A COVERT group of hunt saboteurs who infiltrated West Somerset’s three packs of staghounds last autumn have spoken about what they have uncovered

Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) intelligence unit members attended undercover a number of meets of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, Quantock Staghounds, and Tiverton Staghounds.

They said hunts routinely switched between different loopholes in the law, but mostly relied on a ‘research and observation’ exemption in the Hunting Act, allowing the use of two dogs if observing or studying the deer.

A HSA spokesperson said: “In a competitive field, this is surely the most outrageous claim of any hunt in the country.

“The stomach-churning spectacle of the staghounds pursuing stags with relays of two hounds, together with a gang on quad bikes, is about as far from scientific research as it is possible to get.

“An operative from the covert unit attended the Simonsbath meet to witness the brutal hunting and killing of a fine Exmoor stag.

“Supporters were keen to point out this animal had been hunted to exhaustion just a few days before.

“No doubt broken by that earlier pursuit, the stag was easy prey.”

The spokesperson said a week later, the unit witnessed another healthy, mature stag hunted to exhaustion and killed.

They said: “This animal should have been entering the rut, leading a herd, passing on strong genetics, and playing his role in a stable ecosystem.

“Instead, he was run for ‘sport’, surrounded, and killed so the hunt could celebrate another killing in what one supporter called their ‘best season ever’.

“Our operatives witnessed the ritual butchering of dead stags, with the huntsman ripping open the abdomen so hounds could gorge on the intestines.”

The spokesperson said the intelligence unit revealed how determined stag hunters were constantly adapting and how banning ‘trail hunting’ would not be enough to stop hunters in their tracks.