How to win friends and influence people
The party conference season is in full swing and the League’s campaigns team and public affairs team are taking full advantage of the opportunities to influence politicians and the public on the urgent need to strengthen fox hunting laws.
Campaigners including a ‘huntsman’ carrying a (fake) fox covered in blood paraded outside the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative Party conferences to highlight that hunts are still brutally chasing and killing foxes despite the ban.
The League’s communications team supported the campaign by arming the media with figures showing the shocking scale of hunting still taking place.
There were nearly 1,600 incidents consisting of 474 reports of suspected illegal hunting and 1,117 reports of hunts inflicting havoc on rural communities between August 2024 and April 2025.
All these incidents are entirely inconsistent with so-called trail hunting, the discredited excuse used by hunts in which they purport to follow a pre-laid scent.
And these figures are just the tip of the iceberg as some hunts are unmonitored as they go about their murky and savage behaviour.
Delegates at the party conference, shocked by the sight of a hunter in red coat and blood-spattered fox, came up to our campaigners to let us know they support stronger fox hunting laws as a way to end fox hunting for good.
We also organised a fringe meeting at Labour Party conference with other animal welfare charities to drive home our message on the need to protect wildlife and communities from crime and anti-social behaviour in the countryside – featuring shocking video of fox hunts running riot.
None of this could have been done without your support.
The campaign comes ahead of an expected government consultation on hunting laws later this year.
You can take the following pledge to participate and help consign fox hunting to the history books:
Wildlife reserves
Elsewhere, our wildlife reserves covering hundreds of acres in the West Country, have seen red male deer or ‘stags’ congregating for the breeding season.
These reserves provide a sanctuary for deer, safe from the three hunts still chasing stags with hounds for miles across the Devon and Somerset countryside before shooting them.
On our Baronsdown flagship wildlife reserve on Exmoor, 14 stags were spotted in a field today. The nighttime air will soon be filled with the primal sound of them roaring to demonstrate their prowess.
And next spring… we will see the new calves as the cycle of life continues on our wildlife reserves.
Thank you for your support and for helping us provide a safe space for wildlife. You can learn more about our wildlife reserves here:
www.league.org.uk/what-we-do/protect-animals/wildlife-reserves/
Tackling wildlife crime
All our campaigning work is backed up by the League’s supporter-funded Animal Crimewatch service which gives you and the rest of the public the opportunity to report wildlife crime.
The League’s intelligence team is staffed by dedicated former police officers and civilian analysts.
They have played a vital role in uncovering and providing evidence to the police on brutal blood sports such as dog fighting and badger baiting, which has led to a string of convictions.
This has been made possible by your support – you are helping bring to justice some of the worst perpetrators of cruelty towards animals.
To confidentially report wildlife crime phone 0300 444 1234, email crimewatch@league.org.uk or send a message by WhatsApp to 07552 788247
