THE most contentious and frequently targeted hunt in England passed by with little attention yesterday after an unsteady peace was brokered by hunters and hunt saboteurs.

Two dozen protesters arrived armed with hunting horns and anti-scent spray and wearing black balaclavas, ready to renew their running battle with the Surrey, Burstow and West Kent Hunt. But the hunters’ fury was directed more towards the Government and they were more willing to accept the protesters as small fry.

The two sides put a spate of arson attacks, bombs, malicious phone calls, accusations of pet murdering and hate mail behind them to conduct a peaceful version of a traditional Boxing Day clash. Demonstrators still made their feelings clear with noisy protests and banner waving, but there was no hint of violence.

Nathan Brown, a hunt saboteurs’ co-ordinator, said: “Apart from a protest in Penshurst, where the hunt set off, it was an unusually ordinary protest. It was so peaceful that we really believe hunters had been told to back off.”

Members of the 800-strong hunt have been at the centre of recent demonstrations against the Hunting Bill, which they claim would destroy the rural economy south of the border. Jeffrey Pegrum, joint master of the hunt, said: “We take very little notice of the hunt protesters these days, we are trying to ignore them. There is no point trying to converse with them. We have bigger issues to contend with at the moment, like trying to save the whole of the rural economy, which is going downhill very quickly. We really don’t have time to fight the anti-blood sport groups on this level any more.”

Earlier this year hunt saboteurs were accused of blackmail and intimidation after they sent letters to hunt members offering an amnesty if they severed their links with the hunt. Several incendiary devices have been planted beneath cars, one under a farmer’s petrol tank, while windscreens have been smashed, bricks put through pub windows and wire laid out to garotte horses.

The dispute between the two sides has led to numerous court cases.

The violence escalated in September 2000 when there was a fracas between two men over a pheasant shoot and Steve Christmas, one of the saboteurs, was run over and nearly died.

Another feud ended with a man in court after he allegedly attacked an anti-hunt protester who filmed his horse dying in the road. More recently, a dispute flared up over a saboteur’s pet rabbit which had been killed.

Elsewhere traditional Boxing Day protests were equally peaceful.

In Towcester, Northamptonshire, Lord and Lady Heskey were surprised by protesters who challenged them as they greeted the Grafton hunt on the steps of their home. Ten demonstrators pushed past their butler and raced towards the couple but stopped well short and there were no arrests.

The League Against Cruel Sports’ flagship protest in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, saw just 35 demonstrators turn out to oppose the Whaddon Chase Fox Hounds hunt.

But the league claimed victory in Essex by forcing the Maldon hunt to abandon its traditional meeting place in Maldon High Street for the first time in 60 years and meet on private land.

Annette Crosbie, the actress who appears in One Foot in the Grave and is the new president of the league, said yesterday’s protests were unfortunate but necessary.

“You have to make that kind of gesture, because simple reason and logic doesn’t really get you anywhere, which is what the Countryside Alliance realised rather quickly,” she said.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Oh no, Mr Darling: you have failed
• BBC survives dogfight over Kennel Club expose
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone