It has become increasingly clear that many sabs, driven by their apparent love of animals, relish any opportunity for airtime on television. We need only look as far as Lesley Martin, John Harwood, or even sab sympathiser Caroline Hutt.
Most recently Simon Wild, a long-time associate of the West Sussex Hunt Sabs, has been the next activist to enjoy his time in the limelight, featuring on BBC South East Today to offer comment on the Crawley and Horsham Hunt’s (CHH) upstanding practice.
The CHH has been leading by example in the modern practice of trail hunting, maintaining strong turnouts at their weekly Saturday meets and celebrating a tradition at the heart of British countryside culture by exemplifying the legally sanctioned activity of trail hunting.
Wild provided the following comment to the BBC on the CHH:
“For 10 years they [the CHH] still had terrier men, for 15 years they were illegally hunting very overtly and we know that because we had convictions – only four or five years ago our evidence had the huntsmen in court. Since that time, in the last four years they have changed out of all proportion, and now they’re like a show hunt for the country.”
This is the closest to truth any sab has ever come. Wild states outright that the CHH has “in the last four years changed out of all proportion,” making them a “show hunt for the country.”
Wild has been associated with the West Sussex Hunt Sabs for years. The group’s Facebook page shares some scintillating ‘hit reports’ about his fellow sabs harassing hunts across the country. And one such hunt they regularly report on happens to be the CHH.
Let’s not forget at this juncture that it was Wild who described the CHH on the BBC as having “changed out of all proportion” and being “like a show hunt for the country” by operating within the law and trail hunting.
Sadly, although Wild is able deliver the truth when plonked before a camera on live television, his honesty is not reflected by his sab associates behind the veneer of social media. The West Sussex Hunt Sabs Facebook page has continuously contradicted the honest statements made by Wild to the BBC.
One hit report from 2 December 2023 explains how their gang needlessly harassed and followed a legal trail hunt held by the CHH. The report claims:
“We were parking up to head in when we became aware of a beautiful fox in the road looking very disorientated, obviously scared from his home by the hounds and unsure of where to go. We gave him time to leave and followed his route spraying to cover his scent, we watched him as he left the area to safety.”
This seems a far cry from Wild’s words four months later on the BBC. It would be logical to assume his account broadcasted to the nation on live television is going to be closer to the truth than an anonymous, unread hit report on Facebook.
The allusion to fox hunting is nothing more than a weak attempt to knowingly assert falsehood in an attempt to smear the CHH’s upstanding name and reputation in the domain of social media, where so many corruptible minds fester.
In fact, nothing links this fox to the CHH’s trail-based activities on 2 December 2023 whatsoever; seeing one single fox (nowhere near any hunt and in the wild) over the course of a day is not implicit of illegal activity.
This allusive accusation therefore only derails Wild's cause, whilst simultaneously revealing the true aim of sabs – to spread disinformation and sow resentment in the countryside.
But this is only one example of hunt sabs’ disingenuous antics.
The CHH held their opening meet for the season on 18 November 2023 at Knepp Castle, which they were unafraid to advertise a monthe prior to the event on their public Instagram account, upstanding as they are and with nothing to hide from sabs.
Knepp Rewilding have the following statement on their website regarding trail hunting:
Since the 2004 Hunting Act, which banned the pursuit of foxes with hounds, the Crawley and Horsham Hunt has, like other hunts, adopted Trail Hunting instead. We continue to support this activity and to hold the Opening Meet at Knepp, continuing a tradition which brings the local community of all ages together for a challenging day of riding in open countryside.
In response, the West Sussex Hunt Sabs were sure to attack and incriminate the CHH in their hit report. Wild’s sab associates had written to Knepp Rewilding for all their hard work in supporting a countryside community and tradition, alleging:
“Since the 2004 Hunting Act we have continued to film the Crawley and Horsham Hunt, illegally hunting.”
Implying the CHH continues to break the law is willfully ignorant at best and outright lying at worst, considering Wild himself admitted “in the last four years they [the CHH] have changed out of all proportion, and now they’re like a show hunt for the country”. Wild and his ilk know full well the hunt had, by this point, demonstrated three exemplary years of trail hunting.
Furthermore, considering Knepp Rewilding is clearly aware of the CHH’s exemplary nature in the trail hunting world (given the statement on their website), what were the sabs possibly hoping to achieve – other than to spread disinformation and sow hatred in the British countryside against a tradition beloved to the rural communities of West Sussex?
Following some typically spiteful drivel, the hit report is then sure to claim that the hounds were “out of control” and “chasing quarry”:
“It wasn't too long before their huntsman and Joint Master Richard Gurney...lost control of his hounds. The pack were running free and chasing a rather large quarry in the shape of long horned cattle, some with calves, who were chased for several terrifying minutes [videoed].”
And once more:
“During the day, there was the usual pathetic attempt by a rider to use their horse as a barrier to prevent sabs driving along the road, however being highly skilled drivers, sabs managed to guide their vehicle carefully around them. The hunt headed towards Benton Place, where once again the hounds headed off on their own and harassed cattle on the Knepp estate (videoed)”
A laughable narrative without any evidence, despite claims of events being “(videoed)”. The tactic seems to be relentless disinformation.
The entire episode shows it is clearly easy to construe and propagate disinformation against lawful trail hunts when hidden behind an anonymous Facebook page. But sabs like Wild have no choice but to be truthful when facing a TV camera and broadcast to thousands of viewers, without the mask of anonymity to protect them against claims of dishonesty.
Wild and his ilk know full well that the CHH is an upstanding hunt operating well within the law. They have admitted as much on live TV. It is therefore time that they cease their relentless and dishonest online smear campaign against the hunt.
It also begs the question: if the West Sussex Hunt Sabs are willfully and regularly lying about the activities of a law-abiding hunt, how are we able to trust any of their reports about other hunts, or indeed any of the wild claims made by sab groups across the country?
