamous sit-in at Wemmergill, when busloads of sabs were allegedly paid up to £200 each to disrupt a grouse shoot at the estate in County Durham.
The Geordies' post tags saboteur groups as far away as Brighton and Wiltshire, demonstrating the distance this rent-a-mob travelled for a day rate and the chance to lie down in some fields. It also depicts a police vehicle with the acronym ACAB (All Cops Are B*stards) scrawled on the back window. The term has been classified as a ‘hate slogan’ by the Anti-Defamation League.