The latest investigations, breaking stories and special reports from BTM. We expose the criminality and intimidation of so-called hunt saboteurs across the UK, giving a voice to the rural communities they target.
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The BBC’s Springwatch presenter Chris Packham has found himself in hot water once again after spending the day with convicted bomb maker Mel Broughton while livestreaming an outing with the Northants Hunt Sabs. On Saturday 28th December, Packham joined the Northants Hunt Sabs to disrupt a meeting of the
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Originally Suffolk Against Foxhunting, Suffolk Action for Wildlife (SAF) was created in 2021 by Anna Bye as a volunteer-based hunt monitoring and disrupting organisation. The group is still chaired by Bye, a local mortgage broking business owner, and now covers most of Suffolk, helping local hunt saboteur organisations to disrupt
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Behind The Masks can exclusively reveal that a member of the East Yorkshire Coast Hunt Sabs has been arrested and questioned by the police following an incident with a member of the Derwent Hunt on Saturday. Mark Fothergill was arrested by North Yorkshire Police on suspicion of assault. He has
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A man was charged with two counts of assault by beating after throwing soup over women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen in Sheffield on 21 September. Behind The Masks can now reveal that the alleged assaulter – named by the police as Ben Lindsay, 34 of Fitzwilliam Street, Barnsley – is a
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A hunt saboteur was arrested outside of the Wynnstay Hunt Kennels on 2 October in connection to an incident where an 18-year-old hunt member was reportedly followed in a car. According to sources, four carloads of hunt saboteurs, believed to have been from Liverpool, tried to follow some hunt members
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Two Kent hunt saboteurs, Harry Blackhurst and Robert Bridger, have been charged with harassment. The pair appeared before Margate Magistrates' Court in mid-August and their trial is due to begin on 30 April 2025. Blackhurst, who is a senior recruitment manager at global logistics platform Flexport, is the spokesperson
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In December 2023, Lord Mandelson made the extraordinary confession that in 1996 then-Labour leader Tony Blair accepted a £1 million donation from Brian Davies, founder of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, in order to end fox hunting. “I’ve known for many years that Labour’s Hunting Act 2004
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A former joint master of the Pytchley with Woodland Hunt in Northamptonshire, Mark Ferguson, has successfully appealed his 2022 conviction for assault, with the judge concluding that a hunt saboteur was the real aggressor. During the appeal hearing at Nottingham Crown Court on August 29th and 30th, His Honour Judge
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The large group of hunt saboteurs who disrupted a grouse shoot at the Wemmergill Estate on 12th August boasted of being paid £200 each to aggravate guests and incite violence, according to an eyewitness. The observer, who we are choosing not to name for safety reasons, reported that the saboteurs
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In the early days of August the UK was shaken by outbreaks of riots, vandalism and thuggery on streets across the country. At the time of writing, over 1,000 individuals have been arrested and hundreds charged for their participation in these acts of violence. Some readers may look at
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Within its claim to introduce the “biggest boost to animal welfare in a generation” this weekend, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has allegedly promised to outlaw trail hunting, leading to widespread criticism. After Tony Blair’s government enforced the Hunting Act in February 2005, hunts across the UK sought to
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The new target for the so-called animal lovers at Protect the Wild is the economic fabric of the British countryside – the small, often family-run businesses which are trying to survive in increasingly difficult times. Protect the Wild has announced it will soon launch a new website, which will be a