Rural rage
Chris Packham's hatred for illegal bloodsports isn't dampened by danger – he's fuelled by his passion for wildlife protection
Smoke Trail Productions
- David Crawford
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After Chris Packham voiced outrage on social media about the dumping of 50 dead hares outside a village shop near where he lives in the New Forest, he was contacted by environmental journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor.
Ashby and Taylor were already investigating the incident for their podcast on crime in the British countryside, the latest in their environmental documentary strand Buried.
It turned out that Packham was a fan of Buried, which previously featured Michael Sheen and explored the impact of “forever chemicals”, telling them: “I’ve been calling for an environmental version of Panorama and it feels like Buried is it.” So, they asked him to join their investigation.
It’s a disturbing story that leads to organised crime gangs involved in hare coursing – an illegal bloodsport where dogs are set upon hares. Yet Packham’s fire was not dampened by the prospect of danger, as Taylor explains: “He was very passionate. When we were out on patrol late at night in January we kept saying, ‘Chris, shall we go home now?’ but he would say, ‘No, let’s keep going, I love the thrill of the chase.’”
Taylor admits the dynamic of their interactions with farmers was altered by having Packham alongside them, “There are some people in the countryside who don’t like Chris and some of the things he’s campaigned for. When we did go out with one guy, the initial meeting was a little bit cautious, with him saying, ‘A lot of my friends advised me not to do this, they think I’m mad coming out with Chris Packham.’”
But overall, both journalists insist that Packham’s wildlife knowledge, hatred of illegal bloodsports and experience of being targeted for his campaigning was a boon to their investigation. Taylor enthuses, “He just knows everything, so we were often asking for his input and he would help us on starting points for investigations.”
Buried: Dead Rabbit is of course an environmental story, with wildlife being butchered in such horrific and widespread fashion that Ashby claims there are fears hares could become extinct in some areas of south-west England. But there is also the human angle, with already pressurised farmers being shot at or rammed off the road if they dare confront the gangs.
Taylor reveals, “Almost every farmer I spoke to said some variation on ‘life is hard enough already without this’.” Ashby says one aim for the series is to show that while farming affects all of us, through the environment and our future food security, “there’s a dark problem at the heart of farming. This isn’t a countryside pursuit gone wrong, it’s an awful underworld terrorising parts of the British Isles.”
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Buried: Dead Rabbit is released on BBC Sounds on 20 July
Authors
David Crawford
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