Campaigners in Westminster call time on hunting with dogs

Animal welfare campaigners held a rally outside parliament today to call on the government to tackle the brutal blood sport of fox hunting and end hunting with dogs.

The rally was organised by national animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports and comes midway through a government consultation on how to ban so called trail hunting, the discredited excuse invented by fox hunts to conceal their chasing and killing of foxes.

It was attended by campaigners from the League Against Cruel Sports, Hunt Saboteurs Association, RSPCA, Wildlife and Countryside Link, Humane World for Animals, and members of the public.

The speakers included conservationists and TV presenters Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin, actor Peter Egan, Badger Trust chief executive Nigel Palmer, anti-hunt campaigner Martina Irwin and the League Against Cruel Sports rally organiser Hannah Dickson.

Chris Packham said: “Trail hunting is a lie. The overwhelming majority of the British public want to see an end to fox hunting.

“Finally, we have a golden opportunity to put an end to this barbarism and I want to encourage as many people as possible to take part in the government’s consultation to end fox hunting.”

Emma Slawinski, League Against Cruel Sports chief executive, said: “The clock is ticking on hunting with hounds and we are calling for new, stronger fox hunting laws to end this brutal blood sport once and for all.

“It’s time for change – we need to see trail hunting banned, a proper deterrent in the form of jail sentences to deter would-be hunters, the removal of all the loopholes in the law, and an end to reckless or ‘accidental’ hunting.”

The League recently published figures which showed that fox hunting is still rife – 488 foxes were seen being chased during the most recent cub hunting and fox hunting seasons in England and Wales which finished at the end of March.

The figures also showed a pattern of anti-social behaviour by hunts, with 1,220 incidents in which they wreaked havoc on rural communities. The ‘hunt havoc’ included reports of trespass; livestock worrying; hounds running amok on railway lines and busy roads – all activities inconsistent with the idea of following a trail, which is what hunts claim to be doing.

Just 23 or 3.7% of the 624 hunt meets monitored across England and Wales contained evidence of a trail being laid – and within those 23 reports there was still evidence of 22 foxes being chased.

Polling commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports and carried out independently by FindOutNow with further analysis by Electoral Calculus in March/April 2024 found that 76 per cent of the public supported stronger fox hunting laws, with only seven per cent disagreeing.

A clear majority of voters in rural as well as urban areas across the country backed new laws to stop foxes being chased by hounds and killed, with 70 per cent of people in the countryside supporting the proposal.

The consultation is now open until Thursday, June 18, and the League has issued a step-by-step guide for anyone who wants to take part and help end illegal hunting for good.

Emma said: “We need to call time on hunting with dogs. The hunts have been deceiving the public, police and the courts and hiding their cruelty behind the smokescreen of trail hunting – let’s tackle this by giving the justice system the power to effectively tackle fox hunting.

“I urge the public to have their say on hunting with dogs and take part in the government consultation, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to consign barbaric fox hunting to the history books.”

More about how to take part in the consultation, and how people can make their voice heard, is available here: https://www.league.org.uk/hunting_consultation

Ends

Notes to editors

For information or interview requests, please contact the League Against Cruel Sports Press Office on 01483 524250 or email pressoffice@league.org.uk

Trail hunting has been described by chief superintendent Matt Longman, the national police lead on fox hunting crime, as a “smokescreen for illegal fox hunting”. He also described illegal hunting as “prolific”.

Fox hunting was banned in England and Wales when the Hunting Act came into force on February 18, 2005.

The full set of data for the 2024/2025 fox hunting seasons is available on request. The figures are compiled from reports to the charity’s confidential Animal Crimewatch service and other reports from monitor and sab groups analysed by the League’s intelligence team, which is staffed by former police officers and civilian analysts. The figures are believed to be just the tip of the iceberg showing only those hunts being monitored.

Find Out Now interviewed 5,379 GB adults online from 26 March - 2 April 2024. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults by gender, age, social grade, other demographics and past voting patterns.

Find Out Now and Electoral Calculus are both members of the British Polling Council and abide by its rules.

A full breakdown of the data is available here: https://electoralcalculus.co.uk/blogs/DataTables_LACS_Jun2024.xlsx

The League Against Cruel Sports is Britain's leading charity that works to stop animals being persecuted, abused and killed for sport. The League was instrumental in helping bring about the landmark Hunting Act 2004, the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021, the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023 and bans on the use of snares brought about by the Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023, and Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.

We carry out investigations to expose law-breaking and cruelty to animals and campaign for stronger animal protection laws and penalties. We work to change attitudes and behaviour through education and manage wildlife reserves. Find out more about our work at www.league.org.uk. Registered charity in England and Wales (no.1095234) and Scotland (no.SC045533).