Dogging on our doorstep

Some might say it was a typical over-reaction on my part to erect hidden cameras at the horses’ field.

First the theft from the barn of some broken old horse rugs, then the stolen feed, then a load of fly-tipping in the gateway, making it impossible to get in or out until the council came and cleared it…

Some would have shrugged and said, ‘Well, these things happen.’ I nearly did that, by the way.

Oh yes, I often try to think the best of the world, as an exercise, to balance out my instinctive cynicism. But on this occasion, after three incursions in the dead of night, I thought, ‘Hell, I’m gonna catch me some field intruders!’

After erecting a series of motion sensor cameras linked to my email, and watching what goes on down a track in the countryside when your back is turned, I have to say that I am more convinced than ever that my cynicism is well founded. And I am more than extraordinarily depressed about the state of mankind, thank you very much.

I had assumed there would be the odd wastrel coming and going. I know that a nearby beauty spot has long been designated by the police and council a ‘public sex environment’ — which means they turn a blind eye to people pulling in there to have sex with each other because, well, it’s their human right to exhibit this behaviour as part of their orientation, apparently. Quite as though they were badgers or deer, they get to do what comes naturally with the full support of the state.

In fact, the authorities once laid on tea and coffee as a form of outreach. At night they make sure the barriers are open at the car park the sex people prefer to use, to save them having to cut the padlock off.