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Andrew Osborne, new to the job of being Chairman of the Masters of Foxhounds Association seems to think that security procedures can stop someone from filming at a kennels. This idea is absurd, a handheld camera can be left to record for over a week and film at distances of several hundred meters, all it takes is the right terrain and angle and it becomes obvious that most hunt kennels are vulnerable to being filmed.
What have they got to hide?

This newsletter was published shortly after the webinars from the MFHA came out last year. They talk a lot about following trails, but are talking about killing rabbits at the same time. Making it difficult to believe they are actually trail hunting:

Hounds of course are frequently injured, this is the Hunting Office guidelines to keeping vet bills as low as possible:

When Mr.Hankinson the director of the MFHA made his first court appearance earlier this year, Mr. Mancroft sent out this carefully worded explanation as to why Mr.Hankinson couldn’t possibly be guilty. No doubt many of the hunt masters who received the messaged were greatly relieved…

In May of last year, the position of Chair of the Masters of Foxhunting Association was held by Benjamin Mancroft, but a replacement was being sought. Sir Henry Bellingham it seems was going to be shoed it by his friend Benjy..

PDF can be viewed here.

Last month the guntraders website was hacked and all the user details went onto the dark web, you can read about that here.
Whilst it is important to remember that not all gun owners shoot animals, many only shoot targets, the vast majority do indeed kill animals for fun and sometimes even go on to kill humans. There is no need for anyone to own a gun.

You can download the database here. (those hosting the document may take it down at any point, if you can download it, please do, it helps us get as many copies out there as possible)

Once you have downloaded it (the more people who download it the better) we highly recommend that if you haven’t already you download “Google Earth“. Once you have opened Google Earth you can then goto File, then “Import” then follow the steps, it’s a fairly large file for the Google Earth to handle, so give it a few minutes, then zoom into wherever you want to find gunowners.

The grouse shooting season has already begun.
The partridge shooting season starts on September the 1st.
The 6 week intensive culling of badgers usually begins early September.

Many of these people will be on this database, please do contact as many as you can in your area and ask them if they are involved in shooting animals, the database contains plenty of contact details.

You could also ask gun owners why they think that council tax payers should be funding their “sport”, the cost of a shotgun renewal licence is only £49, yet the cost to police forces to process the licence was £196 in 2014. David Cameron and successive tory governments have blocked a price increase, meaning that all council tax payers have to subsidise shotgun and firearms holders.

MFHA had over half a million pounds in reserves in December of 2019.
With many hunts struggling to stay afloat financially even before covid. Why does any hunt give them a single penny?

This is a copy of an email sent out to people who have are involved in hunting and had their details put up on this the hunting leaks website. Sent out by Polly Portwin from the Countryside Alliance.

As you can read from this set of minutes and in many other documents on this website, land is being withdrawn from hunts after land owners are contacted. Once that land is out of circulation to the hunt it has a huge knock on effect for them, they have to find new routes and it can be devastating for them. These are old minutes, posting them to highlight the importance of contacting land owners.

                              This is Hunting UK Committee Meeting. 
                                     Sunday 13th November 2016
                                  The Greyhound Hotel, Lutterworth

Chairman: James Barclay
Date:13th November 2016
Place: The Greyhound Hotel, Lutterworth
Time 12 noon

Apologies – Robin-Bell Irving, John Osbourne, Rachel Tiffin, Henry de Fossard, Kathy
William Montgomery, Sally Merrison, Fran Allman, Brett Parker, Viki Ross
Cathy McFadden, Keith McCall, Bryan Pye, Gary Thorpe, Dave Collop, Freddie Ingall, Robin Ingall
Liz Mort, Charles Carter, Sir John Scott, Jonathon Beckerlegge, Miles Cooper, Olly Hill
Polly Portwin, Karen Davidson-White Roderick Moore, Andy Boyes ,Paul Dunn.

Present- James Barclay, Lou Berry, Dave Bingham, Andrew Smith, Anna Ernsting, Gareth Watchman, Mike Smith, Clive Rees, Dan Mottishaw, Anna Alcock, Liz Rhys-Jones, Matthew Waddington, Chris Waddington, Lavinia Wells, Fiona Symes, Susie Goess, Allan Storey, Martin Weatherhead, Richard Hall.

As the Committee Meeting was held on Remembrance Sunday, a two minutes silence was held in remembrance of the Fallen from the two World Wars and all subsequent Wars.

   Minutes of the last Committee Meeting.

Chairman’s Introduction. Unity and Positive Thinking across our Committee And how to encourage non hunting families, across the UK Tto have a far greater understanding of our activities.
As an example of this, James spoke briefly about the Bucks County Show and how important it was, so many people wanting to know more about hunting which is always a positive thing and something that must be taken note of in developing the work of This is Hunting UK as a whole.
Mike Smith Master from the Old Berkley Beagles spoke about the importance of involving young people he learnt a lot from the Bucks show where he interacted with the children, they all loved the Beagles and listening to Mike explain about them.

Shows Report.
James read the report by John Osbourne, all shows were a great success namely, encouraging new and old to hunting. Speaking to people about TiHUK and how important our role is. James also asked that we actively encourage our own people. Thanks to John Osbourne for this and all his work. The Burton Families day was also a huge success when a very large number of non hunting people visited the Kennels for their Families Day. Thanks to the Masters, Hunt Supporters and Bryan Pye for all their help in organising this
Fund Raising
Finance Chairman, Dave Bingham spoke about how important it is for TiHUK to raise funds. We have our new badges available to sell to hunts and the wider public it is hoped we should see a £900 net profit from these once sold.
Lou Berry has spoken with Michael Sagar of Hounds Magazine and organised a free advertisement to promote our Badges and advertising banners for businesses on the TiHUK website.
Letters are going out to potential sponsors this week hopefully to secure some funding.
Dave also spoke about the importance of linking our Facebook page to our website to direct traffic from there. Also, to try to secure a company to support TiHUK much like Lush support the Saboteur’s Association
We also spoke about TiHUK having a membership and whether the CA would have any objection, however it was decided that now was not the right time. We discussed the possibility of committee members and the wider public donating via a Direct Debit. It was also mentioned that committee members could think about how hunts in their area could be involved in fundraising.
It was mentioned to the Committee that it would possibly be a good idea to set up an Instagram account, the more likes you get the better it is for sponsorship.
Commercial crown funding was discussed, Dave Bingham set up a just giving page which was very successful generating £1200, with Dave Collop and his colleagues getting behind this. We could promote the just giving page again.
It was also mentioned that we could maybe be set up for Gift aid.
Dave also he was working on a business plan to apply to the Heritage Lottery for a grant.
It was also mentioned that when attending future shows we should have TiHUK merchandise available to sell so we can generate an income from them rather than just attending to spread our message.
It was suggested that we need to be better positioned at some of the show we attend for maximum impact.
 Community and Education
The matter of educating the younger generation in hunting was also raised and various methods of doing this were discussed including possible trips to kennels by schools.
Mike Smith raised the prospect of young farmer’s clubs being involved in different aspects of hunting, including having specific days at hunts for the young farmers, this has had great success in the areas were Mike is based.

   Badges

Matthew and Chris Waddington explained about the production of our TiHUK badges which were launched at the end of our meeting. We have 250 badges available some of which were taken by various committee members to be sold to family, friends and hunts. By the end of the meeting the cost of production had been met any sold after this we be profit to TiHUK.
It was also discussed about the production of rubber wristbands with our logo on prices to be confirmed. And, different editions of badges namely the different colours of the various hunts.
 Saboteur activity.
It was discussed that the Atherstone Hunt are still being heavily targeted by Sabs.
Anna Ernsting also informed us that the Ross Harriers are also suffering heavily with sab activity they have had their hunt ball cancelled by the hotel because of the pressure put on them by the protesters. They were also experiencing problems with them, hounds being deliberately being called on to the road.
They have also unfortunately had land owners withdraw the use of their land because of the pressure put on them by Sabs.
The Tedworth have had a few problems with sabs as have the Bleasdale.
It was also reported to the group that someone had approached the board of water for information on the coniston hunt meets and they were willing to pay for any information given.
Within the forestry commission land sabs have applied for hunt meet dates quoting the freedom of information act.
No reported sab activity with the Essex, South Notts,Old Berkley Beagles and the Goathland and Glaisdale.
TiHUK needs to work closely with any hunts who are having problems with sabs and to support Pubs, Hotels etc. who are also having problems with sabs.
 Newcomers days.
Unfortunately, we did not have all the information from the CA regarding newcomer’s week, however they seem to have been a great success across the country.
 Actions for all
Holiday meets.
Hunting family’s try to encourage none hunting families to attend holiday meets.
Hunting and Shooting Improving relationships on how the two can come together
 Date of next meeting Sunday 8th of January 2017
 Meeting Closed at 3.50pm