The end of summer marks the start of the UK hunting season. For myself and others, this means preparing ourselves for months of physical and mental hardship, a perpetual lack of sleep and a very sharp downturn in the state of our mental health. Most sabs keep conventional jobs and some are simultaneously active against the badger cull, which means autumn is weeks of almost constant work. Cub hunting takes place early in the season (approximately August to October) and involves the targeting of very young fox cubs in order to train inexperienced hounds, usually in the early hours of the morning while the weather is cool and the scent is easier for the pack to follow. The League Against Cruel Sports estimates that up to 10,000 fox cubs may be killed this way every single year.
On a typical Saturday during cubbing, sabs are up and out before 4.30am, meeting for pick-up and thinking about what the following hours will be like. Personally I’ve made myself a coffee, emptied my bag of all identifiable information and written emergency phone numbers on my inner arm. It is likely that my colleagues and I will be threatened, taunted, spat at and pushed around. A less likely but possible outcome is that sabs will get seriously hurt or arrested. The reason we put ourselves in this situation is simply because hunting for sport is never justifiable. Every saboteur is different, but we are united by our motivation to disrupt hunting using efficient direct action. We can make use of voice calls, hunting horns, whips, citronella, false trails and other effective interference techniques. Sometimes our mere presence is enough to shut down a hunt, but other times we may have to sit on earths to physically prevent a kill taking place.