Filmed: moment a hunt master appears to take whip to protester
Incident reported to police by animal rights group, but supporters insist clip has been taken out of context
A HUNT master has been reported to police after she allegedly attacked a saboteur with a whip.
Footage appears to show Lulu Hutley, 56, joint master of the Surrey Union Hunt, lashing out at the male activist with a riding crop.
Campaigners said the video was filmed while they were monitoring the huntsmen during a meet in Bramley, Surrey, on Saturday afternoon.
Tempers flared when members of Guildford Hunt Saboteurs followed the riding party on to private land because they “suspected they were illegally hunting”.
Protester Conor Macleod, who is in his 20s and was wearing a backpack, became trapped between a horse and gate.
The footage then appears to show Ms Hutley, who was wearing a distinctive Surrey Union master’s collar and riding gear, raise her arm and strike.
Collin Skilton, from the Guildford Hunt Saboteurs, witnessed the altercation.
The 55-year-old, of Dorking, Surrey, said: “The saboteurs followed them on private ground because they suspected they were illegally hunting.
“They were asked to leave and they tried to make their way back. Conor, the lad who was hit, got jammed between the fence.”
He alleged: “She lost her rag on the day. She lost her temper because they tried to hunt without us.”
Guildford Hunt Saboteurs say they have been fighting against animal abuse in the area for more than 30 years, and focus particularly on monitoring the activities of the Surrey Union.
The Surrey Union Hunt claimed the clip has been taken out of context and that the hunt saboteurs, some of whom allegedly wore masks, were intimidating.
It said in a statement: “You can clearly see Lulu is holding the whip upsidedown in order to hit the gate, not the person.
“She saw the protester was trapped between the horse and the gate and was trying to make a noise by banging on the gate to get the horse to back off.
“It was quick thinking by one of our masters in a dangerous situation
‘You can clearly see Lulu is holding the whip upside down in order to hit the gate’
and it’s terribly sad it’s being misrepresented. As always, we were following an artificial scent trail, and indeed the protesters would have seen this being laid down by a rider earlier.”
Footage from the incident has been supplied to Surrey Police.
A spokesman for the force said it was investigating reports of a common assault in Bramley on Saturday.
He said: “Officers were called following reports of an incident near Thorncombe Street around 1.30pm. A man al- leged he was assaulted by a man and a woman following a verbal altercation. An investigation is under way and enquiries remain ongoing.”
Hunting has come under tighter restrictions in England and Wales since 2005, but tensions remain high between hunting enthusiasts and groups against the practice.
The Hunt Saboteur Association says it uses a number of tactics to disrupt country sports “from using hunting horns and voice calls to run off with the hounds at fox hunts, to standing in front of the shooting butts on the grouse moors, to wading through the rivers at mink hunts”.
Activists have recently been accused of resorting to dirty tricks to target hunts and the local businesses that support them. The Countryside Alliance claimed that saboteurs were making fake restaurant reservations and leaving bad online reviews instead of using violence to disrupt the sport.
Ms Hutley declined to comment.