BEHIND THE MASKS

Derek Farr There is a particular breed of animal rights lover who wakes each morning convinced that the hills and hedgerows of Britain cannot turn on their axis without their personal supervision. Derek Farr is one of them. Not out in the field, but from the comfort of a Facebook comment box, where he has appointed himself a one-man adjudicator on how trail hunts should conduct their perfectly legal activities. When he is not online telling hunts what to do with their hounds,

The Consultation   On 26 March, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched a formal public consultation on banning trail hunting  in England and Wales - a practice introduced after the Hunting Act 2004 as a lawful alternative to fox hunting, using an animal-scented rag.   The government has given the public, landowners, hunts, and rural groups twelve weeks to respond. The issues under consideration include how trail hunting should be legally defined, the

Location: Great Barton, Suffolk Affiliations: Suffolk Hunt Sabs   Chris Power is a menacing member of the Suffolk Hunt sabs. With an "unparalleled level of arrogance", Power flies his drone across the countryside - careful, of course, to remove the evidence before the lens swings back his way. Plumber by day, hunt sab with drone by weekend, Power has built up a reputation for being quite the annoyance in the Eastern Hunting groups.   The Coward’s Eye in The Sky Sources tel

Affiliations : South Suffolk Hunt Sabs   Location : Hadleigh, Suffolk   Stephen Nash spent his working days as Head of Commercial Property at Fenn Wright - a respectable Colchester estate agency, the sort of outfit that values discretion and reputation. Evenings and weekends, according to sources, were a different matter entirely. Nash was out "nearly every day" with the South Suffolk Hunt Sabs, turning up at meets, disrupting lawful hunts, and making a general nuisance in th

Now that the trail hunting season is drawing to a close, hunt saboteurs have wasted no time in finding new ways to terrorise local communities. If they can't disrupt a legal hunt, they'll disrupt something else. It really is them against the countryside.   Members of the Brighton Hunt Saboteurs and Shropshire Monitors have been descending on villages in gangs to remove flags – dressed head to toe in black and faces hidden behind balaclavas. Uninvited, unwanted and entirely un

Affiliation : Wiltshire Hunt Sabs. Location : Riverside Park, Great Somerford.   An active and dangerous member of the Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs, Christopher Tuite never misses an opportunity to interfere with the Wiltshire and Beaufort hunts. BTM sources report regular sightings of him between December 2025 and March 2026, most notably a disturbing incident in January 2026 in which Tuite physically assaulted a hunt follower. His abrasive demeanour conceals a secret far more u

Affiliations: Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs James Allen from his TikTok page James Allen is an active member of the Wiltshire Hunt Sabs, who can often be found hovering his drone above a Wiltshire field, squinting at a screen and muttering about "evidence”. Meet the South West’s resident aerial menace, a man whose commitment to the rule of law appears to begin and end wherever it’s most convenient that particular Saturday . In the week, a failed TikTokker and on the weekends, a t

For someone who campaigns against legal trail hunting, Deborah Hall has developed quite a taste for the chase.   Deborah Hall is no ordinary sab. As BTM has previously reported , the Cornwall-based coordinator of Action Against Foxhunting is known to push well beyond the boundaries of reasonable protest. From her failed petition to ban trail hunting on council land to her bizarre crusade against a street sign in Madron, Hall has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to escala

Affiliations:  Norwich Sabs Jan McLachlan outside Southhampton crown court   Location:  Lingwood, Norfolk A notorious member of the Norwich Hunt Sabs, Jan McLachlan, can often be spotted sabotaging local legal trail hunts across Norfolk. On 14 February, she was spotted in her Range Rover Defender, interfering with a lawful hare hunt. Not content with mere disruption, she branded the hunting community 'lazy and scrounging.' However, aimlessly insulting hunting folk on weekends

Lardy lad Luke Tucker and his Northants Hunt Sabs pulled over by police, and try to leg it   Luke Tucker, ringleader of the Northants Hunt Sabs, was back in the spotlight last Saturday after reports of aggressive behaviour towards locals in Gunby village, Lincolnshire. The notorious group had descended on the area in a bid to disrupt a legal trail hunt by the Cottesmore Hunt, and in typical fashion, things quickly turned ugly. An elderly lady was reportedly nearly knocked ove

The Rotherham MP's emotive social media post reveals a government more interested in settling old class scores than listening to rural Britain Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, took to Facebook recently to declare herself "disgusted" that people still hunt foxes "under the smoke screen of trail hunting." The response from the public was swift and overwhelmingly negative. Comment after comment challenged her position, questioned her priorities, and exposed the gapin

Chris Packham just so happens to stumble across the perfect sob story while out for a stroll in the Dorset countryside. During the now-infamous "Operation Smokescreen" livestream on 7 February, BBC Springwatch presenter Chris Packham spent five hours following the Blackmore & Sparkford Vale Hunt around Bishop's Caundle with a camera crew and North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs in tow. The veteran anti-hunt campaigner posted a reel to his Facebook page featuring a couple he claimed to

Photo on Ahlen's Hinge account A Kent-based hunt saboteur has been caught using a fake identity on popular dating app Hinge in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to infiltrate the hunting and countryside community.   Carly Ahlen , a regular with West Kent Hunt Saboteurs and founder of GABO Wildlife, created a profile under the name 'Clementine', portraying herself as a Land Rover-loving, privately educated woman with a passion for "The Countryside… Traditional British Va

Location : Tarporley, Cheshire Paul John Meade   Affiliation : Groups across Cheshire Paul John Meade presents himself as a devoted animal rights activist in Cheshire, reportedly protesting Boxing Day meets and causing trouble. He fills his Facebook feed with fox worship and Protect the Wild propaganda. But behind the righteous facade, investigators claim he has been grooming underage girls online. On 26 January 2026, the mask came off after SAFE UK, a nonprofit dedicated to

Cheshire Monitors' Anthony Robinson was allegedly caught by police illegally flying his drone out of sight and over private property at Cholmondeley Park, Cheshire. Sources tell us Robinson was asked to leave after he was unable to produce a valid drone licence when challenged by officers. Anthony Robinson failing to find his drone license   UK drone laws are straightforward: you must stay below 120 metres (400 feet) and always keep your drone within visual line of sight (VLO

Affiliations : Leader of Suffolk and Essex Hunt Sabs, Norwich Hunt Sabs, Suffolk Action for Wildlife Location : Alderton, Woodbridge Tina Smith leads the Suffolk and Essex Hunt Sabs with a reputation for aggression that extends far beyond hunt disruption. By day, she responds to breakdown calls as an AA mechanic. By weekend, she coordinates saboteur operations across Suffolk and Essex. The irony of someone whose job involves helping stranded motorists spending her free time c

Bridestowe Village Hall in Devon with stunning views of Dartmoor, serves as a local community hub. In yet another display of activism masquerading as rural advocacy, the Plymouth and West Devon Hunt Saboteurs have launched a campaign against Bridestowe Village Hall for committing the apparently heinous crime of... functioning as a village hall. Their target? A fundraising lunch for the Spooners & West Dartmoor Hunt this Sunday. Their demand? That the hall cancels a legitimate

Affiliations: Welsh Border Wildlife Protectors Location: Deeside Emma Jayne Corbould's transformation from pre-school teacher to alleged surveillance operative reads like a cautionary tale of activism gone rogue. She stands accused of planting covert cameras outside homes where children play, backed by an uncle described as a Manchester "hard man" who allegedly dispatches enforcers to deliver threats. The Camera Incident: When Activism Becomes Surveillance In September 2025,

Affiliations: West Cornwall Hunt Sabs Location:  Redruth, West Cornwall Day Job:  Pagination and Medical Records Services Manager at Tula Medical Experts (Medical Negligence and Personal Injury) Mandy Deiraniya balances her career managing medical records with a fervent side hustle: sabotaging legal countryside activities. Her social media feed reads like a greatest hits compilation of left-wing rage, mixed with animal rights and environmental extremism. Road Rage On 6th Dec

Video evidence shows Emma Jayne Corbould collecting hidden recording device — But she won’t face any punishment. A hunt supporter near Wrexham was horrified to discover a surveillance camera hidden in a hedge outside his family home where his children play, planted by an anti-hunt saboteur who has allegedly been harassing him. The victim, who spoke to BTM on condition of anonymity, found the concealed device in September and immediately reported it to police, filming his disc