On Friday, 15 activists held a visual and noisy demo outside the Bradford Council Head Office at Jacobs Well, because of their plans to return grouse shooting to Ilkley Moor.
Banners were tied up and held, and information given to all the members of staff and visitors going in through the main entrance. Members of public were very supportive and many made comments about the council not caring about the people of their town, never mind the animals to be killed if bloodsports return to the moor. The constant noise from the megaphone and chanting made sure that nobody could be unaware of why we were there.
The demo then moved onto the City Hall where campaigners went inside the office and put the West Yorkshire Sabs website on every computer screen. Outside the main entrance, activists climbed up the gates and tied a banner across, much to the annoyance of the security guards who begun shaking the gate whilst someone was still up it!
Other campaigners dropped banners off a nearby flyover to inform everybody coming into Bradford about council involvement in animal cruelty and bloodsports.
Then on Sunday, West & South Yorkshire Hunt Sabs joined forces to stop grouse shoots in the Holme Valley, near Holmfirth.
At the first shoot, over 25 sabs got between the beaters and the guns and then blocked the shooting butts resulting in most of the bloodsport enthusiasts cracking their guns and abandoning the first drive. Obviously angry at their 'sport' being stopped, members of the shoot assaulted one sab to try and get their video camera, rammed the sab van and the owner of the shoot decided it would be a good idea to put one of the front windows through on the vehicle. As per usual, the police couldn't care less and were more interested in getting rid of the sabs with laws they didn't even know themselves.
The next group of shooters, a bit further down the road, packed up straight away when they saw the sabs arriving; however poor communication meant that they couldn't tell the beaters who carried on driving the grouse towards guns that weren't there. Realising they had been made fools of, one of the head beaters began shouting at the police to enforce laws that didn't exist, to which they just told him the truth.
The days sabbing was a great success, with countless lives being saved and two shoots stopped from killing.
