A HUNT member has spoken of her fear after dozens of animal rights activists armed with sprays and whips descended on a legal hunt meeting in the north Derbyshire countryside.
Jackie Carr, aged 45, is a long-standing member of the High Peak Harriers, a horseback pack which hunts hares and fox in the countryside surrounding Buxton, Bakewell, Matlock and the Hope Valley.
On Saturday as many as 25 hunt saboteurs, some in ba
laclavas, tried to break up the hunt using horns and scent-sprays. A fleet of police cars and the Derbyshire Police helicopter were called to monitor the confrontation.
Today Jackie, who keeps sheep, works in a tea-room, and looks after horses in Hartington, Derbyshire, claimed the saboteurs had been "very intimidating.".
She said: "Whatever they do to us, we always try not to respond and try to speak politely to them.
"But on Saturday they were interfering with children's ponies and sabotaging the jumps with barbed wire.
"It is getting worse and it can be very intimidating, but if won't stop us hunting. If anything it makes us stronger.
"What we are doing is still legal and it is such a waste of police resources when they are called out to this sort of thing."
The saboteurs were not from one organised group, but were made up of three sets of activists, thought to be from London, Northamptonshire and Manchester.
They intercepted the High Peak Hunt - which is based in Buxton and hunts mainly hare - in the hamlet of King Sterndale, near Buxton.
Jackie said: "Initially the different saboteurs were arguing among themselves about the best way to protest.
"One of the groups comes regularly and is usually quite well-behaved, but another of the groups was much more aggressive.
"They started giving some of the foot-followers grief and then one lady was spat at and a little girl aged about nine or 10 on a little pony was sprayed with something.
"Then they started to interfere with the jumps. If we need to jump a boundary wall on our horses, the huntsman makes a special jump using two strands of barbed wire which is undone before we reach it. But the saboteurs had gone ahead and had fastened the wire back up again.
"For people who claim to be animal lovers that is a very dangerous thing to do indeed. Barbed wire can seriously injure a horse and can do real damage to its legs.
"Their behaviour can be very intimidating, especially if they manage to corner you on your own because there are so many of them. Their presence is a regular occurrence now and it is getting worse."
The High Peak Hunt now hunts hare but, after the implementation of the Hunting Act February 18 next year, it will hunt rabbit instead.
n Are you one of the hunt saboteurs?
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