I first started photographing the Hunt Saboteurs in the Autumn of 1992. I had been freelancing in London for a year or so and was looking for a story that I could concentrate on in greater depth. I switched on the TV one night and was intrigued by some grainy video footage on a late night youth programme of hunt saboteurs being attacked with shovels by hunt terrier men who had been digging out a fox to throw to the hounds. I was well aware of the hunt saboteurs and animal rights movements through the hardcore punk scene and within a week I had made contact with the Brixton Hunt Saboteurs and found myself cursing my 20 cigarette a day habit as I desperately tried to keep up with them as they chased a hunt on foot through the Surrey countryside. The 1990’s saw a huge upsurge in the levels of violence in and around fox hunting and two hunt saboteurs were killed by hunt vehicles in the early years of the decade, Mike Hill in 1991 and Tom Worby in 1993. Many hunts began employing private security firms to try to stop the saboteurs interfering in their activities, this inevitably led to a mounting spiral of violence as hunters, hired heavies and saboteurs clashed repeatedly on sparsely populated country roads and fields. I spent most of my time with the Brixton Hunt Saboteurs, driving to south London every weekend before hopping into one of their land rovers and traveling with them to whichever hunt they were targeting that weekend. Whereas many saboteur groups were quite nuanced in their tactics, the Brixton saboteurs preferred to swamp a hunt with as many people as possible, making hunting almost impossible. They were also willing to meet violence head on and became infamous as the decade progressed for providing back up to saboteur groups around the country who had come under attack. Fox Hunting with hounds was made illegal in England, Scotland and Wales in 2004 but this has not put a stop to the hunters or the saboteurs. Since then, although only legally allowed to lay a scent for the hounds to follow instead of chasing a live animal, many hunts have been found to be hunting foxes in breach of the law and in response the hunt saboteurs have continued to sabotage them.
