Pepper spray used by police during Sussex hunt protest clashes

3:30pm Tuesday 8th February 2011 in News By Rebecca Evans

Police used pepper spray to break up violent clashes between pro and anti fox hunters.

Officers had to step in when about 25 hunt saboteurs clashed with members of the Crawley and Horsham Hunt at Wiston, near Steyning.

The protesters claimed huntsman rode at saboteurs as three fights broke out.

A spokeswoman for the Hunt Saboteurs Association claimed hunters had also tried to break a vehicle's window.

Both sides deny wrong-doing and have passed on their own video footage of the incident, on Saturday, to police.

It is the latest in a series of flare-ups between the Crawley and Horsham Hunt and fox-hunting protesters.

Last month The Argus reported that police were investigating the hunt over allegations of illegal hunting after a fox was killed by hounds.

Comments(20)

Asbo says...
4:15pm Tue 8 Feb 11

Nothing new with the Crawley and Horsham hunt thugs. If they hunted within the law the sabs would more than likely back off a little..............
............

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NickBrt says...
4:18pm Tue 8 Feb 11

Why is it these hunters don't realise we don't like their cruel outdated activities? hunt each other for goodness sake.

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lorrie2 says...
4:27pm Tue 8 Feb 11

I hope the police, (Sorry I mean thugs) sprayed the fox hunters and not the protesters!!! I though fox hunting was illegal? Cruel, barbarick and evil. and I thought people were supposed to be civilized?

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swim says...
5:23pm Tue 8 Feb 11

pepper spray was used but no arrests ..i cannot think of a situation where it is deemed necessary to use peeper spray but not arrest the person being sprayed.

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rolivan says...
6:55pm Tue 8 Feb 11

What I can not understand is why small tunnels aren't built under the A27 to allow more foxes into Brighton and Hove as I have seen so many killed by vehicles trying to get across.

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Old Ladys Gin says...
7:37pm Tue 8 Feb 11

lorrie2 wrote:
I hope the police, (Sorry I mean thugs) sprayed the fox hunters and not the protesters!!! I though fox hunting was illegal? Cruel, barbarick and evil. and I thought people were supposed to be civilized?
Police spraying hunters instead of protesters?
You are joking of course!

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On_the_Level says...
7:50pm Tue 8 Feb 11

Old Ladys Gin wrote:
lorrie2 wrote: I hope the police, (Sorry I mean thugs) sprayed the fox hunters and not the protesters!!! I though fox hunting was illegal? Cruel, barbarick and evil. and I thought people were supposed to be civilized?
Police spraying hunters instead of protesters? You are joking of course!
I agree must be a typo... It should read 'spraying protestors'

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John Steed says...
8:07pm Tue 8 Feb 11

lorrie2 wrote:
I hope the police, (Sorry I mean thugs) sprayed the fox hunters and not the protesters!!! I though fox hunting was illegal? Cruel, barbarick and evil. and I thought people were supposed to be civilized?
you thought? you dreampt more like.
security words shattered-dreams

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puddingandpi says...
8:58pm Tue 8 Feb 11

What's the difference between people trying to stop an illegal act of animal cruelty taking place & a little old lady battering jewel thieves to stop them from robbing the place?
It's not wrong to use reasonable force to prevent a crime from taking place, is it?

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blardeblar says...
9:48pm Tue 8 Feb 11

A fox killed all my chickens just to eat one of them. I think we should protest againts foxes hunting chickens!! I'm off to paint my banner and annoy them until the fox police take me away.

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mtmoocher says...
10:09pm Tue 8 Feb 11

blardeblar wrote:
A fox killed all my chickens just to eat one of them. I think we should protest againts foxes hunting chickens!! I'm off to paint my banner and annoy them until the fox police take me away.
You should not wish for a brush with the law!

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I love Sussex says...
10:46pm Tue 8 Feb 11

Were the hunters bankers, or just normal Toffs with nothing better to do? Upper class w****ers

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puddingandpi says...
10:08am Wed 9 Feb 11

Hunting is not an Upper Class pass-time. Scum comes from all classes.
Honestly, it's not a class thing, it's a money thing. As long as you're rich, you're in.
Why on earth they can't be happy drag-hunting, I'll never know. They just seem determined to carry on doing this & the more people say they shouldn't, the more determined they are. How childish!

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gheese77 says...
10:18am Wed 9 Feb 11

I thought hunting with dogs was illegal - the police ought to start enforcing the law then there would be no need for hunt saboteurs to protest

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Hard times says...
12:17pm Wed 9 Feb 11

If police were doing their jobs stopping these filthy scumbag hunters then perhaps these people wouldn't have to do their job for them

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mustbemad says...
2:40pm Wed 9 Feb 11

Doh get real, hunting is not about money or class. Its about protecting the countryside. Foxes kill livestock. We live in the countryside. Protestors just want to cause trouble and deliberately annoy those hunting by standing in the way of a moving horse. Protestors need to think of damage that foxes do to our sheep and chickens. Hopefully fox hunting will become legal very soon and protesting will be banned hurrah

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nebhunting says...
3:05pm Wed 9 Feb 11

Of course tha Sabs, oh sorry now called monitors to make them sound better, never do anythinh thats wrong, they never interfere with vehicles (thats why a local hunt has to pay someone to watch over the trailers and horseboxes), always are happy to show their faces so they can be identified, well they would if they took off their balaclavas, never trespass, well never when there is someone to stop them trampling crops, and of course never waste the police's time, well thats when they're not ringing them to get the police helicopter out on a false accusation, and what other group has a direct number to the police on patrol, no one has to have sympathy with these poor sabs, I wonder how many of them actually work and are not on the doll, mind you a day out in the countryside is much nicer than having to go to work. Although the hunt are only trial hunting at the moment it doesn't seem that the sabs want to leave this particular hunt alone, they have been following this hunt for over five years trying to get some video evidence of the hunt breaking the law and as yet they have nothing, perhaps they should take up a hobby like flower arranging, I'm sure it would be of more use.

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SuzieB says...
5:18pm Wed 9 Feb 11

The police helicopter??? Come on "nebhunting" when was the last time you saw that? Well before the Hunting Act came in is the answer. Foxes help to control the number of rabbits, rats and mice. Normal horse riders look out for people on roads and paths. In my experience it's only hunters who expect everyone to get out the way or hold up traffic with their horses and hounds. I know loads of people who are countryside born and bred and they all hate hunting and find hunters arrogant. So don't try and make this a town versus countryside issue. The rural environment has greater problems to put right than bringing back hunting. Get real!

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nebhunting says...
6:08pm Wed 9 Feb 11

Well Ms SuzieB no it all, this happened last season on the south downs, Mrs Jane Wild called out the emergency services to say that she had being injured by a hunt supporter, although she was with her husband Simon Wild and there was only one hunt supporter watching them, allegedly they both started on him, she fell over and hurt her ankle, she summoned the police who sent the police helicopter out, in the end she found that she was able to walk the mile and a bit down to a car perk where there was a police car and an ambulance, so miss clever pants before you make some silly comment get your facts right, I'm sure if you care to check with the police they will confirm a helicopter had been despatched, god knows how much that cost the police but I guess they cost about £800 per hour to run, you can judge whether it was needed but obviously someone thought that they were injured so badly that they couldn't walk but then found the strength to walk over a mile, although I never witnessed the incident I did witness the Police Helicopter and then saw Mrs Wild walk past me unaided.

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Ashles says...
1:49pm Thu 10 Feb 11

mustbemad wrote:
Doh get real, hunting is not about money or class. Its about protecting the countryside. Foxes kill livestock. We live in the countryside. Protestors just want to cause trouble and deliberately annoy those hunting by standing in the way of a moving horse. Protestors need to think of damage that foxes do to our sheep and chickens. Hopefully fox hunting will become legal very soon and protesting will be banned hurrah
Yes, because obviously the most efficient way to kill a single fox is to arrange for a large group of people to dress in specific traditional clothes, mount horses, gather a large group of dogs and chase the fox across countryside for hours on horseback. Since, you know, it's being done purely for countryside protection and not because the participants are enjoying it or anything like that.
i believe rat exterminators are thinking of similarly altering their tactics by gathering in large groups, donning judges wigs and chasing each individual rat around town on bicycles.

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