Whilst out drinking on the Friday night we got handed a piece of paper with a hunt meet on it. The person was brief and gave little detail about themself, only to say that it may be of some interest. Later we asked the bar staff and some of the locals who the person was. No one had a name but they knew that the person was a police officer.

We took the info in good faith and on Sat we turned up in the village of Bilsington where the East Kent Hunt was supposed to meet. Never trust a copper - No hunt!. We checked other hunt meets in the area and were close to giving up when we stumbled across a rough shoot on Romney Marsh. On seeing us they packed up and walked back to their cars. We exchanged pleasantries and one of the shooters let it slip that the Wye Beagles were at Brookland, just up the road from us. We hung around for half an hour while they called the police then left for the Wye beagles. Many thanks to the shooters who let us know where the beagles were. I am not sure whather it slipped out by accident or was a way of gettng rid of us, either way we have photos of the gentleman if any hunters are interested.

We found the Wye Beagles(who hunt hares on foot) at Old Cheyne Court near the Woolpack pub at Brookland on the Romney Marsh. At first we had trouble getting to the hunt due to a water channel which was blocking the way. The beagles then got onto the scent of a hare which took them well away from the huntsman and other supporters. We headed after the hounds and once with them we held them in the corner of a field by using voice calls to control them. The hounds responded well to our commands despite the huntsman calling them back. Slowly, one at a time, the hounds ran past us to get to the huntsman. We held the remaining third of the pack for at least 15 mins while the rest our group called the loose hounds away from the hunt. The hunt lost at least an hour and a half getting its pack together.

Then the police arrived to show us just who's side they were on. In a display of bias our group have not seen since the mid 90s, when the then home secretary Michael Howard started his purge against Hunt Sabs when he made protest on private land a criminal offence. First we had to remove any clothing which could conceal our identity,our van driver's mother was called to confim his identity in fear of his arrest. Our van, which is a minibus with windows all around it, was entered by the polce looking for a lost beagle. When the Hunt found the lost hound in a field they packed the hounds in the hunt's trailor as if they had packed up and blew the horn for home. The police then told us the hunt was packing up, but, as we know, you should never trust a copper.

We drove in a large circuit followed by the police. On returning to where we left the hunt we found that they had let the hounds out and continued hunting. To add insult to injury the lying coppers threatened to arrest any one who left the road so we had to sab the from the tarmac. A little later the farce continued when the senior officer present said that he smelt cannabis and ordered a total search of the van and all the sabs present. Needless to say, no drugs were found. They even tried to disguise our calls to the hounds by putting their sirens on. Despite their efforts, some of our group held half the pack away from the huntsma and the hunt then had to get in their vehicles and drive over to us to pick them up. The Hunt then packed up at about 3.45pm after we had ruined their day's hunting, despite the best effort of Ashford police officers.

We would like to thank Kent Police for giving us an example of how police powers can be bent and abused for political reasons and not a genuine attempt to enforce the law.

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