High tech has been of immense benefit to foxhunters. With increased road traffic in every hunting country, staff equipped with two-way radios have been a boon to hound safety. GPS collars accurately locate hounds and often rescue those hung up in fences or otherwise disabled. Computers create foxhound pedigrees in microseconds, once a laborious pen-and-paper task.

And then there’s the dark side. Hunt saboteurs across England are engaged in widespread breaching of private data on the web to target and endanger foxhunters by publicizing names, addresses, and contact data.

According to the UK’s Daily Telegraph, police have contacted hundreds of members and supporters of the New Forest hunt in Hampshire to encourage them to improve the security of their individual data. Home addresses and contact details have been published online by anti-hunting groups who warn of further attacks. The Action Fraud Police are investigating data breaches of the Cottesmore hunt in the Shires. The Mendip Farmers hunt in Somerset has been breached as well.

The police have sent letters urging hunts to review their online security, change passwords, and review privacy settings on all online accounts. Animal Rights groups admit to be planning prolonged attacks to publicize private data of foxhunters and their supporters. These actions surely pave the way to ultimately breach the online data of other targets in the sights of animal rights activists in addition to foxhunters: anglers, shooters, racing enthusiasts…eventually, even farmers.

Posted January 28, 2021