Hunt saboteurs disrupted several shoots in the Yorkshire Dales on the first day of the grouse shooting season yesterday.
Shoots in Wensleydale, Swaledale and Arkengarthdale were targeted.
According to the Hunt Saboteurs Association, more than 100 activities took part in the direct action.
Police were called and a stand-off between shooting parties and the saboteurs took place on several moors.
The action has been condemned by the Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group, with a spokesperson saying the activists ran and shouted obscenities at children who were beating with the shooting parties.
One gamekeeper said: “I was on the Greetes Moor enjoying a family day out with the kids and local farmers.
“We had just lined out for the first drive after lunch when a large group of masked youths jumped over the fence and started running towards our kids, which you can imagine was terrifying for them.
“Once close enough, torrents of abuse were thrown at us so we quickly packed up and left the moor.
“Once the beaters were back in Woodhall, the poor kids were met with another wave of abusive masked thugs who were also shouting and gesturing to random passing cars.”
The Hunt Saboteurs Association said in a post on its website: “We found our first driven shoot located above the village of Healaugh on Reeth Low Moor.
“A stand off ensued whilst the shooters called in the police and we held them there for several hours and monitored them for the rest of the day.
One gamekeeper said several vermin traps were found to have been destroyed after the activists left yesterday.
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Brilliant work hunt sabs
Taliban impersonators advancing on the Yorkshire Dales – nobody wants you, so please go back to wherever you came from.
Many rural residents are deeply against the grouse shooting industry. It causes immense harm to our native wildlife and grouse moor management directly contributes to both climate change and to the nature emergency that we are all facing. Heather burning causes severe local air pollution at times and moorland drainage increases the flood risk in our communities and beyond. Almost any other use of our moorlands would be less damaging and preferable.
Saw these sabs out yesterday – well done to them stopping thia barbaric and environmentally dangerous ‘sport’
Well done sabs. Keep up the great work.
Looking at them, it’s probably the first thing they’ve done since they were furloughed and laid off last year!
The shooters?
Wonderful news! How can killing for fun ever be justified? I note, with amazement, that one keeper attempted to garner sympathy by saying it was a family day out! I imagine Atilla the Hun had such “family days out” letting his children watch captives being butchered.
Very strange in this day and age of camera phones that there is no record of all of this supposed abuse. Are the bang bang boys telling porkies?
As usual, it’s the only argument that they can spout. Never able to supply evidence.
I am staggered to read the 3 messages of support for a group of criminals calling themselves saboteurs, where are you going next, will you be cheering on thieves, rapists and murderers?
Clearly there are a minority of uneducated individuals who think that because someone takes part in an activity which they don’t agree with, then it is fine to break the law and torment law abiding people, including children!
Sadly this minority have no idea of the excellent work done by shoots and keepers in the dales maintaining healthy stocks of not only game species but also wild bird populations.
I would suspect that these “sabs” are in fact brought in from towns and cities for a free outing with lunch thrown in. They won’t have a clue what they are even protesting about. Their only interest is causing upset and trouble and using “environmental issues” as an excuse. Pathetic.
Sabs are not ‘brought in, they get there at their own expense and bring their own packed lunches. They wear masks because if they are identified they will receive threats and assaults from the bloodthirsty wildlife terrorists who aren’t happy unless they are killing things for fun
Rubbish, complete rubbish. Game keepers use illegal traps & upset the balance of the wildlife by trapping scavengers and shooting anything they may see as a threat to their “oh so precious” birds. Saboteurs do not use weapons, they do things more humanely.
Contrary to popular belief, many of them live in rural areas & understand the countryside much better than some jumped-up land owner does.
My experience is that Sabs are intelligent principled people and come from a variety of backgrounds – both rural and urban. They haves a belief that I share that grouse shooting is a cruel and destructive blot on the Dales landscape. It is no surprise that North Yorkshire is the worst county in the UK for raptor crimes. Large swathes of moorland are bereft of wildlife. I am heartened that many farmers I know are having increasing reservations about the whole shooting industry. We need more biodiversity – meadows and moorland full of wildflowers and wildlife. Hats off to the saboteurs
You seem to be the only Dales resident who was upset by the sabs apart from you shooters. All other comments are in complete support for them. The sabs know exactly what they are protesting about, and it’s the misuse of the uplands. Snares & traps laid all over the place killing all life expect for the Grouse. Burning the uplands so no other animals can survive, & damaging the environment. People are sick of it, sooner it’s banned the better.
Typical ill-advised actions and supporting comments from people who don’t understand the countryside
You certainly don’t. Grouse shooting causes wildlife persecution, habitat destruction & provides little to no benefit for the rural economy.
well done sabs keep it up.
Looking at life and death from the grouse point of view: Gemma the grouse was bumbling over the moor, contemplating a fine day out with her family. Suddenly a group of frightening loud humans, called beaters, appeared over the horizon. Gemma and her family fled in terror, only to find that another group of these humans were shooting at her and her family. Lots of her family were killed and Gemma was traumatised. Gemma couldn’t understand why anyone would want to take such action against them. Back to these humans – isn’t it interesting that they were worried for their children when the sabs appeared (perfectly understandable), but cannot see that their actions are terrifying for wildlife.
How patronising to say that some comments are from people who “don’t understand the countryside!” What do you know that they don’t