Fitzwilliam (Milton) Hunt has apologised for distress caused last week when a group of hounds ran through a crematorium while a funeral was in progress. In light of the tier restrictions, it has now also cancelled its two biggest hunts, for the first time in more than 350 years.
On December 16, members of the public saw the Fitzwilliam (Milton) Hunt of Milton Hall hunting a fox across a busy road and into the grounds of the Peterborough Crematorium.
The disturbance occurred as the road was lined with mourners and well-wishers, waiting to pay their respects to a much-loved local woman
The incident was brought to the attention of Peterborough Hunt Sabs, a voluntary group of committed people who campaign against "the unlawful bloodspot of hunting animals with hounds".
They received complaints via their social media pages about the incident and one eyewitness told the group: “I was there, it was my auntie’s funeral when they sent about 20 or 30 hounds chasing a fox through the crematorium when there was a funeral in progress.”
Another added: “Absolutely disgusting behaviour from the Fitzwilliam red coat fox hunters today… You could hear the fox howl as it escaped the woods and ran for safety into the crematorium to be followed by dogs charging across the road and into the crem too.
"As if these times aren’t hard enough without a convoy of dogs you also had some idiot in his red coat on horse back darting up and down screaming and shouting without a care in the world for those families saying goodbye to their loved ones”.
Peterborough Hunt Sabs told Peterborough Matters: “We received complaints via our social media pages about this, and we arrived to investigate. We caught the hunt just south of the crematorium in the act of chasing two foxes across open fields in direct breach of hunting laws. This is a hunt who do not care one bit about the law of the land, they have been convicted before on more than one occasion and have learned nothing.
“We wish to see this hunt closed for good, it is within the gift of the city council to remove their license to breed dogs for hunting and to process deceased animals to feed their pack in the kennels at Milton Park.
“Fox hunting clearly has no place in the 21st century, this should be consigned to the history books along with every other medieval bloodsport we have thankfully rid ourselves of.”
Earlier this month Peterborough City Council announced that it would, if necessary, enforce its decision made earlier this month to ban trail-hunting across council-owned land, following a motion put forward by Labour Councillor Ansar Ali at Full Council ((For=30, Against=26, Abstain=1).
The resolution stated: “This Council resolves to do everything within its legal powers to prevent trail hunting, exempt hunting, hound exercise and hunt meets on its land”.
The decision was welcomed by the Peterborough Hunt Sabs who said, ‘it gives a clear signal that fox hunts are not accepted in civilised society.’
The Fitzwilliam Hunt group has apologised for last week’s incident and have said they will be discussing measures to ensure this does not happen again.
A spokesperson for the hunting group told Peterborough Matters: “On 16 December 2020, the Fitzwilliam (Milton) hounds briefly entered the grounds of Peterborough Crematorium.
“The Hunt has apologised unreservedly for any distress caused and asked Crematorium management to pass on this apology to the mourners and funeral directors involved.
“The incident was unintentional and occurred when hounds were being taken through Mucklands Wood back towards Milton Park. Hounds were recovered as quickly as possible.
“Following this incident, we will be holding a meeting to discuss methods of ensuring that this does not happen again.”
The incident comes as the Hunt made the decision to cancel its two biggest meets of the year due to Cambridgeshire moving into Tier 4.
Karen Silcock, Joint Secretary Fitzwilliam (Milton) Hunt said: “We have decided not to hold our traditional Festive Season meets (Boxing Day and New Year’s Day) at their usual locations.
“Since this decision was made, Peterborough (where the Fitzwilliam (Milton) hounds are kennelled), has been placed under Tier 4 restrictions.
“The Hunt has, of course, suspended hunting activities whilst these Tier 4 restrictions are in place and will resume only once these are lifted.”
This means the two largest hunt meetings in the Peterborough area, usually attended by upwards of 400 people, will now not take place for the first time in 354 years.
Outraged residents had planned a protest, but now say they will attend the next hunt to make their views known about the cremation incident.
