How you can help end fox hunting for good

It’s simple. Fox hunting is illegal. As is the hunting of stags, hares, otters, and mink with dogs. It is illegal because it is cruel and unnecessary. 

It has been illegal for 20 years. Like many people who care about animals I remember vividly when the Hunting Act came into force in 2004, and I felt an overwhelming pride in the people and organisations that had made it happen, and hopeful for a more peaceful countryside where wild animals were safer. 

I remember those who wanted to keep persecuting wild animals calling it an ‘attack on the countryside’, or saying it would mean ‘untimely deaths’ for their hounds. As a lifetime countryside dweller, surrounded by people who also found hunting abhorrent, and knowing that many hunts routinely shot and discarded their hounds, both these arguments did not ring true. 

What I didn’t anticipate at the time, though many wiser people did, was the lengths the small minority who were desperate to keep hurting animals would go to. After all, clean boot hunting, where bloodhounds chase after a person, and are themselves followed by a group of riders, pre-dates the ban. It provides all the main elements of hunting – hounds, pursuit, riding across the countryside, fancy jackets, horns – just without the killing of animals. Surely this sport would now boom and the fox hunting packs would make the transition or disband? 

But no, instead a new sport of ‘trail hunting’ was invented. It’s a smokescreen used by fox hunters to attempt to evade the law, by claiming their dogs are following a pre-laid trail. This has been shown time after time to be a cynical lie. In the last hunting season alone, the League uncovered nearly 1,600 reports of suspected illegal hunting and incidents in which hunts wreaked havoc on rural communities. This included 397 sightings of foxes being chased by hounds, an activity that would end in a terrorising and agonising death for the fox if they were caught. 

It's not just foxes. Stag hunts use loopholes in the law which allow them to pretend to be ‘rescuing ‘animals from suffering or conducting ‘scientific research’ while chasing deer for miles before shooting them. The reality is a barbaric blood sport being conducted for fun. 

This is organised and intentional crime. Stag hunts operate across Devon and Somerset and fox hunting is widespread across all of England and Wales, and because of the loopholes in the law and deliberate deception, it’s very difficult to tackle. 

First you need an enforceable law, then you need to enforce it.  

20 years on the government is reviewing the Hunting Act. They have made a commitment to ban trail hunting, which would be a significant step, but alone it won’t go far enough to protect the animals. We also need to remove all the loopholes – including the exemptions in the Hunting Act – and make it an offence whether the hunting is intentional or reckless, and ensure custodial sentences are applied.  

The government is expected to launch a consultation on strengthening the law before the end of the year. This is the moment we have been waiting for, for 20 years. The chance to finally wipe this cruelty out from the countryside.  

The 20 years since the Hunting Ban came in roughly line up with my working life, and I’ve got around another 20 years to go before I retire – not that anyone ever really ‘retires’ from animal protection. There is so much left to do for animals. Ending hunting is the main priority for The League Against Cruel Sports. These are the dying days of illegal hunting. Alongside others in the movement, we will be there until this grotesque ‘sport’ is consigned to the history books. 

You can help by pledging to take part in the government’s consultation. Make your views heard: 

www.league.org.uk/hunting-pledge