I was invaded by hunt dogs

A MAN has told how his garden was invaded by a pack of hunting hounds chasing the scent of a fox.

Ben Hall, 64, was with a friend at home in Highmoor on Saturday when a pack of about 25 fox hounds tore across his lawn in pursuit of two foxes that had passed by minutes earlier.

He claimed the dogs were “out of control” as they ran around his lawn searching for the scent.

The hounds were part of a group from Kimblewick Hunt, which was holding a trail hunt that morning.

The joint master of the hunt has apologised and said the dogs had strayed from the trail.

Mr Hall, a props designer, grew up in Highmoor at Stonehouse Farm before moving with his wife Nathalie to a converted pig unit on the same land. Foxes are a common occurrence in their garden but he said they had never caused any issues. Mr Hall said: “We have a little resident fox we see here once every five or six weeks. He doesn’t cause any harm, he’s just a young fox passing through.”

He was having a coffee with his friend at noon on Saturday when he spotted a fox outside and noticed its body language was unusual.

Mr Hall said: “When we sit in here, they often run past but this one was moving a bit quickly and his tail was really bushy.”

He spotted a second fox moments later moving in the opposite direction before disappearing.

A few minutes later, the pack of hounds thundered down a footpath connecting the house to the former farm.

Mr Hall claimed the dogs must have run through the privately owned land by the farm. They crossed his land and then ventured on to the village cricket pitch before circling around the gardens of a neighbouring house and then returning to his garden.

The dogs ran in circles searching for the scent while Mr Hall and his friend attempted to shoo them away.

He said: “They were all over the place and wouldn’t listen. They were all around trying to pick up the trail.

“All the dogs were out of control. This whole garden was just a sea of dogs sniffing with me shouting at them.

“Imagine if we’d had a couple of kids out here, or a cat, or another dog. The point was they were unsupervised and completely out of control.

“It’s a private garden and, okay, it’s a very big garden but that’s not the point. If people can’t control their dogs, they shouldn’t be allowed out.”

A rider from the hunt, which had stopped on the main road by the cricket ground, rode up to the garden to retrieve the dogs.

Mr Hall said he approached one of the riders to demand to know was going on and admitted he was “hyped up”.

He said: “I went to the nearest guy and said, ‘Are you hunting a fox?’ and he said they weren’t and I said ‘You are hunting a fox’.

“He said, ‘Are you calling me a liar?’ and I said, ‘I’m calling you a ****ing liar’.

“They wouldn’t tell me who they were and I thought ‘I’m going to hit someone if I stay there’. I’d said my piece so I left.”

Mr Hall said: “I’ve lived here all my life and we’ve occasionally heard them [hunts] but they shouldn’t be in the village.

“I’m not one of these vegan, Extinction Rebellion types. I used to go shooting and I am a fisherman but I don’t like fox hunting.”

Chris Austin, who was joint leader of the hunt that day, said it was “erroneous” to call it a fox hunt and what happened was simply an accident.

He offered his apologies to Mr Hall.

Mr Austin said Kimblewick Hunt had stopped fox hunting when it was banned under the Hunting Act of 2004.

Instead it carried out trail hunts in which riders and hounds follow an artificial scent. On Saturday, the horse riders and hounds had set off on a trail hunt from Peppard Common at 11am.

The trail laid by a quadbike rider took the hunt north through the woods towards Highmoor.

Mr Austin was in the fields behind the cricket pitch when the incident occurred and said he was not aware of anything out of the ordinary.

He called a friendly landowner in Highmoor after the hunt who reported that nothing unusual had happened.

Mr Austin said: “Once in a blue moon the hounds may deviate from the trail but we’ve been doing this for a long time.

“None of the hounds has ever hunted a real fox in their lives as the hunt is always artificial.

“I’m not doubting this person’s word and if he is concerned, I’d be very happy to go and see him.

“If we did go on to his property then I’m very sorry. I didn’t see it, but occasionally they do go wrong.

“Obviously as we move through the countryside we disturb rabbits and deer and other wildlife will run in the opposite direction.

“We try to work out most of our trail so that we minimise disturbance as much as possible. It’s certainly not our policy to go where we are not wanted.

“We always do our best to make sure we are not in the way as this is everyone’s countryside.”

Mr Austin conceded that it was “theoretically possible” that the hounds could have picked up the scent of a real fox.

“However, there would be no danger to children or pets as that is just not what they do,” he said.

“We have them at shows where children and pets are let in the ring. The dogs love to be petted.”

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