A Cold War in the English Countryside
WARWICKSHIRE, England — The S.U.V. trundled along the English country road at dawn, its five masked occupants wearing black as the Warwickshire countryside rolled past.
They spotted their target: hunters on horseback at a grand estate. Hounds appeared, followed by galloping horses, their riders sporting navy blue jackets and cream jodhpurs. Cries of “Go, go, go!” rang from the vehicle as the masked occupants leaped out.
The chase was on: The hunters had become the hunted.
In England’s rural heartland, a kind of cold war rages. The conflict is between those who support fox hunting and those who do not. But at a deeper level, the dispute reveals the class divides and clash of traditions that still fracture British society.
Although the hunting of foxes, or any wild mammals, using dogs was outlawed in Britain in 2004, “trail hunting,” where the hounds chase an artificially laid scent, is allowed.
Anti-hunt activists say that the exemption is a smoke screen and that the dogs often wind up killing an actual fox. A killing can be prosecuted if there is evidence that the hunters should have been aware that the hounds were pursuing a live animal and did nothing to stop them. Hundreds of such cases have been brought.
The hunters say that they only trail hunt on private land with owners’ permission and that they do not kill animals; they say activists trespass.
The activists that dawn were part of a group who venture into Warwickshire, in western England, intent on disrupting the practice of fox hunting, a centuries-old blood sport in which the animals are tracked, chased and killed by hounds.
At least three times a week, the activists pursue the galloping riders by S.U.V. and on foot through forests and fields, both to film evidence of what the activists say are illegal activities and to do whatever they can to hinder the actual hunt.
Turning the hunters’ tools against them, the activists blow their own hunting horns and crack whips in an attempt to confuse the hounds. They also wield canisters of citronella spray to mask the foxes’ scent and employ small amplifiers that play the sound of crying hounds to unsettle the pursuing pack further.
On this occasion, the activists were chasing the Warwickshire Hunt, founded in 1791 and considered one of England’s most prestigious hunting groups. As she trudged along in pursuit of the hunt, Cathy Scott, 46, a 20-year veteran of the group, said, “It’s a war.”
Saboteurs have been known to risk serious injury by charging into the path of sprinting horses to get between them and a fox.
Ms. Scott said that death threats are common. Some activists say their vehicles have been rammed off the road. Mutilated foxes have been dumped outside homes. The risks are worth it, they say, if a fox can be spared a gruesome death. “It’s not a quick kill,” Ms. Scott said. “They’re ripped to shreds.”
To the hunters, the activists are “rural terrorists” threatening an age-old tradition.
Sam Butler, 65, the Warwickshire Hunt’s chairman, said, “They simply do not like us.”
Clashes of class and tradition that still fracture society.