Fox’s protector comes forward
THE “mystery” man who helped protect a fox from hounds in East Devon has come forward.
Police are continuing to appeal for witnesses to the incident which happened on Boxing Day afternoon near Shute.
Sidmouth resident Prescilla Lynch, 52, claims to have found herself in the middle of the pack of hunting hounds in her field when Alun Metcalf stopped to help. The psychology student at Cardiff University, had been to Sidmouth for the day with his family when he saw the hunt.
“Traffic was stopping to let the hunt cross the road and as we got closer I saw a fox come out of the hedge closely followed by the hounds,” he said. “I could see that a lady was shouting to keep the dogs off the fox so I decided to help.”
The 31-year-old crawled through the hedge and pushed the hounds off the fox and then protected it with his body, until the dogs went back to the hunters.
“If it hadn’t been for Mrs Lynch’s actions the fox would have been torn to bits, that I have no doubt,” he said. “If the law is hard to enforce then it needs to be improved, such as muzzling the hounds.”
PC Steve Speariett, who is investigating the incident, said: “In order to prove there was an offence, it has to be shown that the hunt did not take reasonable steps to get the hounds away from the fox. We will gather all available evidence and if there’s enough to prosecute, we will.
“We believe we know which hunt was in the area at the time.”
The Hunting Act came into force in 2004, preventing the pursuit of wild mammals with dogs – but not banning trail or scent hunting.
East Devon MP Hugo Swire said: “The Hunting Act is a badly drafted piece of legislation because many elements simply cannot be enforced. There are more people hunting than ever. I don’t want a repeal of the Act but a bigger and improved Bill looking at animal welfare. Although the Government is committed to a free vote it’s not going to be a priority when there is the budget deficit to deal with.”
Anyone with any information should contact Devon and Cornwall Police on 101, quoting log number 216 of 28/12/11.
http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/Fox-s-protector-comes-forward/story-14974463-detail/story.html
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Dangerous dogs should be muzzled!
Well done to the mystery man and the lady what they did was very brave, again this scum hunting were breaking the law it is happening all over and these bastards are getting away with it , it is disgracefull and the Law needs to be changed to STOP ALL HUNTING AND SHOOTING COMPLETELY. It is not possible to drag hunt with loads of hounds, if they pick up a scent of a fox they will automatically go for it as that is what they are trained to do and the hunters don’t seem to have any control over the dogs to stop them even if they wanted to. Also these scum were trespassing if they were on the ladies field so they should be prosecuted for that and for breaking the law by hunting with more than two hounds .
Top bloke. Well done. If I ever meet you there’ll be a cold pint on standby
Wow! Amazing work by a very brave man! Hunting obviously continuing…come on Police, monitor them!
What an amazing compassionate man. And proof – if it was ever needed anyway – that these hunters believe they are above the law. Why is Cameron even talking about a repeal? Outlawing hunting with dogs hasn’t made the slightest bit of difference to these arrogant people.
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I applaud the guy .. he is a real life hero .. as for David Scameron and the other “toffe nosed twats” .. they are just a bunch of pathetic cowards!!
It’s about time the law was enforced properly, Why isn’t it?Is it because the huntspeople are mainly toffs? Do the police expect people to carry cameras around with them, to do their job for them. Do they only take the toffs word for what happened? It appears so, why would a man put himself at risk? Wake up Camoron(no spelling mistake there) do your job properly. At least get one thing right during your reign.
Would love to buy this guy a pint – how was the fox by the way?
you can actually teach hounds to drag hunt following aniseed based scent because it is so much stronger for the hounds to follow – that is what genuine drag hunts use and the reason fox hunts so strenuously resist the suggestion to make use aniseed based drags mandatory is because once hounds are taught to track aniseed they do not return to fox scent.The great thing about the high speed rail link from the Midlands to the Eurotunnel is it will force many of the hunts along the route to move to genuine drag or risk carnage
Thank god we still have compasionate people who are not scared to act and save a life.
Well done to those 2 people and yes this act should be reviewed.
my absolute admiration to you….I’d like to think I would do the same…you saved a life! xxxxxxxx
Hats off to you Alun.
If they must do it, muzzle the hounds. They (the hunts) surely can’t argue with that can they? Unless of course they are flouting the law deliberately.