Cyber sabbing and the hunt

Saboteurs can leave false trails on the Internet too

It is hard to think of fox hunting or sabotage as indoor pursuits, but what usually takes place in the open air is now happening on the Internet.

Hunt sabotage and counter-sabotage has been going on in the field for more than 30 years. Now there are digital activists too.

With MPs due to debate legislation that would ban hunting with hounds, activism of all descriptions has taken on a greater urgency.

An image from Dave Pearce's anti-hunting site

"Cyber sabs" on both sides of the pro and anti divide are using the Internet as an instrument for their activities.

One of the most celebrated alleged cases of cyber sabbing happened in 1996, when the British Field Sports Society threatened to sue vegan Dave Pearce and his internet service provider.

Mr Pearce had, according to the BFSS, attempted to pass off his own anti-hunting pages as the official BFSS site.

Wired magazine said: "Pearce had been diligent in putting keywords into the 'Meta' tag that search engines use to index a site's interests. The BFSS had not."

The result was that when a user entered BFSS into some search engine's, Mr Pearce's site came up first.

Digital activists are operating in cyberspace as well as the field

In the event, the BFSS didn't sue - they just sorted out their own HTML.

The Internet, according to hunt saboteurs, has revolutionised the way in which it publishes information.

A spokesman said: "Before the Internet we had to rely on the mainstream media to publish a lot of what we had to say - and of course the mainstream media have always had a problem with a lot of what we have to say.

"We have always been able to get information out to members of the Hunt Saboteurs Association - but the Internet now means that anyone, anywhere in the world who is interested in finding out can do so instantly, and there is no limit to the amount of information we can publish.

"E-mail is also a much cheaper and less time-consuming way of keeping in touch than the telephone as well."

The HSA says the Internet has revolutionised the way it publishes information

E-mail is also used extensively by supporters and detractors of the hunt to flame the opposition's sites.

A spokesman for Foxman, "a pro-hunting information provider and forum for debate", said: "I get an enormous amount of abusive e-mail from people who do not want a reasonable debate on the subject.

"The thinking seems to be that if they send a great volume of this kind of correspondence through then it will slow down the way the site works, and the rate at which genuine inquiries are dealt with.

"I am a pensioner and I believe in reasoned debate. I am prepared to debate online with anyone about the pros and cons of fox hunting, but some of the mail I get is positively pornographic."

The Countryside Alliance has a fairly extensive site as well, which provides information on field sports, fixtures and country life.

Foxman: Antis try to overburden the site with hate mail

Animal rights organisations including the RSPCA, IFAW, The League Against Cruel Sports all have Websites - as does Countryside Protection, a group representing country dwellers opposed to hunting.

All of these organisations' sites have interactive membership application or comment features, all of which, they feel, are abused to some extent.

A spokesman for the Hunt Saboteurs Association said: "We get threatening e-mails from hunt supporters and followers warning us against taking action, but we just ignore them."

The Countryside Alliance also suffers cyber abuse

Chat room etiquette is also flouted, if not disregarded, as heated exchanges fly around forums set up for the purpose of exchanging views on fox hunting.

On a more worthy note, however, schools have benefited from being able to log onto the debate in the classroom.

"I have debated online with a number of different organisations, including schools," said the representative of Foxman.

"You usually find that there is strong feeling, particularly amongst young women, that foxes should not be hunted.

"However, I have been impressed at the reasoning and level of debate I have experienced in classrooms. It has been my experience that most students are willing to listen to the facts and to argue logically."