Holly Barclay / 17 December 2024 / Categories: Opinions, Authorities and Justice, Other

HUNTING IN Leicestershire

On Saturday 14th December, 2024 our beautiful picturesque village in the heart of the Leicestershire countryside was invaded, not by the military moving in with tanks and weapons but a different type of swarm, upper class ladies and gents who get a thrill out of chasing defenceless wild animals over hill and vale, I never understood the pleasure in slowly torturing a living thing to death, secretively.

It made me think about the liberation last week of Syria from the Bashar Al Assad regime and how the largest mass graves in history have come to light in Tadamon, a suburb of Damascus, The state of a mass grave in Damascus and statements by people living in the surrounding area suggest that the area is a mass crime scene and may have been the site of other summary executions.

On Saturday the pack of dogs, the hounds running with the horses and riders was the biggest I’ve ever witnessed in my life, a frenzy in attack mode and being from a farming family I grew up with the Hunt and the Hunt Ball, a sort of symbol of status before anyone really ever gave a thought to what exactly was involved.

It was a shock even for me seeing this barbaric outlawed activity carrying on without anyone batting an eyelid.

_

It also made me think of the British dressage Olympian Charlotte Dujardin, Britain's joint-most decorated female Olympian, suspended by equestrian's governing body the FEI.

The video which she said showed her "making an error of judgement" (hitting her horse) was the catalyst to her pulling out of the Paris Olympics this summer.

The FEI said it had received footage showing three-time Olympic gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin "engaging in conduct contrary to the principles of horse welfare - during a training session at Ms Dujarin’s private stable".

When the hunt comes to the village they completely take over and absolutely no sign of the police. They charge in without warning, don’t ask permission, their trailers and kit block the roads and the sleepy village calm erupts into a fervour I imagine a fat drunk might display in the company of a young nubile harlot.

This Saturday, we didn’t call the police. There is absolutely no point they don’t attend for things the public might consider a more serious crime than fox hunting.

But more than anything it is the sheer arrogance, that sense of entitlement, being above the law, for me, the blatant disregard for anything except what satisfies. So I struggle to see the difference between a sleepy Leicestershire village and Damascus, Syria. People keeping their mouths shut.