On Saturday 26 February, hunt saboteurs from Bristol, Bath and South Wales attended a meet of the Cotswold Vale Farmers foxhunt at Southwick Farm near Tewkesbury.

At approximately 2.30pm the Huntsman (Alan Morgan) and Whip (John Hodges) instigated a vicious and sustained attack on sabs, who were on a footpath. The attack involved hunt supporters including Hodges' son. With Alan and John attempting to ride people down, the supporters coralled sabs in a gateway and attacked them. They body barged a female sab before punching a male sab to the ground where they kicked him in the face and about the upper body. They also stole his video camera. When a female sab tried to intervene she was thrown down a wooded bank. Alan, the huntsman, trapped two female sabs against a fence and attempted to steal their video camera, but he failed, so he pushed one of the females to the floor and encouraged his horse to walk over her - luckily she was un-injured as the horse trod carefully over her.
The sabs eventually managed to escape but were followed by the hunt supporters who kicked and abused them until they made it to the safety of their vehicle. Undeterred by the attack they continued to monitor the hunt for the rest of the day before taking one of their number, who they suspected of having broken ribs, to seek medical attention. The police are now investigating the attack.
This is just the latest in a long line of attacks by the Cotswold Vale Hunt on hunt saboteurs. Three years ago they smashed a female sab over the head with an iron bar. They have also kicked a sab unconscious, broken several peoples ribs and stolen a number of video cameras. Alan Morgan, the huntsman, is currently being investigated by police after being caught on film making racist remarks to a hunt saboteur.

Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, stated: “Violence is a way of life for these people. They abuse animals every day and are happy to do the same to people who stand in their way. They have been allowed, with the collusion of the police, to get away with these vicious, cowardly attacks for far too long. These attacks will not deter our members, in fact, they only make us more determined to stop them illegally hunting and killing British wildlife.”